Food

In honor of Thanksgiving we bring you

Amy and Becks foody awards thus far

Best things you cant get in the states: 1. Naca Tamales-Oh so good corn meal, meat, rice, corn and who knows what else all wrapped up in a banana leaf, torture because you can only find these things on holidays or on weekends in the big cities. I'm telling you with this recipe Chevy's could take over the planet 2. Cacao- chocolaty milk with a cinnamony twist usually served on ice. (In Nicaragua we stayed one night on an organic self sufficient farm and the Cacao we had there was so good I literally almost started crying) 3. Frescas- anything remotely resembling a fruit put in a blender with either water or milk and served at every meal. We are so buying a blender when we get back!
Honorable mention goes to Gallo Pinto that beans and rice staple that is so tasty that Nicaragua and Costa Rica are currently engaged in a fight to see who can claim it as their national dish. Very tasty but almost too simple to award "dish" status and over-utilized to be sure! (And for the record Julia from Orosi still makes the best Gallo Pinto that we could find-Sorry Nicaragua)


In the I don't know why they eat that when they have tamales category:
The national dish Nicaragua: boiled yucca served on a banana leaf (great so far) topped with a kimchi type of cabbage salad thing with (wait for it) fried pork skin. Four tourists sat down to eat and one Nicaraguan boy walked away with four portions of fried pig skin for lunch.

Strangest meal so far: And the winner goes to Luz Maria our Costa Rican homestay mother with a breakfast of jam, cheese and margarine sandwhiches (not as bad as you would think!) Coming in a close second however, Luz Maria again while it was apparent in her eyes a proper meal consisted of beans, rice plus the fried group once served us Chinese style fried rice plus beans plus potato chips and fried plantain all part of a balanced meal. Honorable mention in this category goes to one of our Bed and Breakfasts in Buenos Aries that for "breakfast" offered cracker packages with caramel. I have to file this one under surprisingly good.

Things I fear: The meat section in any Argentinian market. These undoubtably contain parts of animals I have only seen in a scientific context or on CSI. Other things I fear- the menus at any traditional Argentinian Parrilla (or grill) which has all of these weird parts on the animal on the menu. A typical menu will have about 11 different animal parts on it ready to be grilled for you. yum. The scary thing is that we keep forgetting to bring our dictionary with us when we out. I guess at heat we are just like any traditional American we want our brains, livers, intestine and tongues where any dignified person wants them in our hamburgers!