Gastromonia

I know I posted about food when I first arrived to Nica but I think it’s worth mentioning that the food is different up north.  Even through Nica is like the size of Indiana, I was kinda surprised with the change in my food.  First thing to note, back in training the host family’s received twice as much as I’m paying my family now.  So that fact that I’m paying less than $20/month be a factor.

Breakfast: simple and small.  One tortilla with beans or cheese.  Sometimes coffee or refresco (homemade fruit juice).  That’s it.

Lunch: probably the biggest meal.  Two or three tortillas with gallo pinto (rice and beans) rice and beans not mixed together.  Maybe some cheese or potatoes.  An occasional squash type vegetable or avocado.

Dinner: Two tortillas with, yes you guessed it, rice and beans.  I get salt queso a lot or a very basic onion and cilantro soup.

As you may have noticed, I’ve become a vegetarian.  Not by choice mind you.  I’m still a pretty enthusiastic meat eater.  I’m assuming it’s because meat is expensive.  I know it’s not because they don’t like it—they prepared meat for lunch and dinner every day when I visited last month.  So I guess now that they know I’m living here for a while they’re done trying to impress me.  Smart and thrifty.

Another important point, TORTILLAS.  In the past week I have eaten well over 40 tortillas and I don’t know how I ever lived without them.  Back in Masaya, almost no one eats tortillas.  In place of tortillas they would eat mountains of flour based bread products.  And guess what doesn’t exist up north?  Winner, BREAD.  There’s no happy medium.  Honestly, I’m ok with it.  Since ALL of the rice that I eat is the white variety, the corn tortillas are my only source of whole grains.