Who likes food?

I love food! It is a very important part of life in Guatemala from selling vegetables, fruits and meat in the market to the role that some types of foods play in the daily lives of Mayans!

The typical meal here consists of rice, beans, chimole (tomato sauce), normally some type of meat, and tortillas! No matter what you are eating, could even be pizza, tortillas will be served with it! During training, I would eat cornflakes or pancakes for breakfast, along with fruit. For lunch I would have rice with some meat and tortillas or I would have some kind of soup! My favorite kind of soup is called Pepan! It have all kinds of vegetables, meat and a lot of different spices, it is very delicious. For dinner I would have eggs and beans or some kind of pasta, dinner was the smallest meal of the day while lunch was the biggest! What is your biggest meal of the day?

Tortillas are made from corn here in San Martin. Many families in the aldea grow their own corn to make the tortillas. After the corn has been picked they take the husk off and lay the corn out to dry! After it is done drying they take all the kernels off and take them to a “molina,” which is a machine that grinds the corn and mixes it with water to make a “masa,” or mixture! This mixture is what they make tortillas with. They take a small hand full, roll it into a ball and then flip it between their hands to make a small, pancake like tortilla! The hot off the “plancha,” or cooking surface are the best!

There are also different colors of tortillas; there are yellow, black, red and white tortillas! The different colors come from the different colors of the corn! The four different colors of the corn represent different parts of a person. The Mayans believe that they were made from the corn and that each color made up a different part, the blood, the skin, the hair and the eyes!

Everyone that lives in an aldea grows lots of different kinds of food. They grow corn, beans, lots of vegetables and in many places fruits because it is really warm here! Lots of families eat most of the food they grow but they also sell it in the market on Thursdays and Sundays, which are the two days that the main market is open! There is always people selling vegetables and fruits everyday of the week but those two days there are tons of people!

Do you think that you would like the food here in Guatemala?