The rainy season has definitely arrived in the city, bringing several hours of lluvia every night for the past five nights. The first rains of the season also bring (drum roll, please) chicatanas! Early this morning, I went out onto the terrace with my coffee to be greeted with these not-so-little insects. Flying (into my hair, eeek!) and crawling all over the place!
Female chicatana on a very wet table.
What, you may ask are chicatanas? They are giant flying ants that emerge with the first rains of the season — and by giant, I mean about 4 cm from the head to the tip of the wings for the females. (As in much of the insect world, males are smaller and wingless.)
Male chicatana on the deck.
This occurs early one morning each year and lasts only a few hours. My first experience with them was a couple of years ago, when I arrived at Oaxaca’s airport for my 8:30 AM flight one May morning, to find, yikes(!) an infestation of insects. I had no idea what they were, but nobody seemed to mind, and kids were running around collecting them. The answer came after I boarded the plane and began talking with a Oaxaqueña across the aisle. She explained that the arrival of the chicatanas was a much-anticipated event because they are a delicacy. As the video below documents, they are soaked, cleaned, toasted on a comal, ground, seasoned, and made into a salsa.
According to this post in a Chicago based culinary chat site, it has been almost “500 years since Bernardino de Sahagun reported to Europe on the tzicatana [chicatana in Nahuatl] in his Nueva Historia, from its divine associations to its swarm ethology (mirroring the movements of the Aztecan armies) to its apparent deliciousness to the Nahuan-speaking people in the region.” And, long before that, tzicatanas were mentioned in the Florentine Codex.
Female chicatana doing the back stroke on the table.
By 9:30 this morning, they were gone. However, should you find yourself in Oaxaca during a brief visit by the chicatanas, here is a recipe for Chicatana Salsa.
Mexican Peso Converter
Did you try the recipe?
Photographed only, did not catch!
It’s really good. My mother used to cook them when we lived in Oaxaca.
If you say so… Actually, I believe you and next year, I am going to search for a restaurant serving the salsa OR find someone’s mama or abuela to invite me for a taste.
Yes, it is really good la salsa de chicatanas. I really don’t know of any restaurant that serves this type of salsa. I haven’t comeback to oaxaca for a long time. My grandma makes this type of salsa. If you decide to go some day let me know. She lives close to San Miguel Mixtepec.
Guess we missed the season…. Was that a salsa with no chiles?
Gotta be here for the first rains. Chiles are present — the recipe calls for dried chile costeño or de árbol. Btw, I see you’ve done some traveling. 😉
But planning to head your way for the radish season this year.
[…] It all began on Friday with the kickoff banquet for the Festival de los Moles. Remember the chicatanas from last month? They were there. Check out the mole on the middle left. Giving the mole a […]
[…] Camarones flameados en mezcal con mole negro de chicatana (Shrimp flambéed in mezcal on a bed of black mole made with the rainy season insect, chicatanas) […]
[…] Two years ago, I awoke to my own infestation on the terrace. However, yesterday morning only a lone female chicatana put in an appearance. Darn, just when I’d actually considered gathering them up like these children and attempting to make chicatana salsa! […]
This was my first year with hands-on experience with the chicatana! My classroom was invaded! The kids were perfectly fine with them. They could identify them as flying ants and were not freaked out like when a wasp wanders in my room. I had no idea they were edible!