Food

Here is the topic that Susan is probably the most interested in, but I confess to being more of the “eat to live” sort rather than “live to eat.”  However, I am finding the food in Nicaragua quite agreeable, but it does require some adjustments, most notably a somewhat limited variety. I eat breakfast and dinner at my house, although not specifically with the family.  However, some of them are often in the “sala” (the main room of the house which has the dining table) watching TV while I eat. 

Two things have been universally (I believe every meal) on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner:  beans and tortillas, with the tortilla generally acting as a cover for the dish as it’s served.  Beans tend to be the dominant protein since meat is not served with every meal.  In addition, rice appears about 80-90% of the time.  Sometimes, beans and rice are served together, called gallo pinto or spotted rooster.  The other items vary from day to day.  A few of the items are similar to the US, but it doesn’t necessarily appear at the expected meal.  For example, for a couple of breakfasts I’ve had a tomato and onion salad, which is one of my favorites, but one that I’ve never thought of as breakfast.  Other sides can include eggs (hard boiled or scrambled, sometimes mixed with meat or tomato), chía (a sort of squash), malanga (a purple starch not unlike potato), potato, chicken (usually if there is meat, it’s chicken;  lunches always have a meat choice), soy burgers (not like a commercial veggie burger, but more like a TVP burger), cucumber, a white, soft cheese called cuajada (which translates as curd, but more in the sense of cottage cheese curd than squeaky fresh Wisconsin curds) as well as a few things that I’ve not learned the name of yet.  Susan will be pleased to know that when served, I even eat the beets (though they still do not taste sweet to me).  The drink is usually tea (since I don’t do coffee) for breakfast and dinner and a refresco (like a juice) for lunch.  You’ll note no mention of fruits in my listing, because my diet so far is much heavier on the vegetables than fruits, primarily because the season and the cost—things in season are cheaper.  I do have occasional bananas and have had melon a few times and one truly outstanding pineapple.  All of the food is fresh as there is no refrigerator in the house (nor even in the community, with the exception of beer coolers at bars).  One thing that does puzzle me is the choice of eating utensil:  we are served with either a fork or a spoon (so far never a knife and never a fork and spoon together), but the choice appears to be completely arbitrary since the same menu items will have a spoon one night and a fork the next.  Both at the restaurant and at home, the food is portioned out and served on a plate (although the plate has more depth than is typical in the US and is somewhere between a plate and a bowl).  Food is generally not served family-style and passed, but more restaurant style.

Here is a typical presentation for a breakfast or dinner at my house.  The plate size is always the same (about 7-8").

Same plate with the tortilla removed.  This happens to be breakfast and features the gallo pinto, scrambled eggs with tomato and onion, and some fried potatoes that are hidden beneath.

I am particularly spoiled by the lunches, which are all served at the new restaurant, where we leisurely dine al fresco with food that is consistently tasty and well presented and watch the world pass on the Pan-Am Highway.  (And there always seem to be interesting, and to a North American eye, unusual things passing by!)  It will be hard to go back to a bag lunch in my office!  Based on the food served, I think the restaurant should eventually be a success if they can get the word out and there is sufficient traffic on the road.

A lunch plate as served with a refresco.  The earthenware is from a pottery coop located only a few kilometers from here.  The table is a single slap from the trunk of a guanacaste tree that was made locally, but following a design from Masaya, a town just south of Managua famous for various crafts.  There are also chairs to match.

 

A View of the plate with the tortilla removed.  The items are:  beef with a vegetable sauce of corn, peas and tomatoes; rice; cold beets; salad with cucumbers, cabbage and tomatoes; and fried potatoes.  This menu is a bit more elegant than usual (but not much) because it is the grand opening of the restaurant.

Here is a view to the north from the restaurant dining area.  The Centro Solar is just out of the picture to the left and you can see some traffic on the Pan-Am Highway in about the center.  The solar-powered pump house that provides water to the complex is the small, tile-roofed building.

This shows the view towards the kitchen from the dining area.  This is from the grand opening, so there are balloons (not globos like my Spanish vocabulary, but rather chimbombas), a DJ and some dancing.  (William might recognize the dances as his "sisters" when he was here 3 years ago.)  There were also representatives from the local constabulary, the UN development agency that provided the grant and the local church (evangelical, not Catholic, but I'm not sure of the protocol on this).

What do I miss? I’d have to say the two biggest are sweets and cold things like milk, although I don’t really crave them like I thought I would.  I have bought a couple of ice creams in Ocotal, and have had the occasional rosquilla (a local ring-shaped cookie that is at least mildly sweet), but other than that, until today, I’ve gone almost 3 weeks without cake, cookies, pie, dessert ... or Snickers bar!  For the grand opening of the restaurant, they served some cookies and torts that were baked in the solar ovens, so I did get a “fix.”  Since I don’t put sugar in my tea, I’m sure that my overall sugar intake has dropped dramatically, but on the flipside, my overall quantity of food has gone up considerably since portion sizes tend to be bigger than I’m used to.  I think they assume gringos eat much more because we tend to be so much bigger.

There are also regional specialties that I’ve not sampled yet since I’ve not traveled more than 30 km from Sabana Grande, but hopefully that will start to be remedied in the next few weeks now that I’m a bit more settled in.  Coffee is not my thing, so coffee tasting is not a high priority, but there are also areas that specialize in chocolate and those sound much more appealing.  Perhaps I can revisit this Food post later to add some geographic variety.