Last night marked our first meal in our new abode. We are now out of our homestays and in the apartments where we will be living for the year. I am reveling in my newfound freedom. Mainly the freedom from refried beans, an avodaco, stinky cheese and corn tortillas for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Meals in the new apartments are served family style with teams of three cooking for all 14 of the teachers one night every week. Being that it is the first week, my teammates (Marni and Norah), and I wanted to set the bar high. Like scurveyed pirates, we are all vitamin-depleted and on the from three weeks at our homestays. We unanimously decided that the main component of our meal should be vegetables. The "Dream Team," as we call ourselves, planned an elaborate middle eastern themed feast with homemade hummus, a cucumber-tomato salad, rosemary-roasted potatoes and carrots, fresh watermelon, and roasted lemon chicken.
Halfway through shopping for our ingredients, however, the harsh reality of Honduran volunteer life set in. That reality being that we only are allotted 200 lempiras to feed the 14 of us dinner every night. 200 lempiras is the equivalent of $11.11. We were able to buy all of the necessary vegetables, but the chicken needed to feed us all would have cost our whole budgets for the meal. So we bought more potatoes.
Everything ended up tasting delicious. The hummus was unlike anything we had eaten in the past three weeks and the potatoes tasted like thanksgiving. Our teachers left with full bellies and satisfied taste-buds. We even had leftovers. We successfully cooked for 14 people for 88 cents/person. Incidentally, I guess we will all become vegetarians for the year. Your welcome, environment.
that looks awesome. i was going to suggest some vegetable "substitutes," even though you obviously have found more recognizable vegetables.
ReplyDeletethere is always plenty of chayote and calabaza, both of which can be used in a number of different ways. berro (watercress) is also generally available, and is really good stir-fried. finally, with papaya in abundance and very cheap to buy, Thai green papaya salad is also an option. we actually made this while staying on Roatan years ago. it came out great, and most of the ingredients (or approximates) could be readily found. you can find lots of recipes online. (David)
oh, OK, and finally: 1) can you grow your own vegetables? this might make your lempiras stretch farther, although it represents more work. at least some herbs might make things tastier. 2)you can probably forage for wild edible plants, although that could be tricky and potentially dangerous. one plant that is found in bad soil all over (cracks in pavement and sandy patches) is purslane (verdolaga). it's a great sprouts substitute. it might even be sold in the market.
ReplyDeleteand lastly, the seeds from papaya can be crushed to make a peppery salad dressing, or eaten raw. they have a lot of minerals and papain enzyme, which helps your stomach digest the undigestable.