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Eating Habits in
Nicaragua
Eating a Meal, the
Nicaragua way
What does eating a meal in a Nicaraguan manner mean? To answer this
question, one has to know that Nicaraguans’ food is primarily based
on onion, beans and rice. Surprisingly enough (or not), there is a
dish made actually of these three ingredients.
This particular type
of food can be served along with other dishes or one can eat it just
as it is. For instance, our dish prepared from beans, rice and onion
(called “gallo pinto” in Spanish) can be deliciously served along
with salad, fried plantains and cheese, a combination which may look
at least bizarre for a foreigner, but which is, nonetheless, just
another type of fast food in Nicaragua.
Gallo Pinto
In the western parts of Nicaragua, but not only there, many foreign
travelers have had the opportunity to try a certain quesillo, a meal
ranking among the locals’ favorite dishes (especially in Leon and
the areas surrounding this colonial city), prepared from a delicious
tortilla which hides in the middle some hunks of cheese and it is
covered in salsa and sour cream.
Another curious meal, very rapidly done and rapidly eaten, is
baho.
Diced tomatoes, chopped onion, chopped meat and a number of other
chopped ingredients, such as plantains (ripe or not, it does not
matter) and cassava are all combined into baho.
Plantains are
commonly used as ingredients in Nicaraguan food, since they are
extensively cultivated. From cassava, Nicaraguans use the root, but
from this tropical plant flour can be made as well. Nonetheless,
when preparing baho, they use the chopped roots of this plant.
Tortillas, which they use in preparing the delicious quesillos, are
made out of corn. They are also key ingredients in another specific
Nicaraguan dish, namely the nacatamales. Ground corn and sometimes
potatoes are wrapped up in a tortilla and then in a banana leaf and
served as such.
Since Nicaragua is a rather poor country, Nicaraguans stick to
vegetable-based or fruit-based meals. Also, on the coastal lines of
Nicaragua, fish is a common dish. Since many tropical fruits and
other plants are grown in the country without having to pay special
care (the climate is tropical, therefore just what the doctor
ordered for tropical fruits to develop beautifully and deliciously),
they form the basis of the Nicaraguan meals.
Among the most common type of meat, chicken and fish rank as
predominant. Grilled (asada) chicken or fish, marinated chicken or
fish, fried (empanizado) chicken or fish, these are the most regular
ways of cooking chicken and fish. Chicken piripiri is
extraordinarily delicious: the chicken meat is cooked with peppers
and then nicely placed over rice; on top of them all some hot sauce
is added.
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