Mi Comida...MMMM

One of the joys of living with a host familia is the homecook food they serve or the local dishes they buy from the  "hole in the walls" nearby.

 

As I mentioned in a previous post, my host is a caterer. She makes the best food around..especially postres.  Well, One night she severed me one of the best tamales I had ever eaten.  It was a giant chicken tamale which is wrapped and cooked in a banana leaf.  I told her that it was VERY GOOD. She told me that the neighbor upstairs actually cooked it. 

SIDE NOTE: The other best tamale that I had ever eaten before was a Cuban Tamale in Miami.

 

Well, one night this past weekend, I had it for dinner again and I was so happy...but she had only given me one.  I TORE IT UP and said to her "esta es bueno, puedo tengo mas?" She told me in Spanish that the neighbor is still cooking the others but that she'll get me another one as soon as it's done. I patiently waited at the dinning room table.  I didn't move!! Five minutes later, she brought this STEAMING HOT FOIL wrapped tamale to my plate and I couldn't get it open fast enough. When I tell that  I

burned my finger tips trying to get that thing open...I'm not lying!!  That stuff WAS GOOD!!  Man I had looked like a crack head trying to hurry up and open up the last dime bag on earth.  But I didn't care!

There was also another night when she stopped at  a local place nearby to pick me up some dinner. Before she left the house, she knocked on my bedroom door and asked me if I wanted a sandwich or papa fritas blah blah blah... for dinner? I didn't quite understand the last part of the 2nd meal option. I just knew that I didn't want any bread, so I said NO to the sandwich and said SI, to the Papa fritas blah blah blah... since I knew EXACTLY what papa fritas meant and I love French fries. 

 

Well, when she made it home, she severed me a plate that had the following in layers in it: French Fries, smothered in grilled onions, chopped up fried hot dog wieners and topped with queso (their version) ketchup...yes ketchup and some other sauce I couldn't quite make out.  I picked around everything at first just to make sure I knew what all the ingredients were and then slowly began to eat the fries...the part that wasn't touching anything else.  Afterwards I slowing began to eat a fry w/a piece of the fried hot dog and the next thing you know, I had ate the whole meal!!  When she passed by the table, I asked her the name of the plate again.  She told me, BUT I ALREADY forgot it again...uhg!  Anyways. she went on to tell me (in Spanish) that the place she got if from makes the best in the area. She said that there are many places nearby that make this dish, but they all have her stomach hurting afterwards and the place she got my dinner from is the best around.  I thanked her for not going to "The Other Places"...LOL!  It was actually quite good.  Your first thought would be "ghetto", but overall it was really good.  It put me in the mindset of what me and my brothers and sister use to make for ourselves when mama was at work or not around.  When we were kids we were creative like that. LOL!!! You can make a meal out of anything!