Hungry.
M and I have only been in country (see how I’m picking up the lingo) since October, but we’ve already had the opportunity to get to know some about Honduran cuisine. In fact, my first day at work I ate what could be considered the national street food, the baleada. Baleada is a tortilla filled with beans and cheese and usually bits of scrambled egg (although different varieties are sold). The name also translates to English as “shot,” with two competing folk stories as to the origin of the name. The first, that the little beans look like bullets that are shot into the tortilla, the second being that the street vendor who made the baleadas famous was shot in the leg while selling them. You can choose what folk tale you’d like to accompany your breakfast.
Anafre, another famous dish, is a mixture of cheese, beans and chorizo. The mixture is heated in a clay pot with a heating element underneath to ensure you have maximum melt-y cheese and hot beans at all times. You usually eat it with fried tortilla strips or fresh corn tortillas.
Anafre with beans, cheese and chorizo.
Typical plate with beans, cheese, salsa, chorizo, steak, rice and avocado.
Plato típico is a dish that you can order at most traditional Honduran restaurants. Roughly translating to “traditional” or “typical” plate, it is a dish that usually comes with a grilled meat, rice, beans, some type of fresh salad, and avocado.
Another typical food you can find at most restaurants, even the ones that don’t specialize in Honduran food, are juegos o bebidas naturales (natural fruit juices). Some of the most popular are piña (pineapple), fresa (strawberry), limonada o limón (lime or lemonade), and maracuyá (passionfruit – more on this particular delicacy later). Almost all restaurants make their juices with a blend of filtered water, fruit juice and sugar (sometimes), so they are safe to drink for gringo and gringa stomachs.
Sandía (watermelon) juice.
Soups are very central to Honduran cuisine. So far I’ve eaten chicken soup, beef soup, tortilla soup, a cheese and corn dumpling soup, seafood soup, and the crème de la crème of Honduran soups, sopa de caracol. I have yet to try the legendary mondongo soup (intestine soup).
Cheese and corn dumpling soup.
But the best soup of them all is sopa de caracol, a conch soup made with yucca, cilantro, conch, coconut milk, green plantains and spices that taste a bit like a mild West Indian curry. Looks like I’ve found a favorite lunch for the next two years!
Conch soup!
