Wrapped in a yellow corn husk and topped with a leafy garnish, corn smut and a ribbed white maguey worm are neatly placed on a plate inside of Denver's La Diabla's Pozole y Mezcal restaurant.
Bouncing between crunchy, slimy and yummy, this Michelin-recognized restaurant is back with a menu designed to showcase the overlooked protein of worms, stinkbugs and chocolate-covered scorpions.
This year's Festival de Bichos will run Feb. 5 to 11 featuring a menu of curated bug platters and drinks. Walk-in seating only, attendees can stop by during regular business hours to try out the special menu.
The bichos platter will go for $75, or $15 each for individual items.
After landing on Colorado's first-ever Michelin Guide in 2023, the restaurant is returning with a larger version of its inaugural Festival de Bichos.
Last year was noteworthy for the Ballpark Mexican restaurant after receiving a special recognition from one of the more respected food surveyors in the industry.
After the tire company announced its first-ever Colorado edition of its guide, restaurants across the state were vying for a coveted Michelin Star, considered among the food industry's greatest honors.
Despite not receiving a star, La Diabla was among a list of nine restaurants in the state to receive the "Bib Gourmand" designation for "best value for money."
This, followed by recognition in The New York Times 2023 list of America's 50 best restaurants, meant that Chef Jose Avila and his team were forced to speed up their growth as a relatively young restaurant.
"It was just like waking up one morning and your phone's blowing up with congratulations and you have no idea what's happening," Avila said. "Once we reached all these accolades we decided to focus on the business."
To help manage the exponentially growing interest in the restaurant, Avila bolstered the number of people on payroll to help guide the business in a direction that was equipped to weather the storm.
"We were still trying to figure things out," Avila said. "I think it just sped up the process to where we wanted to be."
"Less is more," Avila said headed into next week's festival.
In a follow-up to their sold-out inaugural bug festival, Avila aimed to curate this year's menu with a focus on flavors rather than the shock factor of eating critters.
Mushroom soup topped with agave red worms, cheese tetela's surrounded by a creamy green stink bug salsa and an infladita, or puffy tortilla, accompanied by flying ant larvae and yellow mole are meant to hold a balance between the sensational and the flavorful.
"Most importantly it's about the Mexican culinary heritage that, right now in 2024, we are able to experience," Avila said. "For us to be able to showcase these different types of bugs is super fun and we're super proud of it."
Expanding this year's festival to feature seven critters (two more than last year) and extending the festival for a full week, Avila wants to build on last year's momentum surrounding bug-eating culture. There's even room for those with a sweet tooth like the avocado-flavored ice cream topped with a chocolate-covered scorpion.
"It was just perfect for us to add a little sweet," Avila said. "You just have fun with it."
In response to what Avila said was a lot of, "naive and misinformed," social media comments under a post about tacos de chapulines, he decided to organize the first bug festival as a way to celebrate the pre-Hispanic Mexican delicacy native to Mexico City and other parts of the country.
Skeptical of its success, Avila said he was surprised at the turnout they received and that it indicated to them that they would need to run it back for a second time this year.
"At the end of the day that's what food is all about," Avila said, "bring people together."
