For many families, the day in Honduras starts with preparing a whole pile of tortillas. You eat them as a side dish with every meal. This is also the case for breakfast, which is quite substantial with beans and eggs.
If you lived here, you would likely have a sibling or two. As a boy you would be called Hugo, Daniel, Pablo or Carlos Roberto and as a girl maybe María Elena, Sofía, Olga or Carla. Your father could be Juan Carlos or José Luis and your mother María Elena or Reina Isabel. Your last name could be López, García or Rodríguez, as these are the most common surnames in Honduras.
Maybe you would live and collect rubbish in a corrugated iron estate on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa. Or your family would live in a cottage in the country. With a little more luck, your family would be wealthy and have a home. To protect it from raids, there would be a large wall with barbed wire around it.
Girls almost always wear dresses and boys wear trousers. The poor children don’t have many toys. Football is popular with the boys. It is also a lot of fun to play hide and seek.
Eating in Honduras
What do you eat in Honduras?
Corn, rice and (red) beans are the staple foods in Honduras – just like in neighboring countries. Corn and beans were already main components of the diet of the indigenous peoples. In addition, there were influences from Europe with the Spanish conquest, on the Caribbean coast also from the Garifuna.
Local fruits such as pineapples, papayas, melons, mangoes, passion fruits and bananas are also eaten a lot.
Tortillas and pupusas
Tortillas – flat cakes made from cornmeal and water – are part of almost every meal. It can be eaten as a side dish or rolled up with a filling.
One also likes to eat pupusas, which are considered a national dish in El Slavador. Pupusas are thicker tortillas that are filled with sausage or cheese before baking.
Baleadas
Even more typical of Honduras, however, are the baleadas, which are served in many restaurants and offered at markets. These are flat cakes made from wheat flour that are served filled and half-folded. The filling consists of bean puree (made from red beans), sour cream (called mantequilla, which actually means butter) and crumbled cheese. You can also add scrambled eggs, plantains, minced meat or sausages. AlsoChirmol, a salad made from tomatoes, onions, paprika, pepper, salt, and lemon juice, is popular as a filling. A recipe for baleadas with Chirmol can be found in the participation tip !
Tamales or Nacatamales
Tamales are served in corn or banana leaves. The fillings consist of a corn dough on which meat or cheese is placed. One likes to eat a sweet variant with sour cream called Tamalitos de Elote. In many places in Honduras the tamales are called nacatamales. They are rolled into banana leaves and shaped like pillows.
Other typical foods
One likes to eat grilled meat (Carneada, generally also Carne Asada) – especially in good company. Chirmol also tastes good with it, as well as with Yuca con chicharrón. This is soft-boiled cassava. There is also cabbage and pork (chicharrón). Fried fish or chicken with rice are also often on the menu.
Breakfast in Honduran
A typical breakfast in Honduras? That turns out solid! These include tortillas with pureed beans (frijoles), scrambled or fried eggs, avocado and sometimes sliced fried plantains. In the photo you can see a variant with a piece of bread. If you get yourself something to have breakfast on the way, you can buy a baleada or a tamale at a street stall.
Soups
People like to eat soups. Bean soup is particularly popular. Olla is made from beef broth, pumpkin, corn and cassava and other vegetables. The Sopa de Mondongo is made with beef offal, the Sopa de Caracol with giant sea snails. They are cooked in coconut milk. Plantains, cassava, coriander, and cabbage are common ingredients in soups.
Starter: Anafre
A popular starter is Anafre. In a clay pot, glowing pieces of charcoal melt pieces of cheese in bean puree. You eat it with tostadas, crispy fried tortilla pieces.
What to drink
As in the other Central American countries, people like to drink a horchata, a cool, soft drink according to agooddir. In the border regions to El Salvador, people also like atoles, especially the Atol shuco version, or Chuco for short. It is made from fermented corn, water, salt and the spice alguashte. Alguashte is made from the seeds of a type of pumpkin. The adults like to drink coffee too.
Garifuna’s kitchen
Many Garifuna, descendants of black slaves and Caribs live on the Caribbean coast. They particularly like to cook with coconut milk or desiccated coconut. That was adopted across the country. The Garifuna also like flat cakes, but make them from cassava. They are called Casabe.
