Tourists from San Juan Comalapa
As I said a few weeks ago, often in Antigua Guatemala people when they think of tourists, they think of foreigners who …
Selling Comales
What better way to start the new year than with a brand new clay comal to cook the best tasting tortillas. A …
Comal Selling In Antigua
No, we aren’t talking about Comal County around the San Antonio area in Texas (Click the link to visit San Antonio Daily …
Street Portraits of Strangers — I am Guatemala No. 13
Today, I am happy to share a portrait of Victoria, a great grandmother, one of the friendliest and kindest people I have …
Things To Do in Antigua Guatemala — A Different Coffee Tour
De La Gente NGO has put together a different and more down-to-earth coffee tour by involving the small plot farmers who belong …
Maya Girl Picking Freshly Made Tortitllas
Last week we did a mini series on campesinos and the milpa fields located on the skirt of Volcán de Agua. Today …
Meet the giant Guatemalan winged-leaf-cutter ant: Zompopo
Once again the May zompopo ants have arrived on time this year! Here are some facts and myths about the giant leaf …
Recipe for the Guatemalan Caldo de Res
Caldo de res is often called “cocido” (cooked) in La Antigua Guatemala. Caldo de res (beef stock or stew) has to be …
Facts and Myths about the Giant Guatemalan Sompopo Ant
Once again the May sompopos ants actually arrived in May and on time! Are you ready to drop your jaw and say, …
Real Guatemala: Las tortilleras
Of course, these ladies who prepare us our daily tortillas can not be missing in series about the real Guatemala. Here we …
Lent Food: Batido Drink
Batido is a fruity drink topped with a powder called pinol, a coarse flour made from ground toasted maize kernels, often in …
Tortilla Time
It is interesting how the aroma of freshly-made tortillas can be so haunting. This is especially true to Guatemalans who are not …
Our Daily Bread is Maize-based Food
Very often I see women on their way to the maize mill to turn nixtamalized maized into masa dough to make tortillas. …
Zompopos FAQ
This year the May Zompopos actually did arrive in May. Even though the Guatemalan winged sompopo ant appears every year in May, …
Nostalgia Triggers
The other day while I waited for the fresh and hot tortillas to come out of the comal I noticed an orange …
Tortillas los tres tiempos
In Guatemala we are lucky to still have vendors who provides us with fresh goods every day. Perhaps, it is the fact …
Guatemalan Cuisine: Chojin
Chojín is a word that I learned recently. Most of my life I just thought that radish salad was ensalada de rábano. …
Making Guatemalan Tortillas
Blame this photo on Eric, who just yesterday invoked the tortilla-making ladies. It is interesting how the aroma of freshly-made tortillas can …
Myths and Facts about the Guatemalan Sompopo Ant
Even though the Guatemalan winged sompopo ant appears every year in May, on average most Guatemalans know very little about them (myself …
Guatemalan Cuisine: La Enchilada
If tostadas had a kingdom, La Enchilada would be the queen of the tostadas. Good, you say, I’m glad to know, but …
Guatemalan Tortilla 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. 🙁
How to make the perfect Guatemalan Tortilla
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 sticking mold to shape your tortillas ma’am. 😉
Traditional Guatemalan Christmas Food: Dobladas
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).
Load of Wood Fuel
Recently while reading the National Geographic en español, I learnt that not all instances of the use of wood as fuel are bad. According the article about barbecuing wood and charcoal do indeed pollute the atmosphere with smoke and ashes, but it is a recycled-type of energy when compared to other energy sources like gas or electricity.
An Old Guatemalan Cowboy
I captured this image on a show about horses in San Miguel Escobar, a little village just outside La Antigua Guatemala. In …
Making Tortillas in Guatemala
Yesterday I mentioned that the traditional baked-clay comales are disappearing in Guatemala in favor of the metal comal; heated through gas. All …