Just a brief aside about how amazing the food is here.
Semiweekly, a bus from Barillas takes a gaggle of us into Usulután for shopping and various business like haircuts and doctor visits. The main place for grocery shopping is a sprawling open air market in the streets to the east of the town center. Vendors clog both sides selling everything from jocote, pineapple, and green coffee to technicolor chicks, rat poison, and bootleg flicks.
One of my favorite stalls is the herb lady or, as Phillip calls her, the witch doctor. Women, often with their families, come to her in a constant stream asking how to cure a headache or cramps or heatstroke. She puts together a large bag of herbs and explains how to prepare them for treatment. It's remarkable to watch. One morning while waiting to buy some culinary herbs, I spent about 15 minutes translating for the boys. It's really a different world.
The herbs you buy from her are completely different from the sawdust that you buy in the little vials in the supermarket. These are large leaves, still attached to the stalk or stem. To use them in food, I need to get rid of the woody bits and mince them by hand. (We got rid of our spice mill before embarking.) Like many things here, it's a lot more time-consuming than I'm used to from my Silicon Valley life, but the results are worth it. The oregano is so flavorful. I use about a quarter of what I normally would to the same effect. This is the norm, not the exception.
No doubt, there are things we miss, like dry-aged beef, but cooking here is a delightful adventure. If we ever go back, I'm going to be sad to leave it behind.
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