On February 20, I started my 100 New Foods in 100 Days project, and at that time I thought it would be easy because I was traveling in a foreign country. Well, I spent 166 days traveling in Mexico and Guatemala, and only recorded 52 new foods on this blog. Does that mean I didn’t eat much? Hell no! It’s just that the original plan was not so easy to follow:
(1) vegetarian options are limited in Central America, so I ate the same things over and over (see: rica quesadilla)
(2) i’m a bit camera shy. maybe i didn’t want people to know i had a $150 camera on me. maybe i didn’t want to draw more attention to the blonde white girl traveling alone. maybe i didn’t want to play the part of a trigger-happy tourist. for whatever reason, some new foods just went undocumented.
(3) an easy option would have been to try the hundreds of different dulces (desserts) available, but gaining weight was not one of my objectives
(4) food costs money, and this backpacker was on a tight budget. so i often just had eggs or leftovers or mangos and called it a meal.
(5) i made huevos rancheros probably 20 times, and while there are slight variations depending on what ingredients i had, that becomes a boring blog.
So without any further lame excuses, here is the final installment of my New Foods Project:
New Food #42: Tostados con frijolitos y queso duro. Fried tortilla with refried beans and cheese crumbles, topped with hot salsa. Like a super nacho. 
New Food #43. Enchiladas. If the picture above is a super nacho, then this is a super grande muy especial nacho. This is a very typical Guatemalan food, with one twist: carne de soya rather than pork or chicken or beef. All the other toppings are traditional: a lettuce leaf, a mixture of pickled cabbage, onions and carrots, soy meat, raw sweet onions, cilantro, hard-boiled egg and cheese crumbles. 
New Food #44. Sopa de pepino. Cucumber soup. And it’s not a cold cucumber soup, which is the only kind I’d ever heard of. The cucumbers took on the flavors of the soup itself and resembled more of a mild pickle in the end. All the other veggies make this a power-packed delight. And, yep, that’s a Christmas plate and a pretty wild tablecloth print. I love how casual everything is in Latin America, where the devil is not in the details, but he could be your dinner date. 
New Food #45. Tacos Fritos con queso. Fried tacos with cheese. Road snack at the border between Guatemala and Mexico. I love the little baggie of salsa and shredded cabbage. 
New Food #46. Enchiladas de huevos con salsa coloradita. Egg enchiladas with red salsa. Sort of a variation of huevos rancheros only instead of a sunny-side up egg on top of a fried tortilla, they’re scrambled and tucked into a folded fried tortilla. Both call for salsa poured over everything, and that gets me every time. Yum. 
New Food #47. Sopa de calabacitas y elotes. Soup with little squashes and corn. The corn really makes this soup. Cook the corn in salted water with fresh herbs, then use this water for the soup stock. Pureed tomatoes make it a red broth. 
New Food #48. Empanadas. Made these with extra flour tortilla dough (which was part corn flour) and stuffed them with queso fundido or string cheese. Then they were topped with a mixture of finely chopped carrots, onions, tomatoes and cilantro. 
New Food #49. Tamarindo dulce. A little spoonful of tamarind taffy for a peso. 
New Food #50. Tlayuda de Oaxaca. Could be translated as a giant quesadilla, typical of Oaxaca. You’d see flat-top grills the size of tympani drums in restaurant fronts, fired with charcoal and made to order. Mine was filled with refried black beans and Oaxacan string cheese. Accompanied by 3 salsitas and pickled onions. 
New Food #51. Huaraches. Named for its shape like a sandal, my roommate/chef built his own huarache mold and used to sell them at the San Cristobal market. They’re sort of like Mexican pizzas, topped with refried black beans, tomato sauce, two types of cheese, fresh cream, cilantro, and onions. 
New Food #52. Chiles rellenos con salsa frances. Stuffed peppers with a walnut béchamel sauce. A fancy variation on standard chiles rellenos with red tomato sauce, this dish is often served at weddings in Mexico. 
Even though gaining weight was not one of my objectives, I have put on a little refried queso gut. It actually drives Latin guys wild, but I’m not so sure about American guys, so now I’ve started a One Salad a Day Project. I’ve got fresh lettuce and herbs growing in the garden, so this is one tasty diet!
Earth Eats 