Food!

A typical meal: eggs, beans, fried plantains,
avocado, cheese, and mantequilla.

I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t do at least one blog post about food!  As you can already tell by my FaceBook posts, I am absolutely fascinated by watching the mangos and pomegranates grow out in front of my house, and it seems like almost every week, a new fruit shows up that I have to ask about and try!  Lately, my house dad and I have been on a streak of researching the medicinal properties of several tropical fruits and plants like durian (more on this stinker, later!), carao, zapote, marañón, and flor de izote.  He gets a kick out of the power of the internet to put the answers to all of his questions right at my fingertips!  I benefit in that I get to practice reading in Spanish out loud!  I´ll get back to these new-to-me characters in a bit; first I’m going to tell you about my typical diet.

Breakfast:  No matter what kind of cereal you’re eating, it’s called corn flakes.  If you want to buy any cereal that is low in sugar, you have to actually buy the real Corn Flakes.  I was so excited once thinking I’d found GrapeNuts, but they were the sugary variety.  So, I have taken to making my own muesli, and plan to soon also make my own granola.  Thankfully, old fashioned oatmeal is easy to come by! On the weekends, my house mom sometimes makes me her version of oatmeal or arroz con leche, both of which are good, but full of sugar and milk.  If I get my way, I make myself some pancakes or French toast topped with a drizzle of honey since there’s no maple syrup in Honduras—yet!  I am expecting a special delivery of some in a couple weeks….!!!

Here I am with my house mom and Eli learning how
to make homemade flour tortillas.  Yum!

La Merienda:  Seriously, this is something we need to institute into our culture!  In Mexico, la merienda is a light meal eaten late at night, but here it is a light meal eaten between breakfast and lunch.  I only eat it during the work week.  All of the kids at school get a break from 9:30-10:00 to have their snack and play outside.  I think a lot of people here don’t eat breakfast, or if they do, it’s something very small as they dash out the door to catch their public transportation to work.  To me, it totally makes sense that if breakfast is at 6:30, there’s no way you’re going to make it until your next meal at noon without a snack, and yet, this is what was what was expected at my previous job.  OK, so, the super cute thing is that my house mom packs me a peanut butter sandwich and some kind of cut up fruit every day for my merienda!  On a really good day, I get mango, papaya, or guayaba!

This is zapote which I am about to try soon as
ours ripens!  There are many different varieties.

Lunch:  This is the biggest meal of the day, so during the work week, I eat it at school.  Initially I was buying lunches from a woman who sells them out of her home, but after getting stomach flu after eating one, I put an end to that. I’ve been doing some of my own cooking, and bringing that in my lunches.  So far, no one has been rude enough to complain about me heating up curry, or garlic stir fry with broccoli!  Each classroom has a microwave in it so that the kids can heat up their lunches.  I’m pretty sure these kids wouldn’t have a clue what a school cafeteria is!

This is marañón, the fruit from the cashew nut.

Dinner:  I’m still trying to figure this one out.  Pretty much, you can eat it whenever you want to, whenever you get hungry from early afternoon to evening.  I most often just have corn or flour tortillas with refried beans.  If available, I might add scrambled eggs and/or avocado.  The Hondurans love their semi-dry, white cheese, their melting cheese (quesillo), and their version of sour cream (mantequilla),  but I can’t convince my tastebuds to like any of these.  In my home here, we also sometimes have a chicken vegetable or beef vegetable soup, but rarely do I see them preparing any other types of meat.  Bonus!  Sometimes we have a lettuce salad, too.  And, some nights, I’m not very hungry, so I’ll just drink a cup of pinol (a corn flour, chocolate, cinnamon, clove, milk drink—better than it sounds—I mean, it does have chocolate in it for goodness sake!) and dunk some bread in it.  

This is carao which grows in these big pods
which hang down from a pink flowering tree.
The pulp is said to be sweet with a chocolate-
cherry flavor.  It´s good for treating anemia.

Coffee:  Coffee is a big deal here, but if you ask for it black or without sugar, they are going to think you are weird!  Please don’t be shy!  Pour in the milk or powdered creamer and scoop in heaps of sugar!  Stir it up and gulp it down!

Platos típicos:  I don’t want you to think that how I eat is typical of all Hondurans.  Some of their most famous dishes are baleadas (a fresh flour tortilla filled with beans, cheese, and egg usually), catrachas, (a crisp, fried corn tortilla topped with refried beans and cheese), and pupusas, (corn flour dough filled with cheese, cheese and beans, or beans and meat, etc, and fried).  What’s really fun is that they have food that they call tamales, burritos, and enchiladas, but these are not at all like what Mexicans call tamales, burritos, and enchiladas.  I’m still learning more about these since I’ve yet to eat any of them except the enchiladas which turned out to be like tostadas.  One other typical food item I have had is the pastelitos.  These are a little turnover made with a seasoned corn flour dough, filled with seasoned rice (and chicken) mixture, and fried.  

This is the infamous durian.  It´s native to SE Asia, but has made its way here.  The flesh is supposed to be sweet and flavorful, but even before it´s cut, the fruit gives off such a strong, offensive odor (said to smell like rotten onions, turpentine, or raw sewage!) that it has been banned from some hotels and public transportation!  I think my life will still be complete without trying this one, but I will if I am given the opportunity!