If I asked you to tell me about Honduran food, assuming you, reader, are not Honduran, would you be able to? Would you say tacos? And if you did, would you expect the thing you get at an American restaurant? What else? Probably something spicy and doused in hot sauce and intense seasonings, no? Well, I am here today to tell you that nope, the Catrachos (Hondurans) do things a little differently here.

First, I should say that just like families everywhere else on the globe, there is a difference between the things they have for dinner every night and the things that their country is known for. Someone could say oh, you have to try the deep dish or hot dogs when in Chicago, which sure, I’d totally agree with, but I probably eat those things no more than once every two months or so? The same with here, although their popular foods are a bit more common in the day to day. In Honduras, the main two dishes they’re known for are the baleadas and pupusas. Baleadas are large, thick flour tortillas filled with a bean paste, crema/mantequilla, cheese, avocado, and whatever other vegetables and meats are desired. At Garden School Victoria, I was given these for both breakfast and lunch, the former filled with eggs and vegetables and the latter with chicken and rice. Pupusas are dough/cornmeal typically filled with chicharrón (specific parts of pig, I believe the rind) or other meats and cheeses, then fried into little cakes of sorts. If you want a mix of cheese and chicharrón, my personal favorite, you ask for “mixtas.” They are served with vegetables on top, usually a slaw, although in Copán many had what seemed to be pickled cabbage. These have been my personal favorite so far, but then again, this is coming from someone who definitely has been mildly enamored with pancakes/crepes/cooked batter her whole life.

The words for other popular dishes are switched here too, although that’s admittedly not quite fair to say since you don’t see me calling out the UK for calling french fries “chips.” If you order “enchiladas,” what you’ll get actually looks more like sopas, “tacos” look like flautas or taquitos, and “tacos mexicanos” are tacos. Crema or mantequilla, which translates to cream and butter respectively, is very common as a topping to most things you find here. It is not like cream or butter, but rather comes in little bags and tastes like a mix between butter and sour cream. I’ve yet to see American butter here, but I have seen, and use, to my dismay, margarine. [EDIT: One of the large, somewhat American-style supermarkets in Santa Rosa has regular butter, but it is called “mantequilla amarilla” and it is a bit expensive in comparison to the alternatives.] Coco helados are often sold on the side of the road, but there is no ice cream. Instead, they’re just cold coconuts someone sticks a straw in for you to drink and eat, if you ask the person who sold it to you to cut open via machete (very common to use them for nearly everything here, from slicing an apple to farmwork). Now in Santa Rosa, they are called “cocos frios,” so it may just be a San Pedro thing to call them that. Lastly, tamales here are a little bit different. They are much larger than Mexican tamales and are kept in plantain leaves. The fillings usually include mixed meats and vegetables (even olives, which I personally found a strange) and are served with veggie slaws on top. I can’t think of too many other misleading or different words, so this is it.

The Garden School Victoria’s meals were cooked by a woman named Miriam who lived nearby in town and at night apparently cooks and sells food from her house. The meals varied, but usually breakfasts were homemade corn tortillas, avocados, crema, cheese, red bean paste, and sometimes egg, mini hotdogs, or chimol (basically pico de gallo). I have had the occasional breakfast baleada, but this was pretty standard. When I ask my past students what they ate for breakfast, many said similar things or that they just had coffee and milk. It seems very popular to give coffee to children here, but they are made somewhat weak and with sugar/chocolate/milk/other flavors. Since I can’t have caffeine and I typically avoid things with lactose, I can’t verify if this is true or not, but my roommate Karli just agreed, so we’ll take her word for it. Lunch varied a lot more than breakfast. Sometimes it was baleadas or something similar to breakfast, sometimes it was pasta either with a simple red sauce (with veggies and meat mixed in) or in a somewhat chow mein style, and sometimes it was boiled veggies, rice, and meat. I never had pupusas at the school, though. The vegetables we ate ranged from beets (my inner Lithuanian was in heaven), chayote (called güisquil or wiski ), cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, and plantains (usually the savory ones for lunch and the sweet ones with breakfast). Miriam also made a mustard-y slaw-type side with cabbage which was incredibly refreshing in the heat there. The meat we had with this type of lunch varied, but chicken was most common. Usually it was boiled and served with a marinade or sauce. Again, all meals were served with fresh corn tortillas that I am not sure how I will live without when I return to the States. Thankfully, one of my student’s family invited me over to learn how to make so as long as I can find the materials, I can have them wherever I go. None of the food here is typically spicy, though, and most seasonings are relatively light and simple. My students’ lunches were similar, but theirs also have included seafood soups, a lot more plantain-based dishes, and sometimes tamales. In areas near oceans and lakes, seafood is much more common, but it is still present in moderation.

American food was not very common in Brisas, and when it was there, it was expensive. A Hershey chocolate bar there was L.50-60, which is a little over $2USD. In comparison, Honduran brands cost about L.20-30, which is about a dollar give or take. In Santa Rosa, though, the American candies are similarly priced to the Honduran ones, but some things are still higher priced, like Kraft cheese and American brands of teas. At City Mall and the Terminal you can find American fast food. I’ve seen Subway, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Cinnabon, Popeyes, and some others. I really have no interest in trying them, but next time I’m somewhere that has them, I’ll check to see if they sell things that are different than those in America. I know when I went to Spain they had very different menus, often including beer and gazpacho! Fried chicken isn’t inherently American, but there are a lot of fried chicken places here, many laden with buff cartoon chicken mascots. I think that is one of the closest “fast food” things here. Cutesy cafes seem to be starting to be popular here, as they are rather scarce but increasing from what I’ve seen, as well as what some Hondurans mentioned. I have most definitely have been frequenting them to get my work done due to their glorious AC, fast WiFi, and just that they feel like pre-covid home. I used to do all my best work at libraries and cafes, so having that space again feels great.

If I learn any recipes or actually remember to take pictures at the supermarket, I’ll make sure to post about it, but in the meantime this has been my experience with Honduran food (so far!).

Happy reading,
-Beppa