You can now get a taste of a traditional Oaxacan delicacy on the Route 1 corridor with grasshopper tacos.
Los Patroncitos, one of D.C.’s most popular Mexican food trucks, is serving the Southern Mexican treat, known as chapulines in Spanish, from a food truck parked at Streetcar 82 Brewing Co. at 4824 Rhode Island Ave. in Hyattsville on Tuesdays and Sundays through the summer.
The grasshoppers are shipped in small boxes from Oaxaca, Mexico where they are gathered in agricultural fields during the summer rainy season and dried. Los Patroncitos serves them on corn tortillas with radishes, lime and avocados, or in a burrito.
With more protein than a similar-sized portion of steak, grasshoppers are a crunchy alternative to traditional farm-raised meat with a dramatically smaller carbon footprint, one reason that environmentalists have called for more people to dine on insects.
In fact, the grasshopper tacos have proven so popular that the food truck often runs out while at Streetcar 82.
If insects aren’t your thing, Los Patroncitos also offers tacos made with grilled steak, Mexican sausage, fried and grilled pork, mushrooms, steamed beef and beef tongue.
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