Antigüeño Breakfast at Rainbow Cafe
Sometimes, you just feel like abandoning all reason and common sense in order to have bacon for breakfast. Sure, fresh fruits with honey are tasty and colorful, but it doesn’t compare with a ‘real’ antigüeño breakfast with refried black beans, eggs, charcoal-broiled tomatoes, bacon and a strong cup of the best coffee in the world.
See, even a fancy-looking Guatemalan breakfast includes the black beans and eggs. With today’s photo you have seen three different versions of the Guatemalan breakfast. For sure, you remember the Typical Guatemalan Breakfast at Fernando’s Kaffee and the fast-food version of the Typical Breakfast served at Pollo Campero. Would you have a Guatemalan breakfast tomorrow morning if you were given the opportunity?
The Guatemalan Writers Side Note:
For being such a tiny banana/coffee writers republic, Guatemala does produce and export quite a few good writers. I have mentioned some of them in this site like Luis Cardoza y Aragón, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Enrique Gómez Carrillo, Pepe Milla, Ronald Flores. But, I have not done enough to talk about the great Guatemalan Literature written by its many excellent writers. Thanks to a comment by Coltrane_Lives about the possibility of his adopted Guatemalan daughter becoming a writer, I can point out a great Guatemalan novel written in English by Francisco Goldman, a respected journalist whose work appears often in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books and Harper’s (source: literaturaguatemalteca.org [ES]). “Francisco Goldman won accolades and international recognition with his extraordinary first novel, The Long Night of White Chickens, the winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts… ” (source: amazon.com). Another great contemporary novel is Ruido de fondo (background noise) by my dear friend Javier Payeras. Javier Payeras is one of the clearest and loudest voices of this generation and his poetry and prose has won the recognition in and outside Guatemala. Ruido de fondo has been reissued by the Guatemala’s Government Editorial Cultura to be required reading for High School students in Guatemala. For those who are fluent in Spanish, I leave the link to one of my favorites poems by Payeras: Soledadbrother.
Daily Content
September 18th, 2007
Absolutely yes…need to get a plane ticket!
September 18th, 2007
Mouth watering photo!
Thank you for the comments about Guatamalean writers. I followed the links. I’m going to be reading Goldman’s book.
September 18th, 2007
Oh MAN I miss/love those Guatemalan black beans. Can anyone tell me how to make those at home??? That’s a beautiful, delicious photo.
September 18th, 2007
What a great picture. I visited Antigua in August and this picture brings back so many good memories of that trip. I only wish I could take a bite.
September 18th, 2007
Pues I didn’t know that bacon was part of an Antigueño breakfast… ve pues. That must be a hit with Canadians
Another example of food syncretism was (is?) to serve homefries (fried potatoes) with breakfast as they did (do?) at Café La Condesa.
September 18th, 2007
Ahh, looks good. Just got back from La Antigua yesterday, so I still have the memories of breakfast at Fernando’s fresh in my mind. My yogurt and cereal this morning was just so bland…..
September 18th, 2007
Thanks Rudy for the great connects with the Guatemalan writers. I can’t thank you enough for the insight you provided on this one…oh yeah, forgot to mention that this breakfast would be any writer’s delight! Gracias!
September 19th, 2007
Have learnt so much from your site; I think I will try Goldman’s book on your recommendation.
September 19th, 2007
Thank God for pigs, chickens and coffee.
September 19th, 2007
now I’m hungry……
September 19th, 2007
Hm… I’m vegetarian but that still looks absolutely fantastic
Planet Earth Daily Photo.
September 19th, 2007
I bought some Antigua,Guatemalan coffee at HEB Central Market here in Houston, not the same. I miss Guatemala.
September 19th, 2007
loook so good but I would not eat the refryed beans. I have never inderstood why people like them.
September 19th, 2007
Rudy, I take it these breakfasts you are photographing you get to eat afterwards right?
September 19th, 2007
Claudia,
That is right! I get to eat them and I get to pay them too.
Do you see the extent of ‘my sacrifices’ in order to bring you the best vistas from La Antigua Guatemala? Gosh, that things I do for you guys!
September 19th, 2007
Poor Rudy always sacrificing himself for his regular readers… So when are you getting those oatmeal pancakes from Café La Condesa, at least I’ll have them vicariously through your fotos.
I bet it is really hard to live surrounded by such beauty all the time…
September 19th, 2007
Rudy, one of your readers just sent me a recipe for the black beans. I am ecstatic! Thank you! Don’t ever question that you are doing a major public service out there.
September 22nd, 2007
[...] ordinances requires that the name of businesses be in Spanish. Some business have dual names like Rainbow Cafe which was forced to change to Café Arcoiris (although they kept Rainbow Cafe at a smaller size [...]
September 22nd, 2007
Manolo, I will eat the oatmail pancakes if you promise that YOU will vicariously gain the weight while I enjoy the pancaques.
Susan, I am glad to hear that you got the recipe. On the other hand, I wish I was not doing public service, but rather that I receive compensation for the many hours I invest in this project. Oh well, perhaps in another life.
September 23rd, 2007
Do you mean you want to gain the weight? hmm… I have no problem with that, although it has been hard to get to the weight I have so far (it has been always too low :-P)
There is an idea for a blog “La Antigua Daily Recipe” … just kidding.
September 26th, 2007
Arturo Arias is a good writer too….I enjoyed his ‘Cascabel’. Has a key scene in the Hotel Antigua.
October 13th, 2007
Hey All!
I know I am pretty late with a comment on this photo but I had to since today is Saturday and I am off from work. I remember the mornings during my vacation in La Antigua back in May. When I finally made my way out of my room in the mornings, I would be greeted by the wonderful staff of the small boutique Hotel De Antaño. They would rush to prepare my breakfast and served it wherever in the house I would like to take it. It was a typical traditional Guatemalan breakfast, consisting of eggs, platanos fritos, frijoles volteados, crema, and ensalada de fruta con papaya, sandia, naranja, y melon. I have to say these times during my stay in Guatemala were some of my favorite moments. Especially when I sat in the terrace of this house overlooking the volcanoes and having my breakfast with some of the best coffee in the world and traditional marimba chapina playing in the background. Look forward to that again as my stomach rumbles as it yearns for this again.
On a literature side note:
The new book by Francisco Goldman, “The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?” has been published. It chronicles the 1998 death of human rights activist Msgr. Juan Gerardi. You search for a review at the NY times website.
Also an author I was recently fortunate to have a attended a lecture with is Alma Guillermo Prieto. Her recent work “Dancing with Cuba: A Memoir of the Revolution”. I later found out she is Guatemalan on her father’s side and Mexican on her mother’s side. She is a fascinating writer with a vivid gift of experession.
Rudy Best Regards from Nueva York!
December 30th, 2007
[...] it to you… I guess I like to take the long way home. But others have mentioned it before in Antigüeño Breakfast at Rainbow Cafe and Chef Salad from Café Concepción (BTW, this restaurant does not exist [...]
January 31st, 2008
[...] they steal our bright minds; then they take our gold and buy out our postal service; they insert strange things into our antigüeño breakfast (bacon they call it); even our money is now Canadian (it reads Canadian Bank Note on the brand-new [...]