Honduras - December 22nd 2006

It was a surprisingly balmy evening last Friday, December 22nd: a little too warm for Christmas if you ask me, then again, the weather has been really bizarre in the last few weeks (months? Years??)… Reports were coming from everywhere in the US and Europe that it was simply a little too warm for December. Global warming? Maybe. Certainly for those of us that went to see “An Inconvenient Truth”, this warm weather is a bit disconcerting at best, scary to say the truth. I had even heard on the news that people all over Europe were not Christmas shopping as it was simply too warm to be Christmas – to the Italians and the Brits that I know, any glimpse of the sun is enough reason to pop at the park or the beach and sunbathe so maybe someone should have set up a Christmas store in the middle of Hyde Park or in Viareggio to make the most of the holiday spirit.

I had the day off, at Coke they always give us the day before Christmas off probably to make sure we have enough time to either do the last bit of Christmas shopping or to make sure we have time to prepare a humongous Christmas dinner. This way, I had lots of time to prepare my Honduran dinner. I had found many appetizing recipes that I decided to have more variety in the menu this time round; after all at Christmas time it is more than appropriate to eat a lot. Thank God for January and the New Years’ resolutions (mine has always been since the age of 11, to lose weight).

On Friday morning, whilst shopping for last minute bits and bobs I found a set of Christmas crackers at half price at World Market and figured that it would have been fun to give a little of a festive flavor to a Latin American dinner – albeit a bit of an English Christmas flavor. I always loved the cracker tradition and I figured so would my guests. Besides, enough wine and rum would make everyone want to sit at a dinner table wearing a paper crown, right? For those who don’t know, a Christmas cracker is a cardboard tube wrapped in a colorful and decorated twist of paper, in the shape of a large sweet-wrapper. The cracker is pulled by two people until it splits unevenly with a loud pop. Inside the cracker there’s usually a paper crown – to be worn during dinner – a joke (that only those really really accustomed to British humor find funny – or those really really drunk) and some toy or other normally useless thing.

Although it was a warm evening, I decided to prepare a hot welcome drink that was really yummy! It was made of marinated pineapples with spices and then mixed with a large quantity of spiced rum. It had a really murky color (think dirty water) but it really was good. I loved it and so did the guests. Dan came with a friend, Chris who despite having had surgery to remove a wisdom tooth was great company. Joanne came after we begged her to show up (she called to say she wasn’t going to make it) so it was 5 of us at dinner.

Eric was great help in the kitchen – I needed help as I was making several dishes – and he made the beef and the soup whilst I prepared the ceviche, the pie and the chicken.

Conch, seems to be a regular staple in Honduran cuisine and I was able to find it fresh at the Buford Highway farmers market. It’s a little pricey but it’s quite tasty. I made a ceviche and a soup based on conch. We’re still debating on the pronounciation: is it conch (pronounced like ch of cherry) or conch (pronounced like the K of kerry?). Eric and Chris said it’s with K, Dan and I with ch: I have a hunch that Eric and Chris might be right but since it was a Latin dinner, I think we were all correct. Dan and I chose the foreign pronunciation.

The ceviche was not cooked in the conventional way (meaning not with heat) but rather it was cooked by leaving it to mull in lime juice. Apparently the acid in the lime have the effect of cooking the fish. I have to say that when I followed the recipe, the result was a little bland so I’ve doubled the amount of lime juice, olive oil and salt. Much better. We ate the ceviche with corn chips.

The soup was nice but a little too liquid for me. I prefer it creamy. It had a lot of coconut milk and quite a bite to it – you could feel it right at the back of your throat.

Although I thought the beef would have been the best part, it turned out to be quite plain. I guess, it tasted nice but it was not a special flavor. Moreover the handmade tortilla I bought at the farmers market turned out to be really brittle and therefore the tacos we made were all quite messy.

The chicken was a little undercooked, despite having been in the oven for a long time. I guess that because it was cooking under a thick layer of mango sauce, it needed higher temperatures (the problem with getting recipes out of the web is that they’re never quite complete!). So I ended up serving only the breast meat which was really really moist – unfortunately I really overcooked (ok, burned) the plantains so they weren’t that tasty really… Shame as I discovered that I love plantains.

The real surprise was the dessert: yucca pie – yucca is a kind of root vegetable that when grated reminded me of the consistency of coconut although it really doesn’t taste like it at all. The recipe called for 2 cups of grated yucca mixed with a ridiculous amount of butter, sugar, flour, coconut milk and spices. I guess it was too buttery not to be absolutely delicious. But really, I could feel my arteries clogging with every bite. Dangerous eating! Again, thank God for January and the new years’ resolutions….

But that’s still a week away… meanwhile, the Chinese leftover dinner from last night is in the fridge, the Christmas cookies still plentiful and other dinners with friends during the week still planned. I just have to pray for my jeans to stretch one more inch before plunging into a detox plan.

Here’s the Honduran menu with the score:

Welcome Drink
Honduran Ponche de Pina (Hot Pineapple Punch) 7.5

Appetizers
Ceiba Conch Ceviche Served with tortilla chips 7.5
Sopa de Caracol 8.6

Main Courses
San Pedro Sula Simmered Beef served with warm corn tortillas 5.5
Bay Island Mango Glazed Chicken 7
Fried Plantains 4.3

Dessert
Yucca Pie 8.8

Next dinner: India. I foresee a wonderful meal… Stay tuned!