SEATTLE – As far as fan-favorite foods go at Seattle's Safeco Field, two stand out to those who run the operation: garlic fries, which have long been a staple, and grasshoppers, which are new and wildly popular.
Yes, literal grasshoppers. Insects. Toasted, and coated in a chili-lime salt. It's $4 for a 4-ounce container of about 20 bugs — one of the cheapest ballpark items you'll find — and a supply that was supposed to last through the All-Star break sold out in three days.
Visually, they are small, red and delicate, with legs falling off easily.
Centerplate teamed with Poquitos to add bugs to Safeco's 2017 menu. They sold 901 orders in the first three games this season — about 18,000 grasshoppers. Emergency shipments from Texas (as opposed to Oaxaca, Mexico, where the originals originated) and a per-game limit of 312 orders got them through that weekend.
That cap of 312, which has run out as early as the first three innings, is a nod to the lifetime batting average of Mariners great Edgar Martinez. The grasshoppers are sold at "Edgar's Cantina" in left field, as well as the nearby Poquitos concession stand.
Sun Sentinel
