Food resilience and food freedom, is something we seriously assess when we are looking to live in a country long term.
What does the country produce? Does it have a short robust food chain? How much is imported? What could we grow here and do we have access to water?
What Is A “Food Funk”?
We have a saying in our family, when we are craving a dish or something really delicious to satisfy our tastebuds… we call it a “food funk”.
Adam generally has the most food funks in the family. The telltale signs are intense cupboard/fridge searching (to no avail) and big sighs; it’s as if his taste buds have taken over his mind and are determined to find a taste sensation. We also experienced food funks when we lived in the Far North of NZ, as we had to drive at least 45 minutes to find a good restaurant/cafe.
Guatemala – Tortilla & Beans
In Guatemala we were 5 1/2 hours drive from Guatemala City. It was a rural town that was mainly focused on cattle & corn. It was a shock to our Western taste buds, no cafe in sight, no amazing restaurants, not even a glass of wine! No supermarkets, only small “tiendas” that all sold the same thing and only the basics.
What was also shocking was the amount of “junk food” for sale – all over-packaged and imported from the US. Guatemala has a serious rubbish problem and you can see why!
The staple meal of the average Guatemalan is eggs, tortillas, beans, cheese, and fried plantain. This is quite enchanting for the first couple of meals, but the thought of eating this for every meal (as many of the locals did) created many a food funk.
Luckily, local food resilience & food freedom is alive & well all over Guatemala. In our town, there was an amazing market with fresh fruit & vegetables available every day. Saturday was the big market day. In the surrounding hills there were many Mayan villages; the villagers would come to town to sell their homegrown wares and stock up on supplies for the week.
El Salvador – Home Of The Pupusa
One of the food highlights of our journey to Nicaragua was the discovery of the delicious pupusa!
These delicious stuffed flatbreads are the national dish of El Salvador (Honduras lays claim to them as well) and are available at local pupuseria everywhere. Made from corn or rice flour, stuffed with various combinations of meat, cheese, vegetables, and beans. They are cooked until golden brown on a hot griddle. Pupusa’s are served with curtido (spicy fermented cabbage slaw) and tomato salsa.
We really missed the pupusa’s when we left El Salvador. We have been making them at home ever since; as they are a great gluten-free snack. Here’s the recipe we have been using for pupusa
Nicaragua – Gallo Pinto Land
One of the most popular, traditional Nicaraguan dishes is called Gallo pinto and is a twist on the Guatemalan bean concept. Gallo pinto means “spotted rooster” which describes the speckled appearance of the dark beans against the white rice. It is pretty much the main companion of most Nicaraguan meals.
We spent about four months living in Granada, where there is an array of restaurants and bars and plenty of food options and price variations. Many of the expat/tourist restaurants have their menus in USD – a sure sign that they are charging top dollar. For our squeaky little NZD, this made it pretty pricey, so we tended to keep the frequenting of these places to a minimum.
Food Freedom
One of the things we love about Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Paraguay is the accessibility to local food.
On any given day, we are usually within walking distance of markets & street stalls where we can buy fresh fruit, vegetables, and cooked food. Anyone can set up a stall at the front of their house and sell their home-prepared goodies. Not a food inspector in sight, and no food license is required.
This has to be the ultimate in food freedom.
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It’s essentially a summary of all the most important lessons we learnt from our moving journey!
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