The Seattle Mariners may be in the middle of the MLB when it comes to hits, but they’ve got a real smash in the form of a strange option at their concession stands. Fried grasshoppers are the latest addition to Safeco Field, and fans are literally eating them up. (If that has you curious, check out our list of the best ballpark foods in the country.) According to the Seattle Times, 18,000 grasshoppers have been sold in just the first three Mariners home games. Demand for the snack, which is sold for $4 for a 4-ounce cup, is so great that the kitchen had to do an “emergency run” to conjure up more bugs.
New Mariners concession item: salted, roasted grasshoppers. Apparently they taste like chicken if chicken were, you know, bugs. #yuck
— bensmith (@bensmithforreal) April 17, 2017
A local restaurant named Poquitos is behind the frenzy and also sells the grasshoppers at its main location. The Oaxacan chapulines, which are dusted in chile-lime salt seasoning, haven’t been nearly as popular at the actual restaurant, where just 934 orders were sold last year. Something tells me that number will skyrocket this year as fans look for their fix outside the stadium.
Ballparks are no stranger to bizarre foods, though. Consider some of the other strange stadium fare you can find in baseball stadiums around the country.