La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

A couple of weeks ago I showed the Beer and Hamburger Combo from Flan Antigüeño and I mentioned how Guatemalans have a tendency to adopt foreign foods quite easily. Well, I know I pay little attention to vegetarians when it comes to taking photos of food, but believe, you can be a very happy vegetarian in Guatemala.

You can actually enjoy all the levels of vegetarianism in Guatemala. For instance, this bagel with salad and baked eggplant inside is call the vegetarian hamburger at Casa del Flan Antigüeño, if you can believe that… a bagel and no meat takes on the name of hamburger. Like the hamburger and beer combo, you can also have this veggie bagel sandwich with salad, fries and beer… always ask for draft dark beer or Moza.

Now, as amazing as this sandwich looks, believe it when I tell you this was not the highlight of my lunch hour. The main dish was really a tasteful conversation with Carolyn, a long-time supporter of LAGDP, who visited Guatemala from Minnesota not too long ago. So, a bagel vegetarian sandwich, french fries, draft Moza beer, house hot chili sauce, an engaging conversation, you can say it’s almost impossible to top that, right? Wrong, the gift of The Devine Husband: a novel by Francisco Goldman was the dulce dessert.

I think I better keep an eye on my calories/emotions intake since in a few weeks I will be having mixtas with mixtas with my epistolary friend el toronteco. I promised I will take photos of this particular Guatemalan rare and weird combination.

Guatemalans have a tendency to adopt foreign foods easily, but always adding the Guatemalan twist. That’s how you explain shucos from hot dogs, mixtas from hot dogs, nachos, papas fritas locas, pizza with ketchup, ceviche, pirujos from subway sandwiches, and so on.

Hamburgers are no exception. (more…)

Nachos is what happens when you build upon the concept of the simple Guatemalan tostada de guacamol.

Nachos are not a native food from Guatemala, but Nachos have made a big room within the new Guatemalan diet; at least in La Antigua. How could Nachos not do that, if they are made with tostada chips (deep-fried tortillas), beans (black beans for Guatemala, please), guacamol (avocado sauce), pico de gallo with chiltepes chilies, beef or chicken and cheese; all ingredients readily available in the Guatemalan cuisine realm.
(more…)

These two tostadas de guacamol (avocado sauce tostadas) are for my very good epistolary friends Carmencita and Manolo who decided to follow the white rabbit and now are missing in action. Whoever finds his/her way back first takes the tostadas. You guys are on!
(more…)

I am sure many Guatemalans have not had atolillo yet! If you have had atolillo before, please come forward.

Atolillo is made from baby corn, cinnamon, corn starch, milk and sugar. Atolillo is pure white and sweet. The flavour is sweet and delicate with a little punch due to the cinnamon… you have to try it!

Can you guess which way we are going to go tomorrow?

Sorry MO, you were cheated out of the morning refacción!

For those worry about being served your atol in styrofoam cups and dishes, let tell you not to worry, they still have the ceramic bowls, glasses and cups and plastic dishes. The only reason all the photos in this series were served in styrofoam cups is because I requested them to go. I don’t think they would let me borrow the ceramics bowls to take into my office. Sorry guys for the confusion… worry not you can still chismear (gossip) with the other people at the puesto de atoles.

Today’s entry is atol de habas. Habas are broad beens. Next to the atol de habas, I present dobladas de chicharrón (pork rind maize wraps). Bon Appetite!

One of the benefits of having a Banana Republic (not the clothing store, but the real thing!) is the tremendous amount of recipes available with plantains that became an integral part of the Guatemalan gastronomy. Today’s beverage is atol de platano, made from boiled plantains, sugar and cinnamon.

Does anyone has the actual recipes for all these atoles? Would you mind sharing them with us.

Labor Code Side Note: The Guatemalan labor code allows for two short breaks of about 15 minutes (in addition to the lunch break); one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The breaks are known as refacción, and the act of eating something in this short break is known as refaccionar. Bon appetite my friends!

With the first rains comes the sompopo de mayo (May’s giant flying ant), and the sweet atoles become available at your nearest Guatemalan snack street vendor. The omnipresent atol blanco yields some space for one or two Guatemalan sweet atoles. In the chilly morning with rain curtains, one goes out to get the refacción, or “refa” for short (mid morning Guatemalan snack) and the sweet atoles are now available. This is the menu available at the street vendor half block away from the office: Atol de arroz con leche on Mondays; Atol de arroz con chocolate on Tuesdays; Atol de platano on Wednesday; Atol de habas on Thursday and Atol de platano on Fridays.

Today’s entry is Atol de arroz con chocolate which basically is a thick and hot drink made with rice and chocolate; thus its name. To prepare Atol de arroz con cholate, you boil some water with cinnamon sticks, then add some rice and you wait for the rice to be soft and finally add Guatemalan real chocolate bars, a pinch of salt and maybe some sugar. You can add Mexican chocolate instead, if you can not find real Guatemalan chocolate, but do not use cocoa. What’s the ratio between water and rice, I don’t know, but this is a drink so the ratio has to leave you with thick yet drinkable beverage.

Guatemalan Abbreviations of Names Side Note: One more aspect of the Guatemalan idiosyncrasy is the tendency to abbreviate or simply chop names. That’s how Guatemala City becomes simply Guate or “Uate” if you listen carefully to the chicken bus helper (cholojo is the technical name for the helper); Chichicastenango becomes Chichi (be careful with the pronunciation if you don’t want to be slap on the face); La Antigua Guatemala becomes Antigua; Panajachel becomes Pana, Huehuetenango becomes Huehue; Totonicapan becomes Toto; and so on. Interesting enough, Guatemalans tend to only abbreviate names of towns located on the Western highlands and costal low lands, where most of the indigenous people live. You rarely, if not ever, hear a short name for Zacapa, El Progreso, Puerto Barrios, Jutiapa, Santa Rosa, et-cetera. Why do you think is that so?

The Departamento of Sacatepéquez (State or Province), where La Antigua Guatemala is located and to which is the Department’s Capital, is very dynamic and project-oriented State. Perhaps the fact the La Antigua Guatemala is the NGO’s capital of the world has something to do with it.

Anyhow, this is the most recent project I have come across. Tres Volcanes Honey Project (do you know the name of the three volcanoes?) based out of San Miguel Escobar, is trying to offer a sweet deal to the communities it buys honey from by creating new and innovative products out the labor of the bees.

A really sweet idea, don’t you think so? I hope it spreads!

Guatemalan mixtas (mixed) are basically hot dogs which come with tortillas instead of a bun. Simple and great tasting. There are other kind of mixtas (which really just means mixed) like beers, like ceviches, et-cetera. You get the point, right.

With this very simple dish we close yet another mini Guatemalan food series. Now you can bring back the scale.

Since Manolo needs to improve his tortilla making skills, I am posting this image to help him in the process. Even Carmen may benefit from these lessons!

Bohemian Literary Side Note:
Since I talking about Manolo, might as well invite him for a bohemian night with the writers that will appear in the 17:30 hrs activity by the name of Diálogo sobre Literatura Centroamericana Contemporánea as shown in the activity program below. For those who can read Spanish you can click the thumbnail below to see an enlarge version of the activity program for the Día Internacional del Libro y los Derechos de Autor (International Book Day and Copyrights).

It looks like today will be a very busy day and night with a heavy workload, literature, writers, friends, bohemian talks, mixtas (both kinds!) and book buying. If Manolo and Carmen can make on time, it will be my pleasure to invite them both the first round of mixtas. Oh how I wish you were here!

Like always click the thumbnail to see an enlarge version.

There are some Guatemalan fruits that are impossible to translate into English; jocotes is one of them. Jocotes is the little round fruit that looks like cherry tomatoes in the image above.

Can anybody help translating what jocotes are and what could be a close equivalent?

The Jocote Translation Side Note Update: Thanks to Cindee for providing the following information about the fruit Guatemalans called jocotes.

Jocote or Ciruela Roja

Known in English as Red Mombin and Hog Plum, jocotes are tree fruits, produced by Spondias purpurea of the Cashew Family, which is native to tropical America. Often jocotes are eaten raw but Mexicans also like to mash them in water, add sugar, and drink the water like Kool-Aid. They are 1-2 inches (2.5-5 cm) long. Jocotes are usually reddish, but can come close to being yellow.

Ciruela, or Spanish Plum

Ciruela or Yellow Mombin, Spondias mombin. Sometimes known in English as Yellow Mombin, the Spanish name ciruela means “plum,” and these tree fruits look and taste a lot like northern plums. They are very closely related to the above jocotes, being in the same plant family and genus. They are Spondias mombin. Note the large, white, very hard, boxy seed. After growing on leafless tree limbs for months, the fruits ripen at the end of the dry season, in June or so. They are good raw and also make tasty preserves

Granizadas is the Guatemalan Spanish word for shaved ice snacks. Basically, you take shaved or crushed ice and add any combination of the following: syrups, fruits, condensed milk, cooked fruits and their syrups, tamarind, camote (sweet potatoes), nance (sweet yellow cherry), just to name a few of the possible ingredients for the sweet granizadas; you add pepitoria molida (ground pumpkin seeds), salt and lime-lemon juice for the salty granizadas.

In the picture above, you get two see a sweet and salty granizada. The sweet granizada has several syrups and cooked camote with its syrup as toppings.

As you begin to see, the combination of pepitoria molida, salt, ground red hot chili peppers and lemon juice is used very often in many Guatemalan snacks.

Granizadas is all the Spanish term for hailstorm.

In 2006 I showed a colorful street vendor cart of granizadas, can you tell me what was the message written on the front of the granizadas cart? The first person who post when and what does it says in the cart, wins a 10,000 LACA miles.

Since you guys are having the cravings for Guatemalan fresh fruit snacks, I decided to show you the current options. All you need to add is pepitoria molida (ground pumpkin seeds), salt, lemon juice and ground chili peppers (cobanero, that’s what we have today). I believe Mario (MO) described the eating process of fresh fruit from a plastic bag pretty well… he really made my mouth water by his description; I had to have seconds.

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 way 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!).