Xunantunich

tortillas

I eat a lot of them, tortillas that is. It's actually strangely empowering to make my own tortillas. I have to remind myself of that fact when I return home from work at 5:00, starving, and realize that I can't eat for another 40 minutes because I have to mix the flour, shortening (who uses shortening anymore?), baking powder, hot water, salt. Kneed it, roll the dough into little balls between my palms, give them each a light coating of oil, then use my fingertips to press each ball into a 8 inch diameter pre-tortilla. Next, the pre-tortilla is transfered onto a flat pan that I forget the Mayan or Spanish name for at the moment. The pan must be very hot otherwise the tortilla will stick but if it's too hot then the tortilla will cook too quickly leaving the thicker sections doughy. Balance. Wait for slight browning, flip it. Not with a spatula but by hand. Finished tortillas are wrapped in a cloth towel and placed in a basket to retain the heat. 1 down, 11 to go. I'm somehow comforted that women have been doing this for centuries. At least with corn rather than flour and over a fire instead of the Acros 4 burner stove that I'm using.

At the moment I'm boiling black beans which is also a process that actually requires more forethought that tortilla creation. Because I want to eat beans for dinner tonight, I had to soak the beans overnight. The water in which they soak turns a deep blue/black that is impenetrable by light. The water must be changed once or twice to prevent the gasiness that we all know beans cause. I think I may try to use the water as a natural dye. The beans must boil for...a while...until they're done. Maybe 30-45 min. Once the beans are done, I have to cook the rice, mix the tomato sauce, cut up vegetables and stuff my eggplant. Gone the days of my instant Indian food in a box and frozen nan. Some days I look forward to the extended cooking experience and then, some days I don't.

I'm reading a fantastic book at the moment "A Natural History of the Senses" by Diane Ackerman. Highly recommended. Influenced by this book, I will now list my favorite sensual (relating to or affecting any of the senses or a sense organ; sensory) experiences here so far:

taste:
sapodillas- a fruit that looks like a potato but is sweet, if I didn't know full well where brown sugar comes from, I'd guess it was extracted from the sapodilla fruit which grows on the sapote tree. However, if you cannot resist the sapodilla and partake in the fruit before ripe, I've been told it will "bind your tongue". I don't want to find out what that feels like so I wait for mine to get nice and soft. The seeds are long, yet thin, and beautifully black. I'm going to string a necklace of sapodilla seeds.

horchata - rice milk sweetened with sugar and spiced with cinnamon
papaya- an old favorite of tropical realms, they simply don't taste as good stateside. Not terrible sweet, more of a mild flavor but the texture and vibrant coral color add to the experience that is eating papaya. High water content but infinitely better than watermelon. I ate a whole papaya in 4 days.

tortillas- see above

nescafe with milo and milk powder- what can I say? nescafe (instant coffee) and I go way back. It is ubiquitous in the developing world and I somehow feel comforted by it. It is familiar and brings back memories of mornings spent in Cameroon, Guyana, and now Belize. Milo- powdered chocolate drink mix- also popular in Guyana. Milk powder- well, it's cheaper than milk straight from the cow, also widespread in the developing world.

jerk- a mysterious marinade. I say mysterious because no one can seem to list for me the spices and herbs used to create this concoction.

that's all I can muster for today and my beans are sufficiently soft.

I'm having problems posting photos, stay tuned.

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