My weekend of Honduran Cooking/ Spanish Classes

Last weekend, my co-worker Marlon, was nice enough to invite me over to his house to practice Spanish, as well as learn to cook some typical Honduran food, an awesome way to kill two birds with one stone! We started out early Saturday morning to buy various ingredients at the local market in town. The plan was to make a typical dish that many of you have already seen pictures of in my last blogs: rice and beans, tajados(fried plantains), fried fish, and pan de coco. I was so excited to learn how to make these dishes! My plan is to try out cooking as much as I can here, so that I can hurry back home and try cooking the same food for all my friends and family. Ideally, it would be a great way to bring a little bit of Honduras to all you (and what better present than food?!), that is of course unless I mess up the recipe! Our first stop was at a vegetable stand, where we bought freshly ground coconut, onions, green peppers, and sweet plantains. We picked out two coconuts and an adorable older lady proceeded to chop it open with a huge machete. She then gave the pieces to her grandson, who put the halves into this metal contraption that looked as if it were going to fall apart. It basically looked like a thin metal pot turned on its side, covering some sort of spinning blade that rotated on a machine. I was surprised to find out how quickly it ground up the flesh from inside both coconuts. I couldn't help but think how much I wish I could take home one of those machines for my grandma, she would love to be able to have freshly shredded coconut so easily to put on all the different Filipino desserts! After shopping for all the ingredients, we walked to Marlon's house. Luckily he only lived about 10 minutes from the market in town. Unfortunately, it had been raining really hard the past few days and had gotten a little cold (for Honduras' standards), so I had dressed a little warmer than usual, but of course with my luck, at the exact moment we were walking around town, and then walked to his house, it got really hot and sunny. By the time we arrived at his house, after walking uphill with bags of groceries, I was covered in sweat.

As soon as we arrived at his house, I opened up a notebook, grabbed a pen, and I was ready to start the lesson! We first prepared the fish (called "calale"), cleaned it and seasoned it with salt and garlic. Then I closely watched as he showed me how to prepare the coconut juice and make the rice and beans. There were quite a few steps, so I was really glad to have him there to show me exactly how to mix things together, when to do what, and he was patient enough to answer the billions of questions I had.

The greatest part was that we both agreed to only speak in Spanish throughout the day, so I was really getting to practice! Somewhere between constantly jotting down different words and phrases I was learning, as well as all the steps and ingredients for these dishes in my notebook, an entire meal was created. After about 2 hours of chopping, mixing, saute and frying, were were finally able to enjoy all our hard work. Let me tell you....it was well worth it because the food was DELICIOUS!! Seriously the best food I've had since I've been here, especially the rice and beans! It probably tasted better to me because I actually put time and effort into making a complete meal from scratch (with Marlon's help of course)! Wow, looking at the pictures, makes me hungry all over again!

And sure enough as soon as we sat down to enjoy our meal, the bright, hot sun completely disappeared as the rain started to pour outside.....CRAZY weather!

After we finished eating, Marlon's friend and neighbor, Virginia, came over to teach me how to make pan de coco. You probably remember me raving about this bread from previous blogs. The Garifuna people always sell these sweet rolls on the beaches and around town, and I've been dying to learn how to make it myself!I watched Virginia so closely, that I'm sure she thought I was crazy following her around everywhere and asking her all these questions. Luckily, she was just as patient as Marlon with me, repeating her instructions slowly and clearly. I was surprised to find out how little ingredients were needed. We only used the coconut juice we had prepared before using the fresh coconut from the market, flour, yeast, salt, pepper, and something called "manteca," made from vegetable oil, it has the consistency of play dough, and comes in plastic tubes. The tough part came when we needed to knead the dough. I wanted to help in that department at first, but after Virginia proved to have a lot more arm strength then I did, so she took over, and I was assigned the job to grease the pans with manteca.
I had a hell of a time trying to roll the dough into the perfect little balls Virginia was so effortlessly creating. She laughed and laughed at me until I was able to make at least 6 or 7 decent enough to make it into the pan.
About 30 minutes later.....we had fresh, homemade pan de coco! Yum, Yum!
After all our time the kitchen, the rain started to let up, and Marlon took me on a small tour of his neighborhood. We visited his aunt and uncle who lived nearby, played with some of the kids that lived close by, and went to meet Virgina's daughters, and see where she lived.The picture below shows where Virginia and her husband live. It was a very small, one room building made from wood and tin. The strong winds and rain had ruined a few smaller buildings nearby which looked like an outhouse and a storage room, the tin roof had flown off and was flapping against the front of the building. The recent rain had soaked the entire dirt floor in the room, they had nothing but a mattress and clothes hanging on clotheslines across her bed. I couldn't help but think how cold it would get there at night. There was a slightly larger building nearby, made from stronger material with a concrete foundation (the building to the right). I think that may have been their main house, where her daughters and grand kids live.

Meeting Virginia, you would never guess she lives with so little. She is so friendly and happy always joking around and laughing, that is until she talks about her youngest daughter. She is 29 and has two children. About five years ago, she had a surgery done to remove her appendix. The doctors in Tela did such a horrible job, that she had to go in numerous times after because there were various infections and complications. Months later, she was finally taken to a nicer hospital in one of the bigger cities, San Pedro Sula, where Virginia said the doctors were appalled to see what a horrible surgery the doctors in Tela had performed. Many more tests and procedures had to be done to help cure the numerous infections that had taken over her entire abdomen. Sadly, all these infections eventually lead her daughter to loose complete hearing in both ears. Virginia told me that the doctors in Honduras couldn't do anything more to help her, and that she would have to fly to the US to have a transplant done to restore her hearing, but that would cost almost $50,000 for everything! I felt horrible for her and her family, especially since she just had a baby boy, and Virginia said her daughter cries often, very sad that she'll never be able to hear his voice.
It was only seconds after telling me this story, that Virginia said that she was happy to be blessed with what she did have and that at least they were able to stop the infections before they got even worse. She took Marlon and I to her house, where she introduced me to her two daughters. We ate some of the freshly made pan de coco and talked for a bit. The picture below shows Virginia, playing around on the swing her husband made for their granddaughter, right in front of their house. She was so funny to be around, just like a big kid!I couldn't believe how much I learned in just one day! It was also really nice to meet other people living in Tela, spend a day in a different neighborhood than where Sara and I live, and see a different part of the town that I hadn't before. Overall it was a really fun day, and I hope I have many more chances to take these "classes" before I leave in June! :)