Chefs must travel
5 small things that fit into your bag that you should bring with you:
- chef knife
- pairing knife
- salt
- peeler
- pepper
Ive started a few trips with nothing but clothes, toothbrush, and my phone but inevitably end up cooking and wishing I was prepared with these things.
Good food, great cuisine can happen anywhere. You just need the will to do it. Make friends, they will help you. I love to teach someone for the first time how to butcher a chicken, and how to filet a fish, especially if they are not chefs.
LAGO ATITILAN
The tortillarias, markets, Illegal Mezcal bars, coffee plantations and carniceros of GUATEMALA
Santa Cruz, a small village that grapevines out of Lago Atitilan up a mountain side. I jogged off my hangover up the road to the top of the village. Being teased by the smell of tortillas I poked my head into some small buildings to see what was up.
At the top the corn was nixtamalized. The neighbors boiled and ground it into a paste. The paste was passed on to another house to be mixed with lard and seasoned. Girls with baskets on their heads carrying cornmeal darted from house to house down the mountain. One woman rolled out the tortillas, another woman toasted them on a plancha.
I sat on top of the mountain looking at the lake and her volcanoes. It was still early. My friends would be making coffee with chocolate. A cloud of masa scent followed me all the way down the hill. Every one got tortillas in the end.
San Pedro, adjacent to Santa Cruz on Lago Atitilan sits a small village of pirates, musicians, artisans and vagabonds. You can't buy dried pasta so they make their own fresh noodles. No one is importing salamis and prosciuttos so they cure their own.
People have come here to farmstead and build their homes. The restaurants were some of the best I went to in Central America. Don't miss the Sunday Carolina BBQ by water.
We visited coffee plantations and drank cappuccinos harvested from a tree 10 meters away. Later we enjoyed 'Pina', a moonshine made from pineapples. Bring your own bottle and they will fill it for 20 Quetzales and its going to be the best spirit on the lake.
San Miguel is a short boat ride away from San Pedro and Santa Cruz. This village is a great place to score a few bottles of home made wine, strong kombuchas and some baked treats before you go jump into the lake. Then you can go 'find your self' with a local Mayan Chocolate Shaman.
Antigua is a travel hub inside GUATEMALA bringing lots of tourists. This is where you go to buy bricks of unrefined chocolate flavored with cardamom, chunks of canella, chills, cocoa in all its forms, cigar and whiskey taverns, fancy restaurants and the small but awesome Illegal Mezcal bar. The market here is huge and great place to buy all your fruits and vegetables, they even have salt cod.
The man with the cows head apron is Victor. Victor speaks english after working 9 years in Queens, NY as a butcher is a grocery store. He returned to Antigua to be with his family. He told me its better there because there are not as many rules for butcher shops. The Carniceros have their own district in town. Its fascinating to see someone breakdown a whole cow using an axe and machete. The smell of death will stick to your clothes.
The meats here are aged but not dry. The chickens are golden yellow and the crabs have been hogtied in thick grass. The markets are the best lunch spot in town.
Belize, fry-jacks, habanero eating contests and lobster dinners
fter 8 hours on a bus and 1 hour by speedboat we were on Cay Caulker, a small island off the coast of Belize City. We drop our luggage at the aptly named Dirty McNasty’s and head down to get some brain twisting Green Juice at the Lazy Iguana, an open bar on the water.
Waking up the next day shaking iguanas off my brain I stumble over to a fry-jack shed down the dusty road. Fry jacks are deep fried sweet dough folded up like a taco with your choice of ham, eggs, beans, chicken etc. Munching down my breakfast the beautiful island begins to resemble NYC's Local 169 bar as if it were dropped on a gorgeous beach. The greasy bread and beans and chicken gave my stomach the courage it needed to make it back in the water. Arming myself with a liter of fresh OJ from the juice shack next door I walked to the rendezvous point down by the Lazy Iguana Bar and wait for Pops’ Boat. We stepped into the boat with a full supply of OJ, rum, Gatorade, and about 10 bottles of Belizean Bitters otherwise known as Belizean Viagra. These little bottles held a dram of rum and a handful of barks, herbs and spices jammed through the top.
We hang off the back of Pops’ speedboat, one hand holding Belikin beer in one hand, the other a fishing rod. One of the girls snags a barracuda almost bigger then her. We maneuver around to the various lobster traps and not caring about the off-season snorkel down to see how many we can get. Eventually we took our booty to a private island with a kitchenette and a fire pit. Pops’ wants to teach me how to filet a fish and cannot believe his eyes while I break and pin bone my barracuda before he could get under his fish’s gill plate. Pops doesn’t know that I’m a chef. Coconut rice made from coconuts on that island, baked lobsters, and grilled barracuda. Ill take the island over any restaurant. Pops challenges me to his habanero salsa as I dowse my lobsters in the bright orange puree. Them things were spicy but I show no reaction. I tell Pops he’s never been NYC’s K-Town.
Free Lance, spiced sorbet and Mercado Central of COSTA RICA
San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, a huge city with a lot of food treats. Georgina and Mauricio picked me up at the airport late in the evening. Even though it was late we stopped for micheladas and chicherones before I flopped into bed. The next morning Geo shared her chocolate pod with me over breakfast. Fresh chocolate pods are layered with silky sweet pulp with a chocolate aroma. We chewed up the flesh and spat the seeds off her balcony. Fresh cocoa is a different world in its own. Something I never expected.
We set out about town and walked through neighborhoods and Geo showed me the historical buildings of San Jose. Our destination was Mercado Central, the oldest market in San Jose.
Mercado Central is a place to buy all things. From machetes to sorbet to home appliances. We sat down at the ice cream parlor to get a classic San Jose treat. Its a sundae glass with layers of red j-ello powdered milk and sorbeto flavored with all spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and star anise, then topped with a wafer cookie. Its a strange thing to think of in the hot climate of Costa Rica but it was refreshing. We walked through sweet shops sampling the syrupy sticky sweet candies. Butchers and fish mongers with their versions of smoked mackerel and preserved pork. Geo recommended a spot for lunch. An all time favorite combo of ceviche and micheladas, a lot of micheladas. We left for a recommended cafe up the street to get a cup of cafe dulce. Cafe dulce happens when the beans are not husked and are left to dry whole. The sweet pulpy stuff makes it into the brew and the end result is a sweet light roasted cup of coffee.
Georgina and Mauricio drove me all over the country side in a family road trip. We stopped for smoked bananas, Costa Rican string cheese and strawberries, coconut shellfish stew and horchatas. Eventually we made it to Puerto Viejo.
When you don't know anyone you go to the bar. From there it was easy to meet people who love food and who want to cook. A few beers later I had my team. Local fisherman were selling mackerel and prawns. We found all the vegetables, oils and butters. There was a fire pit by the beach. Blackened prawns, buttery grilled mackerel, corn and crispy potatoes was for dinner.