I was fortunate that they were tempering chocolate while I was at Choco Museo making some photos about the process of making chocolate. And not just tempering milk chocolate, but also white chocolate. By the way, Karen, a loyal reader, mentioned that “by law, in Switzerland, you cannot call the white stuff chocolate; you have … Read more
Basically, chocolate comes in three flavours, dark chocolate, usually 70% cacao liquor or more; milk chocolate, quite possibly the most popular version and white chocolate. As explained the other day, you can separate the cacao or chocolate liquor into to cacao butter and cocoa powder. Once separated, you can sugar and milk to the cocoa … Read more
Here’s your illustrated Spanish word of the day: Molcajete or mortar and pestle. So how did the Maya and Mexica grounded their cacao beans, maize, etc.? Well, simple, by hand, using a humble molcajete, mortar, and tejolote, pestle, as shown above. The molcajete was used by pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures, including the Aztec and Maya, stretching … Read more
The birthplace for chocolate is Guatemala, which is the heartland of the Mayan world. Chocolate means bitter drink in Nahualt, that’s the language of the Mexicas better known as Aztecs. The Maya paid the Mexicans with kawkaw [cacao] for goods and services. It was the Spanish who added sugar to it, I guess after 800 … Read more
Champurrada is the closest thing to cookies for everyone. They are sweet, tasty, crunchy and inexpensive. Champurradas are flat sweet bread found among the regular daily bread offerings. Champurradas are perfect for dunking in the cup of coffee or hot chocolate. The champurradas shown here are deluxe with sesame seeds and soft and crunchy at … Read more
I wonder how many variations of the passion fruit we have in Guatemala. Let’s count the obvious ones: Granadilla, Chirimoya, Maracuyá, and now Banana passionfruit. I am sure I am missing a few others. The Banana passionfruit shown here is the Passion tripartita var. mollissima. Banana passionfruit is the fruit of several plants in the … Read more
If you have follow the daily updates from AntiguaDailyPhto you may know that I enjoy taking the most innocent and harmless photograph and turn it into a deep thought provoking post. Today’s photograph of sancocho is no exception. Here is a simple photo of caldo de res y gallina criolla, beef and hen stock-stew, taken … Read more
Here are your Spanish words of the day: Mangostán, mangostino, mangostín and mangosto are variations for Mangosteen. The Times They Are A-Changin’ —Bob Dylan A few years ago I shared a post about salty granizadas [shaved ice] and many Guatemalans living abroad complained that when they grew up in Guatemala they never knew about salty … Read more
Patín is quite possibly the most popular food found around the villages in Lake Atitlán. Hardly ever we can find patín in Antigua Guatemala, but sometimes you find that the handicraft vendors from Lago Atitlán bring it with them as their food for the day. Rarely, the actual vendors of patín come to La Antigua … Read more
Not too long ago I shared a picture of iguashte or iwaxte, a vegetable salad made with ground pumpkin or squash seeds. As I said about a month ago, this is quite possibly a pre-Columbian Mayan dish. This version of iguashte with iguana as the meat was prepared in a recent cooking class at El … Read more
Oh the world is full of decisions. To be or not to be; should I stay or should I go; color or black-&-white; and so on until we get to the decision to either have carnitas or chicharrones. Life is tough, I tell you. Sometimes the best thing one can do is not to go … Read more
Of course, a sampling of the Guatemalan food as seen from the doorway of La Cuevita of Los Urquizú could not be missing. Most of the dishes on the foreground are what I have called Mayan curries, which we call here recados, thick sauces, such as jocón, revolcado, hilachas, subanik, kakik, pulique, frijoles blancos and … Read more
Here’s your Spanish word of the day: Bledo or amaranth. Bledo, chipilín, macuy, iguashte are part of the comidas de canasta, basket foods, or comidas tanatiadas, bunch foods. In other words, you order a tanate, bunch, of chipilín or bledo or whatever is available. Often though, you order more than one tanate to sample different … Read more
This is iguashte, a vegetable salad made with ground pumpkin or squash seeds. This is quite possibly a pre-Columbian Mayan dish. This version of iguashte can be found inside the mercado central of Antigua Guatemala. There are two version of iwaxte that I have tried so far, the one shown here with green beans and … Read more
Here’s your Spanish word of the day: Marranería or pork shop A trip inside el mercado central of Antigua Guatemala can be one of the most colourful and overwhelming experiences. Inside you will finds thousands of colours, textures, aromas, flavours, from fruits, vegetables and meats. Here’s a sample image of raw longanizas and chorizos hanging … Read more