From simple tortillas to the most complex
recipe, like jocón (chicken
with a green sauce prepared from a base of fresh coriander),
the Guatemalan contribution to a good meal is an attractive that
needs to be developed for the pleasure of the whole world.
When you think about Guatemalan food, the images
that come to your mind are variety of flavors, textures, aromas
and colors. One of the first appealings of our kitchen is precisely
the colors’ pallet, which reflects the riches of our fruits,
vegetables and spices that grow in our soils.
Our cuisine is the inheritance of two big culinary
traditions. With the conquest, the pleasure for the Arabic taste
arrived, transformed by the Spaniards; and the local ethnies that
contibuted with the gods’ flavor. One example of this blend
of tastes and culinary techniques is the tamale, purely indigenous
but adapted to the taste of Europeans.
In the Guatemalan meals the most common ingredients
are beans and corn, prepared in plenty of recipes; but also cow
meat, chicken, turkey and other animals (like
deer, armadillo, iguana and spotted cavy), which form a
part of a good table.
Another common foods are cheeses, corn tortillas,
avocado, rice and all kinds of species, from which we can emphasize
the different chilis, used in one and thousand ways, specially
because through them and oregano, pepper, laurel, parsley, mint,
and other herbs we obtain the typical season of our foods.
And thanks to others, its undeniable green
and red colors, a reflection of our landscapes. In the Guatemalan
cuisine, an almost omnipresent plate is soup, generally very hot
and served as an entry for a heavy meal, then followed by dessert
prepared mainly with fruits like, papayas, watermelons, mangoes,
bananas, sapodillas, and peaches. Lots of them, that are transformed
into delicious sweet plates, which are a pleasure to all Guatemalans,
because the sweet strong flavor is enjoyed by everybody.
The beverages that usually come out of all
these fruits, give the table a colorful touch, as well as an extraordinary
taste. And to finish, we have the coffee, another companion to
the Guatemalan tables that is never missing, with its dark color
and penetrating aroma.