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Food

The staples on the American continent are very similar: corn, beans, plantain, meat. But home is in the detail. It was eye opening to see how the slightly different thickness of a corn tortilla (and a completely different name), the different colour of a bean, the way of cooking rice or the different brand of margarine can change between the feeling of being at home or being in an alien place. 

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Most people’s culinary identity was very closely related to their geographic provenance. Therefore I was all the more touched when the meals and stories people shared with me differed from the national dishes. Like Jimena, who’s provenance and family are the root of her awful traumata, did not share a typical dish but likes to cook simple food: grilled beef or fried rice with vegetables, as long as it’s home made. 

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Notable were also the participants who shared the local food of where we were. When young Mauricio said that he feels at home when he eats a Oaxacan mole I interpreted this as him potentially feeling safe there for possibly one of the first times. Or Yuliana who shared the bandeja paisa, which is the local dish of where her parents fled from and she fled to.

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Some dishes I learned about

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Garnachas - Guatemala
Garnachas are little toasted or fried corn tortillas topped with meat, salads, cream and cheese. Like tostadas in Mexico but with different tastes and sauces. 

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Baleadas - Honduras

Baleadas are large wheat tortillas folded over and filled with beans, eggs, cheese, cream and avocado. In Oaxaca at the COMI shelter I organised an afternoon of chats about our favourite homely meals which was followed by an evening of cooking. We made baleadas. See my blog post on the COMI website for more details. And THIS post on my personal blog for some pictures of the cooking. Apparently a woman, in a city in Honduras, who made the best baleadas survived a shoot out by her stall, which according to this little story gave this meal it’s name. Baleadas is what you call something that’s been shot at.

Arepas Venezolanas

I have to mention them. Not one Venezuelan participant failed to mention arepas. It's flat corn bread, also called la reina pepiada, la pelúa, la catira. Each region has their own like the jam packed arepa cabimera. (below)

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Tie me up!

I discovered that Hallaca, a Venezuelan delicacy is very similar to what other places call a tamal. Boiled corn dough with meats or vegetables wrapped and tied up in plantain or corn leaves. Similar again to the Nicaraguan Baho where they layer marinated beef, plantain, vegetables and yuca wrap it in plantain leaf tie it up with string and boil it. The meat for the Baho is usually put into the marinade on a Saturday for a Sunday meal.

Pabellón criollo - Venezuela
It’s the national dish: shredded steak, white rice, black beans and fried plantain. They say its colours represent the ethnic mix of the country’s population. The black beans stand for the afro-descendants, The brown meat for the indigenous population and the white rice the Europeans.

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Pupusas - El Salvador
Pupusas are the Salvadorian arepa. Filled corn parcels with beans or meat or cheese. Each region has their own types of fillings. Cooked on a comal, they come served with salads and sauces. 

 

Pasticho (Venezuelan lasagna)

I’ve found out that Venezuelan cuisine is heavily influenced by Europe, more so than other American countries. They have things like macarronadas (Zulian pasta bake) and a lot of bread. But one that has come up regularly is the pasticho. It’s their word for what I’d call a lasagna but people have mentioned adding potatoes, capers, egg or olives.

 

I’d like to mention some of the salsas I’ve come across:

  • Chimol (Honduran pico de gallo)

  • Recao/Sofrito (Dominican coriander sauce)

  • Chiltepe (Guatemalan hot sauce)

  • Pepian (A Guatemalan sauce made with tomatoes, tomatillos, chayote and other vegetables, thickened with toasted bread, and flavoured with cilantro and garlic)

  • Guasacaca (Venezuelan guacamole)

  • Curtido (Not technically a sauce, but a fermented cabbage salad, as seen on the baho)

Photo credits:

Antonio Carillo (antonio_carillo@hotmail.com) - http://soynica.blogspot.com/index.html (via Wikipedia) (Baho)

https://www.tureceta.net/comida-guatemalteca/garnachas-guatemaltecas/ (Garnachas)

https://twitter.com/Evanskkkkk (Arepa Cabimera)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Wilfredor (Pabellón)

Roland Talgao (https://www.flickr.com/people/35034347371@N01) (Pupusas)

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