HONDURAS & NICARAGUA.

We basically went through these two countries fast. You may wonder why, easy… Tired of being chased by criminals and finding fake police. However, we had to spend a night in Honduras and a night in Nicaragua and found couple of things we can add to the Road Sandwich.

Beer is always a great meal or a great part of the meal. Honduras produces beer “Imperial”, tasty and refreshing, especially after a long day of riding and BS. The price is $30 Lempiras which is equivalent to about $1.57 Canadian dollars. 1 Canadian dollar = 19-20 Lempiras.

We also had a meal way out of our budget but at that time at night and under the circumstances we were, we had to find a safe place. The good thing is that we had great company… Dani… thanks so much for the days spent with us…
This meal cost us 150 Lempiras and supposed to be a typical meal… we shared one and it was not fantastic but was good.

Nicaragua’s beer was deserved: Victoria. We saved some money from those stops where we were asked to “pay” fees to fake police. There is an easy way to avoid this and it is by not breaking any rules and knowing what should and should not be paid for, if there is not receipt is probably wrong…
30 Cordobas per beer, equivalent to about $1.3 Canadian dollars. 1 Canadian dollar = 22-23 Cordobas.

EL SALVADOR.

Again, after an exhaustive day the first thing we found is beer, “Regia” beer. Tastes fine and it is pretty inexpensive. Let me tell you, in El Salvador they use American dollars as currency since 2001. So a six pack costs $3.9 USD.

Second thing we found really delicious and inexpensive was “Pupusas”. Its name comes from the Nahuatl “Pupushahua” which means stuffed tortilla. This is the Salvadorian dish par excellence. These are corn or rice tortillas stuffed with pork, beans, cheese, chicken, etc. They are served with a special pickled cabbage on the side and a tomato-based sauce. They are so popular that you can find them anywhere at any time. You can have a pupusa for $0.40-$0.75 USD. Accompany this with a milk shake of real frozen fruit for $1 USD each shake.

We also found cookies and bread, the sweats… those sweats. It will take me two days riding to get rid of the unnecessary stuff. A bag of cookies can be found for $1-$1.5 USD, but they are so delicious and well made. You can get 6 pieces of delicious bread for $1 USD.

A Mexican torta can be found here for $3 USD… Delicious with pastor meat and hot sauce. Brian’s favourite dish so far.

GUATEMALA.

We are excited about trying what Guatemala produces and as long as they have hot peppers we should be ok. Hot peppers keep us from getting sick.

First thing we found is beer, “Gallo” beer. Tastes more like a low profile American beer but it will do… It is also expensive in comparison to Mexico of course. A “Gallo” beer (small can) goes from 8-9 Quetzales, 7 Quetzales = 1 Canadian dollar or 1 Quetzal = 1.55 Mexican pesos, that sucks!!! I never thought Mexican Money would be worth less than Guatemalan Money. Oh well, it is what it is… And of course at the border you get a lower exchange rate that you could at a proper exchange place.

Second thing we found very peculiar is tortillas. Tortillas are very small and thick and the “Tortillerías” are places where people make tortillas by hand rather than machines. You can buy 5 tortillas for 1 Quetzal.

We made some “molletes” which is basically a bolillo with beans, cheese on top and pico de gallo (in this case without cilantro). Bolillos in Guatemala are called “pirujos” which in Mexico this word means male prostitute. Pirujos go from 0.5-1 Quetzales.

We had a typical Guatemalan breakfast, it was awesome!!! For 24 Quetzales we got: fruit, beans, cheese, eggs and chapin coffee. Chapin coffee is a watered down coffee and if you want to upgrade for a real coffee you have to pay extra, sorry I did not ask how much extra but I did not care because we wanted to try what Guatemalans normally consume. The owner of the restaurant is German and let me tell you, there are lots of Europeans down here, I can see why… Guatemala is very pretty!!!

We cooked some tortas con huevo (tortas with eggs) and used up all the little bits we had.
Ingredients:
Pirujos
Boiled eggs
Chiapas cheese
Tomatoe
Avocado
Onion
Hot sauce

Preparation:
1) Add the Chiapas cheese to the pirujo and then the eggs in slices.
2) Add some avocado, tomatoe and onion.
3) Add hot sauce of your preference and enjoy.

The treasures of Chiapas!!!

We found few fantastic things in Chiapas.

One of them is Tasajo, tasty meat served with rice and beans. It is simply cooked on the grill and even though it is a bit chewy it is different than anywhere in Mexico.

Chiapas cheese was the condiment that made a regular simple pasta one that you have to lick your fingers.

Coffee in Chiapas is awesome, I have to say AWESOME… Eduardo invited us a piece of 5 Chocolates cake… Thanks Eduardo…

Last dishes we really enjoyed here cooked by us, were a Canadian style treasure… We called it:

Speedy Mendoza.
Why? Because he was fast…

Ingredients:
Marinated pork ribs from Chiapas
Broccoli
Potatoes
Avocados
Onions
Oil
Tajin lemon zest
Salt

Preparation:
1) Panfry the marinated pork ribs.
2) Dice onions and add them to the pan where the pork ribs are cooking until brown, then remove and put them to the side.
3) Slice potatoes into fries, boil them lightly, drain excess water and fry. Once crispy season the fries with Tajin lemon zest and salt to taste. Add onions.
4) Blanch broccoli.
5) Serve pork ribs with broccoli, avocado and potatoes.
6) Enjoy with dreams of beer if you happen not to have one like us!!!

And,

Arroz Chiapaneco.
Why? Because we added Chiapas cheese…

Ingredients:
Chiapas cheese
Rice
Plantains
Tomatoes
Onion
Knorr chicken broth
Salt

Preparation:
1) Soak the rice overnight for easy cooking the next day.
2) Roast the rice until brown. Meanwhile blend 2 tomatoes with a Knorr square of chicken broth, a bit of onion and a little bit of water, put this aside.
3) Once the rice is brown add the tomatoe mix and salt to taste.
4) Let the tomatoe mix boil checking that the flame is low so it can cook the rice properly, until soft.
5) Now, cook the plantains as easy as cutting them in slices and frying them.
6) Once fry put them on top of the rice and add as much Chiapas cheese as you like…

Never thought!!!

Mangoes… mangos in Spanish…
Delicious mangoes you can eat in Mexico and we did. Diarrhea???, no way Jose.

Mojarra.
A type of fish found in the area of Veracruz. Brian was initially very happy about it but later on he got sick… Sorry Brian, I have the stomach of a donkey so could not understand why you got sick. It could very well be that the fish you ate was a bit angry!!!

Bloody meal…
Moronga, rellena, or morcilla is a sausage made of pig's blood. It is found in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Central America and Mexican cuisine. Spices, herbs (such as ruda, oregano, and mint), onions and chile peppers are added and then boiled in the pig's intestines for several hours. It is served in a sauce, either "chile rojo" or "chile verde". Considered a delicacy, it is also served in Mexico as a filling in gorditas after it has been pan-fried with fresh onions and jalapeño peppers.
I never thought that animal blood should be eaten, but I guess I should not think and just appreciate it… as long as nothing is wasted…

Qué más?

What else have we eaten? Lately we had a wonderful dish called Pozole. Gabriel’s mom makes the best pozole.
I asked Gabriel’s wife (Vicky) to gather some information for me and she did…

Ingredients:
2 kg of hominy-precooked (maize kernels specifically for pozole and other traditional Mexican dishes)
1 kg pork
1 kg chicken (2 chicken breasts, 3 necks)
100 gr of “guajillo” pepper
100 gr of “comapeño” pepper
50 gr of “árbol” pepper
Garlic
Vinegar
Thyme

Preparation:
Secret preparation of Gabriel’s mom.
When serving you can add diced radishes and lettuce…

Basically you make a big pot for about $600.0 for 20 people…

Headquarters and Tucson Tony’s Kitchen… also some discoveries.

In this part of the blog I will not indicate cost, even though we are keeping our food budget under control we have a guest with us and together we are buying the ingredients we need to make most of our meals

Café La Parroquia (in front of the Malecón).
This coffee served in Veracruz Port is delicious and exciting. You will not get hot milk poured in your glass, of course after you have got concentrated coffee from an Italian machine, unless you make noise with the spoon by hitting the glass to call the waiter. How can we miss noise in this activity?, everything is quite noisy here but at least this is exciting!!!



Pizza Chuey.
This pizza recipe comes from Eating for Energy without deprivation THE 80-20 COOKBOOK from Patricia Chuey, a friend of us. We had to change the recipe slightly due to the fact that we could not find all the ingredients indicated in the recipe. The results were fantastic and we had a great evening, a healthy pizza is always good and to be honest cooking is much more rewarding than buying prepared food. Not only that, but cooking brings a lot of interaction and peace at the same time for friends. If you don’t have the book I have from Patricia Chuey I would recommend acquiring this valuable tool.





Wonton Soup.
Perhaps is not the most difficult dish in the world but it is certainly time consuming. We made this dish at our friends’ house and had an entertaining evening full of joy and delicious food, it took hours to complete, and we ended up having dinner at 11pm.
The best part of the soup for me was the watercress (in Spanish berros), I never enjoyed berros so much…




Heineken.
Guess who got to try a beer out of the first batch of Heineken produced in Mexico? Yes I did. I had a fantastic meal, I consider a beer a full meal sometimes. We visited Cerveceria Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma in Orizaba as part of Brian’s Spanish class, had a tour and got to taste some beer. Why Heineken? Because this beer is going to be produced in this factory.
Delicious!!!



Restaurant La Palma.
My uncle Fernando recommended this restaurant, it is a little shack on the side of the road to Coscomatepec. Family operated business is run with pride and love. Food is fantastic and economical, what kind of food? Seafood. Weird but truth, some of the best food I have had and it is not served in the Coast???
The tostada is called Tostada de cazón; cazón is a small shark, the meat is cooked with some spices and put onto this big tortilla chips…
I am sure Tony enjoyed the meal and I enjoy when others enjoy… Uncle Fernando was right!!!





NO NAME RESTAURANT.
Yes, no name restaurant. My cousin Rosy invited us for lunch to this restaurant owned by a friend of hers somewhere close to Cordoba, it only opens on Fridays and it only offers pork. The owners not only raise pork but they utilize everything from them. We had: brain tacos (of course we found that out after we had eaten them), guisado de puerco and chicharrón (pork fried skin). Everything was delicious and spicy to the point that Tony made the mistake of eating some hot peppers as if they were water and ended up with a red face and almost choking.





Restaurant El Manguito.
This is my favourite restaurant in Cordoba for several reasons, not only the service is great but the prices are reasonable and food is really tasty. It has been a family operated business for several years and they offer authentic Mexican food. I prefer a special BBQ chicken wrapped in banana leaves, but unfortunately when we took Tony there they had no more chickens left, however we ended up having another great dish: a meat platter with guacamole, refried beans, hand made tortillas, spicy sauce and others. I forgot to tell you that as an appetizer the restaurant offers potato tacos and little picaditas at not cost.
Everything you find in the menu is excellent and if not, you just talk to Martita and she will ensure you have a good experience.