How anyone in this world doesn’t have a soft spot for Mexican cuisine is beyond me. It’s a rainbow of flavours, textures, and products. So you had to know on a recent visit to the state of Oaxaca, I’d get my fill on the regional specialties like cheese, mole and chapulines!!


Chapulines are grasshoppers of the genus Sphenarium, that are commonly eaten in certain areas of Mexico. They are collected only at certain times of year (from their hatching in early May through the late summer/early autumn). After being thoroughly cleaned and washed, they are toasted on a comal (clay cooking surface) with garlic, lime juice and salt containing extract of agave worms, lending a sour-spicy-salty taste to the finished product.


Queso Oaxaca is a white, semihard cheese from Mexico, similar to unaged Monterey Jack, but with a mozzarella-like string cheese texture. It is named after the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, where it was first made. The string cheese process, originally from Italy, which is used to produce mozzarella, was brought to Mexico by the Dominican monks that settled in Oaxaca. However, as goat milk was unavailable, they started using cow milk instead. It is available in several different shapes.