Lago de Atillan

It would be fair to say that Lago de Atillan is one of the most beauteful places I have ever been. We visited two towns on the lake. First we headed to San Marcos based on a reccomendation of a fellow travler (literaly a fellow traveller not a communist). San Marcos was not our cup of tea. Like many tourist destinations in Guatemala there is much that seperates oridinary Gutemans and Tourists. In San Marcos a road seperates tourists and Guatemans. There is a clear point where the town ends and the hippie ex-pat village begins. The ex-pats that live around the lake live in complete ignorance of the customs and culture of Guatemala. They are also quite unaware how their consumption of drugs has caused serious problems for the village. However the view is spactacular and against certain advice we enjoyed swiming off the rocks here.

Next we headed to San Pedro for a week of Spanish class. We enjoyed the slow pace of San Pedro. San Pedro also had a gringo section of town but we found it to be less dramatic and the people more welcoming. We stayed with a family, and learned much about the economic and development issues from Senor Domingo and Snra, Rosa. Here is a funny picture of them with their daughter and grandaughter. None of them smiled.

Everyday we knew it was time to eat by the sound of Rosa smacking the tortillas into shape. Depsite owning a gas stove she cooked exclusivly on a wood stove and the results were muy delicous.

Oh, and don't worry I found what is probably the only southern BBQ in Guatemala. Those giant beef ribs were actually kind of gross because smoking joe used way too much smoke and whatever wood is avalible is too bitter, but the chicken was quite awesome. Later in the week we saw smoking Joe at a bar and it seemed after several adult beverages Joe was not very good at playing poker, understanding the rules, or operating a bathroom door. He had some choice words for his companions.




On friday night we went to see the procession. The Church puts on a procession every week during lent.  It was very intersting. It was almost exclsuivlt women in attendanc, though men carried the float. The procession stopped at various stations where people had lit prayer candles. There a prayer was said in Tzu-Tzu Jil, the local Mayan language which sounds an awful lot like Hebrew and Arabic mixed togther.

Probably  a bunch of other stuff happened too. We went kayaking which was fun but hard because I was too big for the kayak, we hung out in coffee shops and I learned the present tense of Spanish.

Next time.... Xela

Bienvanidos a Guatemala. After nearly two weeks in Guatemala I found a internet cafe that is speedy enough to upload photos. Unfortunatly we are moving on to a new town tomorrow. In the meantime be prepared to be bedazzled by my descriptions of my first impressions of  Guatemala.

Upon arival we spent a couple days in Antigua, pictured above. Antigua was the Spanish colonial capital of Guatemala and you may seem a glimmer of New Orleans in the colonial archetuecture there. Unlike New Orleans Antigua is cradled in a mountainous vally surrounded by 3 volcanoes., one of which is pictured in the street view and that we enjoyed daily. But now on to the important...

Our first meal in Guatemala. A tamale!. Tamales are popular street food here and go by many names. I often hear "Chuchita". The chuchitta pictured here was the last great thing that happened the day we left Antigua. It was spicy and delicous, unlike that day which was spicy and annoying.

On that first night we feasted in the court yard of a church on puppusas (stuffed tortillas), and tamles. It was magical to taste the local flavor and breathe in the fresh mountainous air.



We also did this!

 

That's right, we hiked Volcan Pacaya, an active volcano. Seeing rivers of lava flow down a mountain is more than a little nuts. In my continued effort to live on the cheap I refused the request of the MANY children offering to rent walking sticks, even after a percocius 6 year old nina told me "es neccecito". 15 minutes later our guide cut down a small tree with his machete and I panted out something that sounded like "gracias". 

Ok that's all there is time for today, but stay tuned for information on Lake Attilan, home of an odd hipie village, San Pedro where we studied Spanish this week, and much much more.

Lightning Round

Time to catch up so here is our week in Florida in a nutshell.

We headed to the West Palm Beach area and spent some quality time with molly's g-rents. Lobsters were consumed, movies were watched.

We headed across the rural center and stopped for BBQ, In strange territory I properly used the "no wood no good test". A tasty lunch ensued.

 We stayed on the beach in St. Pete which is awesome.

When we got into town my brother put together a small and humble Stone Crab dinner. Stone crabs are so popular that fisherman are only allowed to take one claw and then return the crab to the water. It is as rich as lobster but sweeter and textually more delicate.

I made grouper, another  Florida delicacy, for my parents and Molly. Later we had some in a restaurant and I won.

We went to Sunken Gardens an old Florida tourist trap now owned by the city. They have parrots in cages and flamingos. It was kind of boring.

We had my favorite St. Pete BBQ, Hogly Wogly, which could give some Memphis joints a run for their money. I made my own greens stewed with smoked turkey.

We also had a BBQ pork sandwich from Mr. I Got ´em

We had Chinese and ate giant oysters which were cooked and covered in black bean sauce. Yum.

The night before our adventure to Guatemala was to begin we had Ice Cream and I completed my FAFSA.

Having some technical difficulties and can´t get the photos up for this post, but I´m working on it.

UPDATE= PHOTOS

The Old folks at home

"The Old Folks at Home" is Florida's state song and not a reference to the many old folks we observed in Florida.

We first stopped in Pensacola on the western tip of the Florida pan-handle. Before rolling into town we noticed several billboards advertising a diner, a wrangler store, and a Subway restaurant. We stopped and were surprised to learn that all these establishments were under the same roof. The diner portion was called the "derailed diner" and the facade of the building looks like a derailed train. According to the menu this is in honor of how hard life is and in memory of the owner's dead husband. I didn't quite get it but here is what it looked like.

WKRG.com

According to his name tag our waiter was a "train-e" and it ended up taking a while so I explored the store. Apparently you can get tire swings in the shape of a horse as well as real saddles. When I told Molly about the swing she thought they had tire swings for use by horses. It took several minutes but we figured things out.

I also played some video games.  

The next day I went into a Publix supermarket, which I may add makes some tasty sandwiches, and noticed the tabloids and celeberty magazines had screens infront of them like pornos at a gas station. Ahhh North Florida.

More signature New Orleans Eats

New Orleans probably has more signature dishes than any other city (Chicago is probably Second). When I say signature dish I mean not necessarily the best dish but a dish that helps define the city. A slice in New York, A Chicago hot dog, A Cuban Sandwich in Miami, or BBQ in Memphis. In an age of mass culture in everything from music to architecture these dishes become increasingly more important as landmarks of the history and culture of a place. 

New Orleans cuisine is the national mall of local culinary monuments with Shrimp remulode, crawfish ettoufe, the oyster loaf, turtle soup, and countless others. The abundance of fresh Gulf seafood and the mixing of Creole,Cajun, Black, Italian, and Irish culture has left so many treats it was a challenge to decide what else to eat in our short time in the city.

A must have for me was Oysters. Fresh oysters have a clean fresh taste that I simply adore. We headed to Casamento's, a neighborhood place in the uptown area. We quickly consumed a dozen on the half shell. I learned the hard way that some establishments do not clean their oysters so the customer knows they are fresh. After wiping some mud off my face the meal continued. We followed up with an order of fried oysters. In my opinion this is the best way to enjoy Gulf oysters which are blander than blue pointes or pacific oysters. They were fired with care and love and came out perfect. 

We left at closing time and noticed a server preparing a plate of raw oysters for herself.  Not a big deal in itself, but to me a small testament of the reach of the dish as a food of the city for all people.

We had two more quintessential culinary experiences. First, we strolled into Cafe Du Monde the iconic open air cafe in the french quarter for cafe au lait and beignts . A brass band stood outside the cafe entertaining the tourists despite the rainstorm that opened up on them. This may not be an authentic New Orleans experience, but it is a quintessential tourist experience, and hey who doesn't like fried dough. 

Before heading out of town and admittedly  only hours after po boys we treked across the street from Cafe Du Monde and entered Central Grocery for New Orleans other famous sandwich, the muffeletta.  It is my humble opinion that Central Grocery is the only place anywhere that serves up a great version of this sandwich (They were the first too). A Muffeletta is salami, Swiss cheese, and an olive salad between a round loaf of sesame sandwich bread. Like the po-boy the flavorful, chewy, and now oil drenched bread make make this wonderful. It is extremely salty and satisfying.

 Molly didn't want any but I seriously doubted my ability to eat the sandwich, so I insisted she try it. Molly did not return the half.  More Road food pics in this post.

Po Boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We coasted into town and quickly went looking for some PO-boys. A po-boy is the ultimate form of a sub sandwich, surpassing even the bahn-mi (though I've heard establishments in East New Orleans [the Vietamise area] offer a hybrid of the two) A po-boy can be nearly any kind of sandwich but common ones include roast beef w/gravy, smoked sausage, and fried oysters or shrimp. Be sure to get one dressed; meaning w/ lettuce, tomato, mayo, and pickle. 


My favorite hidden gem, a storefront with no sign where rampart turns into St. Claude was either closed or done for the day so we headed out to Rocky and Carlos where according to their cups "Ladies Invited".  Some very good mac n cheese was consumed. The po-boys were respectable but did  not translate into a transcendent experience because they missed the key ingredient of a spectacular po boy...


The key is bread from the Ledienheimer Bakery. This bread is no normal French bread, it is perfectly chewy but has a nice give on the crust. It's like if Cuban bread and French bread had a love child.  We had some po boys at Domilise's just as the Ledienheimer delivery truck pulled up.  We ordered a smoked sausage po boy dressed and with creole mustard (a slightly spicy form of brown mustard) and oh yes with gravy. We also had an oyster po-boy dressed and with hot sauce.  All washed down with two ice cold goblets of Miller High Life, the only champagne I can endorse.

 The oysters were fried perfectly, soft and salty in the middle and wonderfully crisp on the outside. The crunch is a wonderful complement to the bread. The sausage po boy was a thing of beauty. The sausages were smoky and spicy and had an incredible snap. They were short and lined up in a row forming pews in the church of the Ledienheimer loaf.  Further testament to this breads greatness, the sandwich was manageable to handle despite containing the sinful combination of mayonnaise and roast beef gravy. 

These sandwiches  and this establishment epitomized all that is so wonderful about po-boys. The food is casual, the flavor is sophisticated and bright, the ingredients are excessive and delicious.




* Some pics appearing courtesy roadfood.com

Down in the Delta

We traveled down Highway 68 on our way to New Orleans. Somewhere around Clarksdale we passed the "crossroads" where guitarist Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for superior blues skills.

Having ingested a hearty breakfast I was unable to take advantage of the two delta specialties I'm aware of. The first is tamales. There are few Latinos in the delta and mo one knows how or why folks in the delta eat tamales but they are ubiquitous. According to my brother it this tamale tradition that led to tamales being available in Chicago's south side. The other is the kool-aid pickle. Missing out on this culinary oddity  was simple error. For some reason I thought this was a southern Mississippi thing and realized my mistake far too late.

We headed into New Orleans on the original bridge to nowhere, the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway. A 23 mile bridge spanning the giant lake which makes New Orleans northern border. On  to New Orleans...

Tunicia, Mississippi

It is at this point we must discuss where I found all these delicious restaurants. I found them from Jane and Michael Stern, the authors of Road Food. This book and their website have been invaluable. Their team has been kind enough to let me use pictures from their website which is now needed as we started getting more lazy and more hungry.

We headed out of Memphis at night and entered highway 68 and the Mississippi delta. We found a charming little dump to stay in, in Tunica a town surrounded by casinos. Using our books we discovered we were just up the road from the Blue and White Restaurant.

It was a charming little restaurant in an old gas station. We entered early in the morning and found the place fairly busy. We ordered and took in the scene. Molly happened to notice that she was the only female patron in the establishment. I realized then I was in for a tasty southern breakfast. I was not disappointed Super salty country ham was the star with a nice crust from the flat top. A nice moist fluffy biscuit to boot.

Memphis Part III: Eli vs The Rib

First I have to set the record straight Their has been some boasting by Molly that is to be polite, overstated. Molly  boasts she ate more ribs at our fantastic lunch at Cozy Corner BBQ. What Molly fails to mention is that I had half her breakfast at Gus' chicken and that that meal was only 3 hours before lunch The fact that I had any lunch flies in the face of modern science

Cozy Corner was my favorite BBQ joint in Memphis. As we pulled in I saw the smoke billowing out of the roof. We entered the modest restaurant and the smoker is right behind the counter where skilled pit masters tend to the que carefully turning. The pit had a lower level where it speared the meat got crisped up before being raised to the upper level where the smoke flavor sinks in.

These ribs were perfect, The perfect balance of chew, smoke, and texture. I think the crispness of the rib's crust set these ribs apart and make them not good but great.  We also tried another Memphis BBQ oddity BBQ Spaghetti. This is simply soft spaghetti covered in BBQ sauce. Like white bread, spaghetti makes a pleasant palate for highlighting the slightly spicy and acidic sauce. It is a fun alternative to the typical baked beans.

For dinner we headed to Payne's for a pig sandwich (pulled pork). This was one of the best pulled pork's I've ever had in the least charismatic space ever. Payne's is a dim dark room with no windows. Like all BBQ sandwiches in Memphis Payne's pork is topped with slaw It is a mustardy slaw and sweeter than other slaws we had in town (but still less sweet than most coleslaw).   Part of what makes BBQ so brilliant and this sandwich in particular is the combination of flavors an textures The pork has crispy pieces from the crust of the shoulder but soft moist pieces from within. Combined with the sweet and spicy flavors of the sauces and slaw it is a complicated and explosive taste.

Final thought on Memphis: Excellent town for BBQ and also some incredible history and culture I look forward to going back for a more extensive visit.