Chapulines Tostados con Ajo y Limón

This is Oaxaca's snack. Not Mexico City's. Not Puebla's. Oaxaca's. You will find chapulines at every market in the Valles Centrales, piled in terra-cotta bowls by the kilo, sorted by size, seasoned to each vendor's formula. The small ones, no bigger than a grain of rice, are the most prized for eating by the handful. The large ones go into tacos or tlayudas. The medium ones are what you want for this recipe: big enough to toast individually on a comal, small enough to eat without thinking about it.

The preparation is almost nothing. That is the point. Garlic, chile de arbol, salt, lime. A hot comal. Five minutes. The grasshoppers arrive already cleaned and sun-dried from the market vendor. Your job is to toast them until they crackle between your teeth and the garlic turns golden. If you overcook the garlic, it goes bitter. If you undercook the chapulines, they are chewy instead of crisp. The margin is small and you learn it by watching, not by reading.

I bought my first kilo of chapulines at the Central de Abastos in Oaxaca from a senora who had three sizes in three clay bowls and a look on her face that said she had been selling them since before I was born. She told me: "Los chiquitos para botanear, los grandes para la tlayuda." She was right. My mother never cooked chapulines. She was from Jalisco and Jalisco does not eat insects the way Oaxaca does. But she had a note in her notebook, written after a trip to Oaxaca in 1991: "Chapulines. Tostar con ajo. No te pases." Don't overdo it. That is all the instruction you need. Cada estado, su propia cocina.