The Holiday Season Begins
News from the Honduras Bay Islands and North Coast
19 November 2000
By Pierre Renaldo, The Coastwatcher©

You are no doubt beginning to get antsy about your annual promise to yourself to get your holiday shopping done early this year. Really! And you mean it this time. It is going to happen no matter what. No more last minute mania for you.

Have you ever wondered how the people in our part of the world celebrate Thanksgiving?

First off, there is no such celebration recognized by Honduras. But there are many others, and much like Americans, the Hondurans have traditional foods that are prepared at fiesta times. Special food for special occasions, just like us. But the foods are oh so different. I will dwell on some of them briefly to give you a taste of Central America at a time of rejoicing.

Let me assure you friends, the Hondurans have many more holidays than you can count. In fact there were so many (too many really) that the government decided to eliminate several, because in a society of limited productivity there had to be change; an effort by the socialist regime to impress the people that there was work to be done, "You just can't be having fiesta so often", the government said. "Besides, where are you going to get the money to celebrate something if you don't work?"

I remember the first year we lived on Roatan. We would come into the office and everything around us would be like a ghost town. "What's happening?" we would ask of passersby. (April had four official holidays, and May had something like six. Then there was Semana Santa when everything was closed for the week before and after Easter and the same thing happened the last two weeks of December. Nada! Nobody was working. Municipal offices and banks were closed and that makes it official.)

"It is fiesta, señor"

"Fiesta for what?" we would ask.

The answer was almost always a shrug of the shoulders. There were so many fiestas the people didn't even know the reason for celebration.

Sometimes we only became aware that a holiday was forthcoming because the street vendors were touting something different. Tamales are always for sale on the street. But at Christmas time the taste of the tamale changes. The big difference is the filling.

In the tropics, banana leaves are used as the outer wrapping for tamales. The regular filling is a sweetened paste that contains no meat or chicken, as I had become addicted to in Mexican and Coasta Rican preparations. But Honduras, being so poor, offered an ersatze version that contained nothing but a sweet paste, something that is filling and inexpensive, just for the illusion of eating tamales. What can you expect for eight Lempiras (approximately fifty cents).

When the major holidays arrive so does the more interesting food.

There are many types of meat tarts, some very spicy, called postilitos. Another offering is filled with flaked fish, mixed with some wonderful spices and deep fried to form a crunchy flavorful outer crust. I could pig out on those anytime.

Caracol sopa ( conch soup) is another special dish, offered in restaurants year 'round, but considered by many a food for fiesta. Many of you may not be familiar with this wonderful mollusk. You have no doubt seen the shells for sale in souvenir shoppes but have not had the opportunity to sample the delightful occupant (okay, ex-occupant).

We make conch fritters, a very favorite of mine that I was introduced to in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas. The spicy varieties are more to my taste, (but there are many more subtle versions for those who do not live on the edge.)

Ceviché, a conch dish prepared in lime juice, chilé peppers, onions, celery, and cilantro. It is not cooked. Right! The lime juice 'cooks it' No heat used, but it is addictive food for multitudes. This uncooked recipe is used for many other seafood species of ceviché, such as fish, shrimp, lobster, and combinations of all or many of the foregoing.

It used to be something that was given to you in the restaurants in Central America while you were looking at the menu , but that was long ago. Too expensive now. There is a store in San Pedro Sula that sells chevché in little plastic containers, and I always manage to slip in for a fix. They have many different kinds too, something for every addiction.

Congrejo, the wonderful king crab, (reef crab, not to be confused with the Alaskan variety but very close in flavor). Many people here use the same recipe for crab soup with the same basic ingredients as used for caracol: coconut milk, saffron, cilantro, onion, chilés (mild) some potato, much like our clam chowder. It is a special occasion in itself.

Langustino, lobster tail, the ever popular crustacean, prepared in a great variety of ways, but to my way of cooking, you can't beat it just boiled, split open with the white meat exposed and then finished with a deep butterbath and an ever so slight browning under the broiler, then drenched with a wedge of fresh lime juice just before serving. Of course there should be plenty of hot clarified butter on hand for dipping.

Camerones, shrimp, that most versatile delicacy. I love to peel and eat them hot or cold at cocktail hour when we are having a few cervezas and telling lies. A dipping sauce of horseradish and catsup, my version of seafood cocktail sauce, with a few good dashes of Louisiana hot sauce, or very hot drawn lemon butter, and I also like them with a "Louie" dressing; that is nothing more than the traditional seafood cocktail sauce with some good mayo added. With extra horseradish to taste, it is lip smackin' good. My favorite recipe for shrimp as an entré is Camerones Veracruisiana, a memorable experience for any shrimp lover. I'll give some of the basics I use in my version, (definitely Mexican) but only if some of you share your ideas, especially Cajun.

Use a commercial salsa, like Chiles or Victoria dipping varieties, and then add chopped red and green peppers, (just a few can be hot), chopped fresh tomatoes skinned, with the seed in, whole pitted green olives stuffed with red pimentos, (you could use the anchovy stuffed if your taste is outrageous), very small Spanish capers, half a small bottle and no juice, celery, fresh cilantro and do not add the raw shrimp, celery and fresh tomatoes until the last three minutes of cooking time. They will be overcooked if you do, especially the shrimp. Then serve it over hot white rice.

We are having turkey this year. We only cook the big birds during the holidays and once every so often we have turkey in the middle of summer. Since it is almost always the middle of summer here that is not too unusual. But we do not get sick of turkey either.

I remember one disastrous Christmas that we spent with a close relative (who shall remain unnamed). The in-laws had brought a spiral-cut ham and though it was delicious, I was hankering for a bologna sandwich or a toasted cheese after twelve consecutive meals of spiral cut ham, trying to pretend each meal was the first time you had ever tasted anything so wonderful, while trying with all our might to project a convincing attitude that flashed in neon lights: 'Oh! This is soooooo delicious. When can we have it again, m'am?' I am still not over it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

If you have any questions, just E-me up any time.

By Pierre Renaldo, Mountain Coastal S.A,. General Contractors, Construction Management and Construction Consultants.