Enchiladitas. Solamente diez cordobitas.

Here enchiladas are nothing like the Mexican enchiladas that you have all had.
Here they are corn tortillas with something additional in the dough that gives it a more orangey color. They are filled with rice and a teeny tiny bit of ground beef. The dough is folder over itself and deep fried. When the street vendor sells them, they all offer a chili sauce to pour over it. Watching the Nicaraguans do it, the trick it to bite off one end and pour the sauce directly inside the enchilada. They definitely resemble more of an empanada but they are definitely a must have. The cheapest ones are C$5 (about 20 cents) and the expensive ones are C$10. It’s definitely not a healthy snack but sometimes I cannot resist. There are a father and son team out of San Fernando who make a living out of selling C$10 enchiladas.

My host family gets a kick out me imitating the father:
“Enchiladitas, enchiladitas. Solamente diez cordobitas. Calientitas, calientitas del sol. Solamente diez cordobitas.”

What we collected on our walk...

I went for a walk with my host parents a few weeks ago to one of the communities. We went to place an order for yucca. My host mom wanted to go straight to the source so we went to this sweet woman´s house who has a small piece of land where she grows a variety of things including yucca. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. While there, I learned that one of my students is her son so I spoke to him for a few minutes about what I am doing here. It is super common to give people fruits and vegetables when you have an abundance. This woman had a large melecoton (starfruit) tree and she gifted us a large bag full of them to take. We used them to make frescos, homemade juice (bottom right). Her neighbor had a cacao plant and we asked him if he would give us one (top right). We left them in the sun for about 2 weeks to dry out the seeds and brought them to the mill to grind them into a powder to make frescos. The spiky one is called guanabana. It is also known as soursop in other parts of the world. According to Wikipedia, "the flavor is described as a combination of strawberry and pineapple, with sour citrus fruit notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavor reminiscent of coconut or banana." I would never be able to describe a taste as thoroughly as a Wikipedia contributor has been able to.

Nancites

I have found something I hate here. It is a tiny fruit that usually is yellow but sometimes is red. They have a super strong scent. They remind me of really stinky cheese or vomit. They are in season now and everyone is eating them. People are gifting bags of them to my family. Now we have the drink in the fridge and bags of the fruit in the fridge and on every shelf. I don´t like the fruit, the juice made of the drink or the ice cream in a bag. Supposedly they are also made into a dessert but I haven´t seen that yet. Instead they eat them on the bus and the smell is overpowering. EVERYWHERE. I am anxiously awaiting the end of the season.




from wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byrsonima_crassifolia

Tacos

The day my host mom made nacatamales and I was convinced we would eat them for dinner, we actually ate tacos. My host uncle picked them up from his favorite place in the nearby city. They were delicious!! I have learned here that even if things have a name that I recognize, it’s rarely what I am expecting. It has happened numerous times. With fruits, like melocoton, which I was taught means peach but here it means star fruit. Mantequilla isn’t butter here; it is cream, like sour cream. So it came as no surprise that when I was told that there was a taco in the aluminum foil, it didn’t resemble the NY version of a taco when I opened it. Here it’s a rolled, fried corn tortilla filled with meat topped with cheese, a ketchupy sauce and mantequilla. I had 2 chicken tacos for dinner that night and they were delectable. It reminded me of the Greek gyro. Something relatively simple that is incredibly delicious--ethnic fast food. 

Nacatamales

My host family is super excited to introduce me to the different foods of Nicaragua. During the 3 months of training, I hardly tried anything. I didn’t really have the opportunity to try the various foods but now my host family is making it a priority. They are eager to share their favorite dishes, restaurants, and drinks with me. I have been in site for a little under 2 months and I am quickly checking foods off my list. The next few posts will be all about food. So far, I have liked almost everything I have tried. It helps that my host mom is a great cook!

To make money, my host mom makes nacatamales every other Saturday. A nacatamal is a plantain leaf stuffed with cornmeal masa (dough), potato, pork, rice, tomato, onion & sweet chilis. The filling is packed in the plantain leaf and tightened with a small twine-like vine, that makes it look like a pillow, and then steamed to perfection over the course of many hours. She makes between 100 and 150 and sells to people in town. She takes orders in advance and of course makes a few extra.

I have been here for one of the Saturdays. On Friday, she does whatever she can do the night before. She washes the pork with a lime juice concoction and chops up some vegetables. Saturday morning she starts around 4am and with the help of our empleada they prepare the delicious delicacies. By mid-afternoon they are ready to be delivered. I thought people would eat them for dinner on Saturday, but it actually seems to be more common to eat them Sunday for a late breakfast with coffee. The day I was going to try them for the first time, I had no idea that we would wait so long to eat them. I was ready to eat mine for lunch on Saturday. Then once I saw the size, I thought maybe it would be for snack. I was sure we would eat them for dinner on Saturday, but no. I had mine heated up on Sunday morning with coffee. According to Wikipedia, “The nacatamal is perhaps the largest production within the traditional Nicaraguan kitchen and it is an event often reserved for Sundays at mid-morning, it is usually eaten together with fresh bread and Nicaraguan-style coffee.” I would have to agree.

The Giant Granadilla

My host family has a granadilla tree in the back yard, next to where we hang our laundry. For the past month, it has been producing a bunch of delicious fruits. For those of you who know Spanish, Granadilla in the dictionary is passion fruit but here passion fruit is called Calala and Granadilla refers to a large green fruit.  According to wikipedia, assiflora quadrangularis, is the largest of the passionfruits, plants of the genus Passiflora (I included the wikipedia path below).
The fruit is the size of a small watermelon or a large honeydew. It is green on thh the outside and white on the inside with small black seeds. My family frequently makes fresh fruit juice with them. My family mixes the granadilla with juice of a bunch of oranges and adds a lot of sugar (something very common here). They add ice, which they buy whenever they make a fresco. We do not typically have ice. It is definitely a luxury. Each small bag costs 2 cords (8 cents).

Wikipedia- Giant Granadilla

So Many Types of Mangoes

The other day one of my site mates brought mangoes from his backyard to class so we could try a different kind of mango. There are so many types. This one you soften by massaging the skin a bit then you take a small bite off the top and you squeeze the mango and it comes out the top like nectar juice. It was delicious and easy to eat. Hopefully he will bring them to class again before they are out of season.

Rice and Beans

Usually for dinner and sometimes for breakfast, I am served gallo pinto, which is fried rice and beans.
For lunch the two are usually separated out. And in my house, I am fortunate enough to get a lot of scrambled and fried eggs. I took a picture of this lunch because not only is it pretty typical overall but it also included fried sweet plantains (maduros), which I do not get that often.  Some other typical additions instead of egg and/or maduros are avocado (currently in season), cabbage and tomato salad, lettuce and cucumber salad, or boiled banana.  

Batidos

I love the fruit shakes here. They are such a refreshing treat! It is so hot!
The last one I had was níspero, banana and milk. Delicious!!

Jocote

Mango, avocado and jocote are all in season now. I have never seen jocote in America. According to Wikipedia, is a species of flowering plant in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae, that is native to tropical regions of the Americas. It is most commonly known as Jocote, which derives from the Nahuatl word xocotl, meaning "fruit."

I prefer the red ones, which are ripe. A lot of people like the green ones with salt. They sell them at all the fruit stands. One of my site mates is addicted to them. The green ones sort of taste like granny smith apples.

Gallo Pinto everyday

Gallo pinto is the most common food here. I eat it almost every day, sometimes two or three times in one day. Luckily, I like it. It is rice and red beans cooked separately and then fried together. It is sometimes served with eggs, sometimes with a white cheese, sometimes with a baked banana, sometimes with meat, sometimes with a small salad with either iceberg lettuce and tomato or cabbage and tomato and when I’m lucky with maduros (sweet, fried plantains). We also eat rice and red beans separately when we’re not eating gallo pinto. I am very happy with my food so far. My host mother is a good cook and she pays attention to what I do and don’t like (like: tomatoes; don’t like: raw onions and the white cheese). Below is a picture of my first time having gallo pinto at my host family’shouse. It was my second day here.