Let´s Play Catch UP

Turns out finding an internet cafe that is both fast enouph to upload pictures and has a port for Molly´s camera is a serious challange. But I have found a spot so now you can enjoy a nice lenghty post to distract you from the  doldrum that is your lives.

Oh and because of the camera cards, let´s do this in reverse chrological order. Last night we had a bit of a treat. Molly has been voulenteering the last few weeks here in Xela (ofically Quetzaltenengo) at a women´s weaving cooperative. They sell Guatemala´s famous textilles from all around the region at fair trade prices. Moly works with three woman in their office and store on a number of projects. More importantly last night we stayed past offcie hours for dinner. Marta made a wonderful stewed chicken dish featuring a salsa of cilantro, parsley, mini tomatillos (called miltomates here) and something else. Tasty or Que Rico (how rich).

I finished or eneded my Spanish classes a week ago and have taken on a new interest. Comida Tipica de Guatemala, Typical Guatemalan cooking. Molly and I bought a Cook Book which in addition to hundreds of recipes also features a thank you letter to the author from the Biltmore Hotel in Guatemala city. The letter was written more than twenty years before the book, like many things I see here, I don´t really understand. But with the help of my dictionary and a bit of common sense I did make some spactacular Huevos a la Ranchera pictured above. Fried eggs, topped with a simple salsa of tomatoes and red peppers and possibly cooked in lard. It´s not in the recipe but I thought chorizo would be a nice touch as well.

You may also notice the OJ, that´s fesh squuzed. It pains me to my core to admit this, but the oranges here are simply the best I have ever had.

Well the computer stopped cooperating but stay tuned next time for exciting tales of Xela featuring Super Goats, a pig, and chickens (And none of them are cooked!)

You want it you got: a note on los judios en Guatemala

There are a fair number of Israelis that tour Guatemala and we saw plenty in Antigua and espically  around the lake. I have not seen a ton of Israelis in Xela. Interestingly I have met a fair number of Dutch and Scandanavian travellers.

As far as Jewsish Guatemalans go I have not met many or any; however, they do exist. I know there is a synagouge in Guatemala City. I had dinner with Aaron Schulman and he has met a couple including an eccentricly dressed guy on a flight who was the whitest person he had ever met, and were of European decent.

My former host family told me there are several Jewish families in Xela and I get the impression the Jewish community here is very ladino (European decent) and muy rico (very rich)

More interstingly there are many Jewish symbols in Xela, notably the star of David which I have seen in a park, as well as a decoration on vehicles and in fencs. I also have seen menorahs as well as many businesses with jerusmalem in the name. I have heard two explanations of this. One, the star is used by Jewish owned businesses. The other explination is that these symbols are widely used by evangelical groups (Guatemala has the largest non-Catholic population in Central America.)

My favorite example of this motif is Restaurante Shalom where Gringas ( quesedillas) are 3 x 20 quetzales.

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.