Thursday, January 31, 2008
A Belizean Delicacy
The rickety old Ford cargo van squeaked to a halt outside a Belizean bakery, leaving a thin cloud of dust from the highway in its wake. One of our tour guides, a slim Rastafarian with short black dreads tucked underneath a wool beanie, climbed across the passengers in the worn seats between the back seat and the door, leaving me alone to wonder why we had stopped. Schoolchildren on their way to class stared at us as they walked by, interested in the many different shades of white visiting their country. There were ten of us still in the van, including the driver and one of the two guides, all waiting for the other to return so we could continue our hour-long drive to Jaguar Paw. It was early in the morning, and most of us were still damp from an unexpected downpour during the boat ride from San Pedro island to the mainland. Wet and cranky and tired, the only thing that kept us going was the thought of the jungle zip-line adventure waiting for us.
When he came back to the van, he had a big brown paper bag full of pastries, and he managed to spill only one as he climbed to the back seat. He held the bag out to me and I looked into it, unsure of what exactly I was looking at. So I asked.
He answered me in his almost impossible-to-understand accent, “Is corn fritter!”
Having been consciously making an effort to sample new and exotic foods while I was on vacation, I was somewhat disappointed that it was just a corn fritter. I mean, we have those back home! It didn’t seem like there were many new and exotic foods in this country that didn’t have something to do with seafood, which I’m not especially fond of. (In fact, the thought of those squirmy little ocean creatures is enough to make me lose my appetite completely.) I shrugged this off and picked one out of the bag, took a bite, and chewed it for a while trying to get used to the taste. It wasn’t like any corn fritter I’d ever had; there was something unusual about it. As the paper bag made its way around the van, I finished my fritter, surprised at how hungry I must have been.
A lady sitting in front of me took a bite out of hers and turned back to the guide.
“This doesn’t taste like a corn fritter,” she said, spitting a mouthful of chewed food into a napkin.
The guide gave her a puzzled look, then answered her in his thick Creole accent. “Corn? No, is kung fritter! Is shellfish!”
For the next few minutes I stared at my empty napkin, disgusted, wishing that I had the rest of the fritter to spit into it. ¶ 11:14 AM
When he came back to the van, he had a big brown paper bag full of pastries, and he managed to spill only one as he climbed to the back seat. He held the bag out to me and I looked into it, unsure of what exactly I was looking at. So I asked.
He answered me in his almost impossible-to-understand accent, “Is corn fritter!”
Having been consciously making an effort to sample new and exotic foods while I was on vacation, I was somewhat disappointed that it was just a corn fritter. I mean, we have those back home! It didn’t seem like there were many new and exotic foods in this country that didn’t have something to do with seafood, which I’m not especially fond of. (In fact, the thought of those squirmy little ocean creatures is enough to make me lose my appetite completely.) I shrugged this off and picked one out of the bag, took a bite, and chewed it for a while trying to get used to the taste. It wasn’t like any corn fritter I’d ever had; there was something unusual about it. As the paper bag made its way around the van, I finished my fritter, surprised at how hungry I must have been.
A lady sitting in front of me took a bite out of hers and turned back to the guide.
“This doesn’t taste like a corn fritter,” she said, spitting a mouthful of chewed food into a napkin.
The guide gave her a puzzled look, then answered her in his thick Creole accent. “Corn? No, is kung fritter! Is shellfish!”
For the next few minutes I stared at my empty napkin, disgusted, wishing that I had the rest of the fritter to spit into it. ¶ 11:14 AM
