La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo

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!).

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).

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?

Once again here is a picture by request. See, Edgar got jealous because Carmen obtained a couple photos of rellenitos as requested, so immediately Edgar mentioned the paternas which are only available in the coastal low lands of Southern Guatemala. Boy, I really go out of the way for you guys.

Now, Edgar and the others Guatemalans will have to explain what this tropical fruit is, what kind of tree it grows on, about its taste and how paternas are eaten. Go for it!

Every once in a while is good to stop eating Guatemalan food and eat something healthy, like a chef salad from La Fuente restaurant. A salad and the New Yorker Magazine is what I consider a healthy lunch. The article about an unknown photographer by the name of Eugene De Salignac and his photo of painters spreading out like musical notes on the Brooklyn Bridge, over the sky line of New York, was most definitely the best dessert I have had in a long while.

Bon Appettite, mes amis!

We are off to the Silvio Rodríguez concert in Guatemala City.

Rellenitos (little fillings) is the name given to a food made from plantain dough which is molded into a semi-round shaped and filled (thus the name) with a black beans sauce or stuffed with manjar (custard). It is a sweet meal and normally eaten as junk food or as dessert. It is one of my favorite Guatemalan desserts and I am sure I am not the only one with a soft spot for this kind of meal. Check out this close-up shot of rellenitos to see the black bean sauce filling.

This photo of rellenitos was requested by Carmen, back in December, as a response to the Traditional Guatemalan Christmas Food series. No, I did not take this long to take the photos of rellenitos; I emailed her the photos of rellenitos back in December, but I forgot to post it here.

Okay, all my dear ceviche-loving friends (you know who you are), I have already placed the order for the shrimp ceviches and bought enough of the Guatemalan brews known as Moza and Brahva Beats. I know Manolo is bringing Stella Artois and Steam Whistle; Guy is bringing New Castle and Guinness; Jerry B is bringing a micro-brewery sampler from AleSmith; Edgar and Carmen are bringing Cubas Libres and whatever beer Edgar likes; El Canche is bringing himself out of piles photo memory chips and Guatemalan slavery-work schedules. Everyone is invited to this huge ceviche party, but you better hurry because the lady is putting the final ingredients on the Mexican shrimp ceviches available in La Antigua Guatemala. If you don’t like the Mexican ceviches, we can alway go to La Naranja Pelada or Blanqui Sevichería for the sacred dish.

Don’t take too long… the ceviches won’t last forever, you know!

Rice and beans are an integral part of the Guatemalan diet, sometimes as side dishes and many more times as the main plate. Unfortunately, many times rice or beans are the main dish, the only dish of many Guatemalans.

It was the Garífunas, the black Guatemalans living in the Caribbean shores of Lívingston and Puerto Barrios, Izabal, who made an exquisite meal from rice, beans, coconut milk, tomatoes and herbs. Garífunas called it Rice and Beans; yes, in English. This meal has several variations and names in the different Caribbean communities. For instance in Cuba, Rice and Beansdish is known as Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians).

If you come to Guatemala and have a chance to try Rice and Beans, please do so; you will not regret it.

Also, if you have five minutes, please check out this amazing and beautiful slide show of the Garífuna people of Lívingston created by my good friend Iván Castro; a superb photographer.

La Antigua Guatemala is just a cosmopolitan town. You can get just about any kind of cuisine here. For instance, the dish above comes from the Guatemalan Caribbean; yes you heard it right: Guatemala is a Caribbean country (as well).

Believe it, you came to the right place, you are looking at LAGDP; this is not the Montego Bay Day by Day published daily from Jamaica by our dear friend Ann. I know it could be confusing to see a Caribbean dish made with sea food, coconut milk, bananas and plantains being served in a Spanish Colonial Town embedded in the highlands of the mountains of Central America. What kind I say, Guatemala’s syncretism knows no limits.

The tapado (covered) dish comes from the Guatemalan Caribbean region of Lívingston, in the department of Izabal. Lívingston’s population is made up by Black Guatemalans known as Garífunas, Q’eqchi’ Maya and Mestizos (mixed) and it’s precisely this mixture that is necessary to create such a delicacy. If you are in La Antigua Guatemala, you can only find this dish at El Pelícano Dorado (I think). According to Guy, the ceviche connoisseur, you can also find a great ceviche at El Pelícano Dorado.

This is the Vuelve a la vida seviche (Come back to life ceviche) from the Blanqui Sevicheria in Escuintla City, a town about 40 minutes from La Antigua Guatemala. I know Manolo, Guy, Pirata Cojo, El Canche and others will have fond memories and things to say about this ceviche photo. Let their comments come…

If you would like to learn a little about the ceviche fascination of yours truly, please, do read the following entries: Ceviche from La Naranja Pelada and Shrimp Cevice in Antigua.

So after the tortillas are cooked on the comal and if they having been bought in the meantime, they go to a basket which has all kinds of towels to keep them hot until you go the tortillería and buy them. The picture above shows the usual arrangement for the Guatemalan tortillas inside the basket.

Right now, the going price for tortillas is 6 tortillas per one quetzal (Q1 = US$0.13). This fact brings me to another interesting aspect about tortilla selling in Guatemala: tortillas are sold by units and not by weight, which means some tortillas could be tiny or really thin or worse yet use maseca flour in the mix.

Well, for starters you need ‘real’ nixtamalized maize dough (nothing of the maseca flour that Manolo uses), a ‘real’ comal (baked clay griddle) and you need to use ‘real’ leña (wood logs, quite possibly pine). After that, you need a good pair of hand to tortear (hit into shape) a real looking tortilla. You don’t need no stinking mold to shape your tortillas ma’am.

Okay, go ahead now and make your own Guatemalan tortillas! Easier said than done, certainly.

Dobladas (turned over) is our last meal at the Virgen of Guadalupe Celebrations. Dobladas are made from nixtamalized masa (maize dough) like tortillas, but other ingredients are added before the masa dish is folded over itself and cooked. The ingredients that are added to the doblada are normally ground pork rinds, cheese, mashed potatoes, whole beans, et-cetera, but could be anything really. For instance I would like to find dobladas with cheese and loroco flowers; that would be very tasteful. Dobladas are normally fried or cooked over a comal (griddle made from cooked clay); just like tortillas. Dobladas are very similar to pupusas, except they are turned over. Check out the giant pupusas or Mayan pizza photos. Once dobladas ared cooked they are top with repollo salad (cabbage salad or coleslaw), tomato sauce and/or chile sauce (hot and spicy sauce).

Bon appetite everyone!