Andrew Zimmern visits San Antonio restaurant Mixtli for 'Bizarre Foods' show

From left: Jesse Torres, Dennise Montano, Andrew Zimmern, Cassie Ramsey, Diego Galicia, Rico Torres From left: Jesse Torres, Dennise Montano, Andrew Zimmern, Cassie Ramsey, Diego Galicia, Rico Torres Photo: Courtesy Photos (via Facebook) Photo: Courtesy Photos (via Facebook) Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Andrew Zimmern visits San Antonio restaurant Mixtli for 'Bizarre Foods' show 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

Andrew Zimmern, host of "Bizarre Foods" on the Travel Channel, paid a visit to the modernist Mexican restaurant, Mixtli, for a segment on an upcoming show about San Antonio.

For the segment, the Mixtli crew prepared dishes that included hay-smoked charales, small lake fish with roasted tomatillo salsa and a corn masa churro; and a blue corn macaron with creamed onion, red maguey worms sautéed with shallots, avocado mousse and serrano pepper ash.

The process for Zimmern's visit began about three months ago, when a producer from Zimmern's show contacted the restaurant owners. Crew members visited the restaurant at 5251 McCullough Ave. to shoot the restaurant's staff doing prep work.

Between the special dishes for the segment and the restaurant's service, chef and co-owner Diego Galicia said he and his crew made about 15 courses.

"After they were gone, I can't believe we pulled it off," Galicia said. "It's cool that San Antonio gets featured in a full show."

Although some of the courses featured ingredients that seem strange by contemporary Western standards, they're still common in Mexico.

"In the Americas there were no major proteins. It's nourishment first, but these things are tasty," Galicia said. "These are some of our staple foods. I can see dishes in the future where chapulines are the main star. The evolution of foods of the Americas is coming."

The San Antonio episode is expected to air during the summer.