Mondongo
Sunday, February 10th, 2008Today I set out for the indigenous neighborhood west of town: Subtiava. I sat outside of san juan batista de subtiava, leon’s oldest church, until it opened and then paid my respects. It’s a wonderful old church that fronts a big empty and dusty square – not a gringo filled area to be sure ☺. afterwards, I decided to poke around some of the side-streets there and I am glad I did. I found dianna, on the curb outside her home, stirring a giant pot of mondongo (soup). After seeing many people from town lining up with their buckets to take some home I decided I couldn’t pass this up. Like many versions of soups popular on Sunday in latin America, this is a soup with pork stomach – aka tripe – at its heart.
First dianna grabbed a BIG bowl then proceeded to “build” my soup: a cooked plantain, then yucca and some squash from different pots. Next she picks out some choice pieces of tripe then spoons the yummy looking soup (filled with spices and veggies) on top of all this. No, I couldn’t eat the tripe but I did try it. I was also able to have a basic conversation with dianna letting her know this was my first bowl of mondongo and that I liked it very much. It was a great experience.
in the evening, after i finally got out to photograph churches in the nice light of late afternoon, i stopped behind the cathedral to buy meat and veggies that were being grilled on a street corner. i picked out a various items and it was all re-heated on coals and wrapped in a banana leaf so i could take it to eat it while i watch another movie tonight! it was a street food day and i realize i’m testing my constitution but man was everything i bought good.
My Spanish has progressed very little over the past few weeks and that is disappointing. I will try extra hard to get to Guatemala with enough time to take Spanish lessons for a couple weeks. I really want to do better. I’m about ready to launch from leon and I think I will try to make it to moyagalpa tomorrow. It’s in the mountains and much cooler. I think this change of pace will be nice and it also begins my trajectory towards Honduras. I haven’t thought much about what I will do there, sooooo….stay tuned.
Peggy Rehm