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If tostadas had a kingdom, La Enchilada would be the queen of the tostadas. Good, you say, I’m glad to know, but can you tell me what the hell is a tostada or enchilada. Well, I’m glad you asked.

Tostadas is the common name for toasted tortillas. There are many ways to arrive from a tortilla to a tostada. The most common approach is you fry your tortilla until it is toasted. Other approach is the tortilla loses all of its moisture while being near the heat of the comal. The last method and the least often used is you let your tortillas lose their moisture by just being in very dry environment. So now that you have your tostada or the base you turn it into a Guatemalan tostadas by adding other ingredients like Guacamol (avocado sauce), salsa de tomate (tomato sauce), frijoles colados (liquified black beans), and then you sprinkle dried Guatemala cheese (sort of parmesan cheese) and fresh parsley flakes.

Now to make an Enchilada, you start with a tostada as a base, you add a romaine lettuce leaf, a mixture of pickled beets and vegetables, the mixture that goes inside chiles rellenos (in other words, minced green beans, carrots, and meat), tomato sauce, chili sauce, sprinkle dried Guatemalan cheese (it’s like panela cheese), and you top the whole thing with slice onions and hard-boiled-egg slice (not included in the picture above). I believe Jerry has a picture of Enchiladas with the slice of egg on top.

The word Enchilada means something that has been soaked with hot sauce or has been made spicy hot. Well, that’s where Mexican enchiladas take their name from. But not Guatemalan Enchiladas which are, regardless of the name, not spicy hot, unless you add chili sauce.

Bon appetite!

P.S. I think, right about now, we should start hiding the scale (again!).

That’s right, these poor fellas will be history pretty soon!

This variation of the Guatemalan bread is known locally as lagartos (alligators) and they are sold for about Q15/US$2 a piece. The bread is semi-sweet and works especially well for dunking in your hot cup of Guatemalan chocolate.

By the way, did you guys know that chocolate is native to Guatemala and the the Maya realm. Even though the word chocolate comes from the Nahuatl language and it means ‘bitter drink’ since that’s what it tasted like before Europeans added sugar to it. Chocolate comes from the cacao tree, a short little tree that looks like a papaya tree.

See you later alligator; not for a while crocodile!

Without Internet Access Side Note: My apologies for not being able to publish the corresponding photos for the past weekend due the fact that my internet access provider left me no choice. They were down the whole weekend. Of course, they will not apply a discount for this disruption.

Boy, do I sacrifice for you guys, or what? MO (Mario) asked for a shot of green mangoes and here I am going to buy a green mango with pepitoria, sal, limón y chile, just for him (and Raquel).

See, many of the snacks in the Guatemalan junk food menu are actually healthy. Many street vendors set up shop outside schools to sell their junk food to kids and this include fruit portions sold inside a little plastic bag. The fruit sold varies by season, but can be green mangoes, green apples, jocotes (Guatemalan yellow plums), oranges, watermelons, melons, pineapple, just to name a few of the options. One more thing, green means unripe fruit which is normally served along lemon juice, salt, ground ayote (pumpkin) seeds known as pepitoria, and ground red hot chili pepers (not the band).

The poster above is about a concert promoting the Human Rights in Guatemala. The concert was held in La Antigua Guatemala’s Central Park and the listed bands were Radio Viejo, Unicornio, Yoyito, Caja Lúdica, Amigos de la Marimba de San Pedro Carchá.

Human Rights are not respected nor enforced in Guatemala. From babies, women, man and everybody really, their human rights are violated often, if not daily.

I believe that the Procurador de los Derechos Humanos in Guatemala should be holding these sort of concerts and awareness campaigns at the police stations, at the adoption lawyers union, at any kind of lawyers associations, in courts, and in congress, just to name a few of the places where human rights are violated the most.

What is your view on the subject of Human Rights in Guatemala?

Last year I showed you one of the Surf Shops in La Antigua Guatemala and talked about surfing in Guatemala in general. Here’s the the quote from the August 28th, 2007 entry:

Actually, you can get straight down to the Pacific Ocean in about 45 to 60 minutes (depends on your safety level while driving) through one of the most beautiful stretches of road in Guatemala, known simply as Carretera 14 (road #14) and then the highway in Escuintla. Two prime beaches for surfing are Monterrico and Sipacate, both of them about two hours from La Antigua Guatemala.

It looks like more surfers are finding out about these prime surfing jewels in the Guatemalan Pacific Coast.

Surf’s up dudes!

The church of San Bartolo village has to be very new since its design is sober and simple, as opposed to the baroque architectonic style of Iglesia de La Merced. Don’t you think so?

As the U.S. real estate market plummets, especially the sub-prime real estate, the Guatemalan real estate market grows even healthier, especially in and around La Antigua Guatemala. So much so that now some properties are sporting a NOT for sale sign as a way to keep harassment from potential buyers down. I am quite sure it is not working!

The sign above the wall can be translated as NOT for sale, Private property. What do you guys think about this sign?

There is nothing like rain water to make all the flora grow and in Guatemala we have a very copious rainy season that begins in May and ends in October. During the rainy season all the plants acquire a lush green dress and grow very rapidly. Thus, right before the rainy season begins, many gardens, farms and coffee plantations undergo a pruning process.

In the photo above, you can see the gravileas trees, the shadow trees for the coffee plantations around La Antigua Guatemala, being pruned.

Last time I showed rellenitos here, was a photograph taken at home with control conditions of light and presentation. The photo was taken as a request by Carmen who was having antojos (cravings).

This time the photo was taken at the rellenitos stall located in the park, right next the El Calvario Church, right where the Walter William Road Monument is installed. At the present moment, the cost of one rellenito is Q2.50/US$0.32.

If you want to know what rellenitos are, please, visit the link to Guatemalan Cuisine: Rellenitos.

I will begin taking photos for the Guatemalan Atoles series, which hopefully, we can start next week. Please, keep your cravings under control in the mean time.

Atol blanco is one of the most emblematic drinks of the Guatemalan Cuisine. Very few meals or drinks can define or identify a Guatemalan like atol blanco (white atole). Most Guatemalan atoles are traditional cornstarch-based thick hot drinks, yet atoles can also be made from, dried green beans (habas) rice and milk, and liquified plantains as in atol de platano or arroz con leche.

Yet it is atol blanco the drink that defines your ‘guatemalanness’; not coffee, like I have stated often (Sorry). See, some Guatemalans forget many things about Guatemala when they’ve lived abroad; sometimes they lose their accent, sometimes the lose their memories, sometimes they lose their identity and their culture.

But, sure enough, somehow they manage to take a trip to Guatemala and the first chance they order atol blanco and since this drink is served hot, very hot, they have to cool it down and Guatemalans do it by agitating the drink in a very peculiar circular motion; and that’s the dead give away of their concealed Guatemalan origins. Some of them thought that their newly acquired Ph.D.s, their beautiful French and English poetry, their new passports, their discreetness, et-cetera, could camouflaged their humble Guatemalan commencement. It is quite difficult to advance outside the box, you know!

Okay Rudy, you are losing us here, you know. Instead, tell us how to make atol blanco for our newly acquired patojos!

Simple, my dear visitors. All you have to do is water down your masa (maize dough), then add some boiled whole black beans, add a watery mixture of dried ground pumpkin seeds, ground red hot chili peppers and salt. Serve it hot in ceramic terra cotta bowl, if at all possible, and don’t forget to agitate the bowl in a circular motion. Bon Appetite!

Now, do you guys think a new series about Guatemalan atoles is in order? Which atoles should I include in this particular series?

Sometimes just showing a sign can be considered a political act. Today’s photo about one particular architect’s sign falls under the political act category. How can a set of architectonic values, positions and opinions be considered political? Well, if you knew JM Magaña, you would know that the architectonic changes or conservation he has implemented in La Antigua Guatemala and Guatemala City are indeed political acts. So be it, let the showing of the sign above be a political act.

Now, can you tell us how many times JM Magaña has been quoted in the La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo?

Wow, that’s what I call a ‘reading area’.

“… Nothing became Something. For many in the community this Something is the realization that their kids, who barely had touched a book, can read something because they like it. The biggest change we see it in the problematic children, those who can hardly stay put. We let them read laying down on a carpet, aloud or in silence, right-reading or backwards, or we give them audio books, and little by little they end up reading all of them…” —Kyle Passarelli (fragment freely translated from the article Biblioteca Caldo de Piedra as it appeared in Spanish in the latest issue of Revista Recrearte)

Whatever Kyle and Cassandra are doing, it is working and working just fine. I leave you with other shots taken at the Caldo de Piedra Library Project. I hope that you guys find a way to support this commendable initiative; even some kinds word will do.

Kids reading to kids; now we are onto something!

While reviewing the wishlist for the Caldo de Piedra Library Project, I occurred to me who little things can make a difference. Some items in the list include wooden signs, cd player, dvds, pigeon hole cupboard… an so on. Check it for yourself. I know I will be donating a set children’s books in Spanish and others little things in the list.

I am a firm believer of library projects and non-institutionalized education since I, myself, was one of those kids. Like the motto for the Probigua’s bibliobús reads, “if you read, you succed“. With the quote below, I finished last year’s overview of the Mobile Library Project of Probigua.

…I am living proof that education, reading and libraries are a solid ladder through which one can climb to success, whatever one decides that is. If I was not an Art Director/Graphic Designer, I would be a librarian.

Boy, do I have a soft spot for libraries! Often I highlight library projects like the Bibliobús of Probigua, which I nicknamed the Mobile Library Chicken Bus. Back in the first week of December 2007, we did a little tour through Compañí­a de Jesús Library as well. I am sure it does not come as a surprise that we cover yet another library around La Antigua Guatemala.

The Caldo de Piedra Library Project in San Antonio Aguas Calientes is the work of Kyle and Cassandra Passarelli who moved just 10 months to San Antonio Aguas Calientes, a must-visit little town just outside La Antigua Guatemala. As explained by Kyle and Cassandra, they were inspired to open a library for children because they were used to a mobile library bus (chicken library bus, pues) which came their way on the Isle of Arran often and provided books, movies and newspapers on loan. After they moved back to Guatemala they realized that some services they were accustomed to or that were taken for granted, were not available anymore; like the library. After moving to San Antonio Aguas Calientes, they asked themselves if they could open a children’s library since there were none in the village. Inspired, again, by the reading of the Caldo de Piedra book, they approach a group in the community to see there were interest in having a children’s library and sure enough the community responded and a very short time they had a small room half a block away from the parque central of San Antonio and books donated by the community and their friends.

The Caldo de Piedra Library Project has a web site where you can learn all about the project, read their recent accomplishments and to send your book donations. For those who can read Spanish, there is a great little article about the Biblioteca Caldo de Piedra in the most recent issue of Recrearte Magazine.

Today we resume the sign fetish series.

How do you get this vigorous red color? First you find red wall looking west or poniente, in case you need to ask the locals where west is; that is looking toward the Fuego (Fire) and Acatenango Volcanos. Then, you wait for the warm light of the late afternoon in a cloudless day and you click to your hearts content. Simple, right?

P.S. I uploaded this image at 1200 pixels wide for those crazy enough to use it as wallpaper for you desktop.