'Guate! Guate! Guate!' will be forever embedded in my brain after spending nine weeks (so far) in Antigua/Guatemala City, Guatemala. The people have been lovely, the work I've been doing has been challenging, but the food has been excellent. I'm on a tight budget down here, but I've done a decent job of sampling a lot of what Guatemala has to offer. It has taken me a while to decide what I want to highlight, but it suddenly came to me the other evening (literally, it was dinner the other night). Every single time I see arroz, frijoles, y platanos on my plate, my taste buds do a little happy dance. I can not eat enough of this combination. I love the rice. I love the beans. I REALLY love the plantains.
We have a rotation of lunches at the project, as do most cafeterias, and Thursdays are almost always a 'rice and beans' day. Every third Thursday or so, we get the perfect combination of rice, beans, and plantains. This happened last week and it took me by complete surprise since I thought it was Wednesday all morning. The schedule at Safe Passage is such that my class in the morning has lunch at 11:30am and once all the morning kids have left, the staff eats around noon. I walked into the comedor with the kids and saw the marvelous black mush (the beans at the project are refried black beans) next to the brilliant yellow platanos and actually jumped up and down with excitement. Of course the teenagers in my class all laughed at me, but this isn't unusual. While trying to wait patiently for the clock to reach 12:00, I ran into one of my fellow platano lovers, Kelsey, and only had to say, "Guess what's for lunch!" She could tell by my smile and volume level that it could only be one thing. Platanos. They are, after all, the stars of this meal.
Don't get me wrong, I love rice and would eat it every meal without complaint. The beans here in Central America, I absolutely adore. But combining it all with the sweetness of a perfectly ripe and fried plantain takes the dish from sustainable to pure indulgence. I vow to make this back home, soon and often. I'll even make it for breakfast sometime since here it is considered a 'typical Guatemalan breakfast' or 'desayuno tipico.'
Other typical Guatemalan food has been great as well. I've eaten a little bit of street food, too, but they are quite different from food trailers back in Austin. It's usually just a few people (mostly ladies) around a little stand with a grill selling dangerously delicious food. I'll do my best to get a few photos of it before I leave for you guys. And, honestly, if I'm there taking pictures already I might as well eat and blog about it too, right? ;) Vamos a ver.
