Food.

“What is the food like in Nicaragua?” Good. It’s really good.

Back in June we had a potluck dinner and service at our church that many of you attended; we thought it would be nice to make some traditional Nica food. The “national” food according to Google, was “gallo pinto,” or “painted rooster.” It is red beans and rice, cooked separately and then fried up together. We tried to make a sextuple batch, and we could tell that something had gone wrong. It turned into this giant pot of mush. One friend from church said he couldn’t eat it because it looked exactly like prison food. Ouch!

It was a relief to come here and enjoy REAL gallo pinto, which is truly the national food (go, Google!). The rice and beans dish is eaten often, many times for every meal of the day. We don’t eat it for breakfast; usually just cereal or oatmeal, and of course a mug or two of good, locally-grown coffee (buy Nicaraguan coffee, readers! It is an important export here!). On Saturdays, we occasionally eat the Nacatamal, which is corn meal, meat, potatoes, and veggies wrapped in a banana leaf and boiled. They are huge, and I’m not quite used to them as a breakfast food. Henry loves them!

Henry, Mae, and Andrew buy school lunch every day, which costs C$40, or about $1.75. No Gordon Foods or Sysco mass produced food here. . .our school doesn’t even have a large fridge or freezer! It is all prepared at school that day. Lunches are almost always rice, a meat of some kind, plantain of some kind (fried, in chips, mashed and fried. . .my fav part of the meal), and some type of salad or cooked vegetable. Mondays is “sopa” day for staff and pizza for kids. . .traditional in Nicaragua to eat soup on Mondays. You eat soup here, however, with a knife and a fork. . .HUGE chunks of meat and whole vegetables make for a VERY filling meal!

Some other favorite foods here: FRUIT! We buy fruit and vegetables from roadside stands, and enjoy carrots the size of our forearm, sweet white pineapples, bright red dragon fruit (pitaya), mimones (little fruits you squeeze in to your mouth, suck off the pulp, and spit out the seed), and of course mangoes, avocados, watermelon, etc. We miss our Michigan berries and apples here. . .you can buy ‘em at some stores. . .but for A LOT of money. So we settle for the local most of the time, which is incredible! We also love Nicaraguan tacos. . .shredded chicken in a corn tortilla, rolled up and fried, served with a cabbage coleslaw and sour cream. YUM.

We eat plenty of spaghetti and cereal and PB and J sandwiches and pancakes and ice cream and raamen noodles and mac and cheese, too. . .the normal stuff is actually fairly easy to find and buy here. But we’re so excited to enjoy the comida Nicaraguense whenever we can, and thankful for kids who are okay eating most anything! Most of all, we’re thankful for plenty of food. It is a gift to be able to eat our fill three times daily in a country where that isn’t always the case.