Frijoles y Huevos y Tortillas, Frijoles y Huevos y Tortillas, Frijoles y Huevos y Tortillas…

06  de Junio 2012

Hi all, now a word from me!

I have been given the task of filling you in about the local food, my area of expertise.

The food here is much like home; just the way it is served is varied.

We have had some wonderful mornings, when we are served pancakes and maple syrup, delicious! Other mornings have been not nearly as exciting. A common morning food is corn flakes with something called “mosh”. As its name suggests it is not very pleasant, it is slimy and from what we can work out, it is a very thin porridge, served hot. These mornings we look on with jealously as the six year old boy in the family demolishes his coco pops con leche (with milk). The first time we were served mosh, Mark commented on how, in Australia, we had corn flakes with milk. We later found out that milk here in Guatemala is very hard to come by; fresh milk is almost un heard of. A lot of the milk that is sold here is actually from Australia. The going rate for a litre of milk works out at about $4. As a result, we have taken to drinking our tea black and a special treat is to go to the café for a smoothie made from long-life milk!

The main meal of the day is lunch (almorzar) and it has quickly become our favourite. Usually the mother of the family (a teacher), and the young boy finish school at about 12.30. The older girl begins school at 2pm, so almost everyone is home for the afternoon meal. On one of our first days here we were surprised to be given noodles and vegetables with chicken for lunch. Another lunch was vegetable soup. We have also been served meals of chicken with rice and vegetables with meat.

Every meal is served with tortillas. The tortillas are made by the locals from maize (corn) and are heated when served. They are about 12cm in diameter. There is a local record set by an American who is teaching English to the children at the school. He is famous for eating twenty in one sitting! Mark is trying his best to get close to that but his best at the moment is five!

And then there is cena (dinner). We have been here for a week now and each and every dinner, bar one, which was a special event with the extended family, has been eggs, black beans and tomato sauce (and tortillas).  We have never eaten so many eggs, to the point where bacon and eggs no longer appeals and I think by the time we leave, even hollandaise sauce will not make me order eggs again. I do admit though, we have not had the eggs prepared in the same twice to the cook is very inventive!  I can’t say if this is ordinary culinary practice for the locals but it certainly is in our experience.

If we decide we can’t face another meal of frijoles y huevos (beans and eggs) there are a variety of places to eat out. Most of them are run by expats. One of the cafés we frequent is a place run by a very posh sounding Irish man. They have great smoothies and you can get a refreshing salad there.

We have also had a great pizza at a restaurant run by a local Guatemalan lady. We enjoyed using our Spanish on our ten year old waitress and she did her best to stop her little baby brother pulling off the tablecloth as he learnt to stand.

To fill the gaps between meals, we have been trying out the local varieties of chips, though here they are mostly corn chips rather then potato. There are about three tiendas (little shops) on each street, which sell the same kind of things as the local store. We get a can of coke (which was a bit of a challenge to find to begin with, most sodas are served in glass bottles that are reused or plastic bags so they can keep the bottles) and a packet of chips for about 70 cents.

The good news on food here in San Pedro is there is no Maccas or fast food of any kind, unless you count the little place that’s sells rotisserie chicken. After a month of eggs, I am sure we will be excited about some tacos and tequila when we make it to Mexico.

Huevos, they buy them by the tray!

Cooking of huevos and vegetables.

Cena - the frijoles have been wrapped in maze to make the little parcel on the right.