Fun Food Facts

This weekend in San Juan del Sur was a hectic one. It involved the mysterious disappearance of over twelve hundred cordobas, deep-sea fishing, seasickness, a beautiful beach, terrible stinging sea creatures, mating turtles, a terrible hostel manager, a few sneaky sunburns, some heat exhaustion, several long bus rides, food poisoning, many disappointments and not a lot of sleep. While there were some pretty wonderful things – like the swimming – it really took a lot out of me. After a refreshing walk in the rain with The Collective West for company, I decided that I’d rather not blog about what was a stressful couple of days.

Instead, I bring you more food facts! Last time I talked about food, the two qualities I mentioned happened to be alliterative – Nicaraguan food is fresh and fatty. This time, I have two more Fs for you.

F is for Fried

In Nicaragua, the skillet full of oil is practically a kitchen staple. The vast majority of hot Nicaraguan food is fried – fried enchiladas, fried eggs, fried tortillas, fried bananas, fried plantains. In fact, those last two can be done a number of different ways: battered and crunchy, sliced and soft, salted and crispy… Lightly frying bananas halved lengthwise makes a delicious supper, and I actually like plantains in their crispiest form more than potato chips! The weirdest fried concoction I’ve come across so far is fried cheese, which initially seemed to me like the least healthy thing a person could possibly consume. The thought of all the grease involved initially turned me off the idea, but it would appear that the standard Nicaraguan cheese (“queso” is cheese, if you were interested) is actually not that appetizing unless it’s fried. It looks and smells a lot like feta cheese, but we tried using it with a pasta we made a few nights ago and it just doesn’t act like cheese. Fried, though, it’s delicious – especially when stuck on a toothpick with an equally fried plantain, in which case it’s called tostones con queso.

F is also for Familiar

There is a lot of American-style food in Nicaragua, pizza being the most popular by far, as you may have guessed from the plethora of pizza photos in my albums. Off the top of my head, I can think of five pizza places in Jinotepe, which I’m sure is far more pizza per capita than, say, Cold Lake. Pizza aside, though, there’s a lot of familiar fare available even outside of tourist spots; it’s just been Nica-ized a bit. The papas fritas (French fries) look roughly the same, but the potatoes don’t taste quite the same and most places don’t make them as crispy as they are at home. This is why I’d rather have tajadas, although I’ll make an exception for the incredible curly fries at Laiha’s in Jinotepe. The hamburguesas (as if you need that translated) are hit and miss; I’ve seen pretty delicious ones in restaurants before, but it seems that the bread is generally more important than the meat, which winds up engulfed in an enormous cloud of homemade bun. Jason and John have been singing the praises of Quick Burger for weeks, but I have yet to try it. While I doubt it will blow me away, there is one aspect of Nicamerican food that I do love: ketchup. Ketchup here is somehow sweeter, more tomato-ey and a hundred times more delicious. There will most likely be a package of it in my suitcase beside that guava jelly.

In other news, my placement starts for real tomorrow. In the morning, Brianne and I are going to one of the schools to talk about scheduling our health lessons, which we started planning this evening. In the afternoon, I’ll be working in the clinic. I can’t wait!