Food Food Food Food Food

Wow, this month has passed so fast I needed a reminder that I haven’t written a blog post yet for this month! Thanks Tricia! I had promised in my first blog post to write a post about food, and so this is it folks, your moment to live vicariously through my taste buds.  (I’ve started working out more than ever trying to fight against the fact that most of the food here is not helping me fit into my pants).  Most Honduran food contains beans – they use red beans here, not black, and a meal is not complete without corn tortillas to accompany.  The proper way to eat a tortilla with a meal is to roll it up and take bites of it in between bites of other food.  I prefer to make little tacos with whatever is on my plate.  It’s not diet friendly.

Ok, the first food that needs to be mentioned is the Honduran baleada.  This word literally translated means shot (bala=bullet). There is a dispute as to why they are called that, and the name has made way for many urban legends – one version is that a woman in San Pedro Sula used to sell flour tortillas and was caught in the crossfire of a gun fight (in some versions she dies, in other she lives), another is that the beans make you fire ¨bullets¨ from your butt :P, and there are various other reasons how this dish earned its name.  Baleadas are made from thick flour tortillas (the best ones are almost like naan bread), and inside are mashed beans, cream, cheese, and the option to add avocado, chorizo, tomato, eggs, and various other things.  They are grilled and served folded in half.  There is a place in the market in the centre of Tegucigalpa, Baleada´s Lourdes, that sells baleadas for 8 Lempiras each (about 50 cents).

The next food that needs a mention is the Anafre.  Anafre is a dish of beans (are you beginning to see a theme?), cheese and various spices and chorizo that is made in the Anafre clay pot – see below.

The bottom contains hot coals that heat the beans and melt the cheese, and keep the dish warm while you eat it, with fresh tortilla chips.  The perfect anafre will have strings of cheese a foot long when you dip your tortilla chip and guide it with love and excitement to your mouth. 

Of the foods that I have tried and loved:

Cow tongue

Bean soup

All of the various fresh cheeses

Pupusas (Thick corn tortillas with cheese and beans and meat inside) – to stick with the theme, actually a dish from El Salvador but commonly eaten all over Honduras.

Fresh fruit juices made from star fruit, passion fruit, melon, watermelon, pineapple, or strawberries and bananas (to name a few), that I buy fresh from the market. Oh and mangoes….

Quesadillas here are a sweet cake like bread made from sour cream, eggs, milk and sugar, and of course, cheese – nothing to do with the Mexican version of the quesadilla.

Similarly, enchiladas here are nothing like the Mexican version either.  Enchiladas are made with a base of a tostada which is then topped with ground meat and various vegetables and cabbage. Curtido, pickled cabbage with onions and jalapeños, is a common topping for pupusas, baleadas, and enchiladas. 

Tacos here are rolled fried tortillas filled with some sort of meat and topped with tomato sauce and dry cheese.

I haven’t even gotten to any of the Garifuna  dishes from the Caribbean side of the country – think coconut milk, sea food, and spices – but as I haven’t done a proper culinary tour of that area of the country yet, that will have to wait. 

The only thing I've tried and wasn't crazy about was Sopa de Mondongo - tripe soup.  I'm just not a fan of animal stomach, in any form, I guess.

So writing this has made me hungry – a man just passed by the office selling fresh bread – I´ve just bought a loaf of pan de yema – eggyolk bread, dense and sweet that goes great with the afternoon coffee that my coworker is brewing in the kitchen right now.  I’ma go eat now!