la comida - the food

It´s been requested that I write a bit more about the food here, perhaps b-c the descriptions of my weekends contain an inordinate amount of references to fabulous American fast food. I don´t mind the food here that much, it´s just that I don´t enjoy eating during the week. It´s something we have to do, and we don´t get any choice in what we´re eating at all. So, like it or not, I have corn flakes with bananas and raisins for breakfast. Lunch varies, today it was fried fish with chinese-style noodles and a few vegetables, and a salad of lettuce and tomatoes. Sometimes it´s better, sometimes it´s worse, but it´s rarely enjoyable. Dinner has recently been baleadas, I think because they´re cheap and the family is now feeding four volunteers (sometimes five because Rachel´s boyfriend is here too). I like baleadas - grilled flat tortillas that you fill with beans, egg, various cheeses and as many vegetables as possible and then fold in half to eat (like tacos back home). Tacos here are different - they´re rolled up almost like a tiny burrito, filled with corn meal and sometimes chicken, and topped with a delicious sauce and shredded cabbage and a slice of tomato and cucumber. Enchiladas here are good too - a smaller, thicker tortilla laid flat and covered with beef, and then that sauce and cabbage mixture again. We sometimes treat ourselves to a meal out here in Ocotepeque, b-c 2 tacos would only cost about $1, but we try not to spend money on food here when there´s so much available for free. Sunday nights are the exception - after a big weekend travelling, Kelly and I have a tradition of splurging (47 lemps, about $2.50) on the best hamburgers and licuados in town. And the rest of the weekends, anything goes, and I love my American fast food - Pizza Hut, Wendy´s, Burger King, Subway, Quizno´s - it´s always so exciting to find something that I know will be good and will have tastes I´m familiar with and reminds me of home.

Before you ask, I have no idea if I´ll still eat meat when I go back to the States, or whether I´ll continue to eat at Wendy´s and other places I used to avoid. I try not to think about things like that and instead enjoy the present :)