A Week in Guatemala -- Food

Scrambled eggs, fried plantains (a large, sturdy type of banana), refried black beans, a small piece of fresh, white cheese, and a tortilla.  This is what the hotel served for dinner, the "plato tipico" or typical meal/plate.

Two fried eggs, fried plantains, refried black beans, a small piece of white cheese,  some salsa, a piece of bologna-like meat.  The tortillas were in a bowl at the top of the picture.  This is what the hotel served for a typical breakfast.  In reality, the only difference was how you wanted your eggs cooked.  That simplifies things quite a bit, doesn't it?  Imagine how short our grocery lists would be if we served the same things for breakfast and dinner. . . and maybe even lunch :)  

This is called  paches.  It consists of chicken and potatoes that have been steamed/baked inside a banana leaf.  This was my first time to try this dish, and I can assure you it was quite tasty.

Never fear.  We did eat other things at lunch time -- usually hamburgers with "no lechuga, no tomate" (no lettuce and no tomatoes -- you can't risk raw vegetables when you have a gringo stomach).  Of course, we stuck to bottled water or canned/bottled drinks, too.

One of our many funny times came on Thursday when Joe Teal, Steve, our van driver Edwin and I went to a place called Pollo Campero.  It is a popular chain in Guatemala and had the cleanest restroom I found during the whole week.  The waiter told us that they were having a 2 for 1 special on pizzas that night (yay, we can save some money), so Edwin asked how long it would take to cook them (since we had to be at the church pretty quickly).  He came back and said we couldn't have pizza because the ovens weren't turned on.   ???????

So then, Joe said he'd have the 3 chicken strips meal, and the waiter said, "Nobody orders the 3-strip meal."  ?????  So Joe said, "Can I order the 4-strip meal?"  And the waiter said, "Sure."  ???????  

Obviously, something was lost in the translation.  :)