Guatemalan Cuisine: Tapado

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.

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