Eating in Honduras has been a challenge.  Making good food choices in Honduras has been a challenge.  I haven’t posted much since moving here because in the 41 days since I relocated, I’ve made dinner twice.  Yes, TWO times, and cooked a lunch and a breakfast.  In each case, it was not only challenging, but the results were … meh.  I don’t often fail in the kitchen, but the first was a dinner of tasteless boneless chicken thighs with a side dish or two to go with it.  Thankfully, I was alone for that mess.  The next was the Hanukkah dinner I made on the holiday weekend.

It tasted ok, but the potato latkes were more like hockey pucks and the brisket ended up being so tender it fell apart into a mass of meat when it came time to serve.

The best part of the meal was the broccoli and I didn’t have anything to do with that dish.  Ack!  As tends to happen, I’ve got that — I’ve lost my culinary mojo — feeling again.

I’ve found that carbs are big here.  Rice, beans, tortillas and plantain are a staple and not a day goes by without them — all four — on my plate at some point during the day.  Not a good sign for anyone trying to manage their weight the Weight Watchers way.

A big red danger sign seems to hang above me because as you know if you’ve been visiting this site in the past11 months, corn tortillas are my obsession with more than 24 posts featuring or mentioning the delicious round discs, and food with south of the border seasonings are a staple in my life.  While I’m craving more fresh produce, these Honduran staples are causing me some angst in the department of making good food choices.

I resolved to tell the nice lady behind the lunch counter at work yesterday that I only wanted 2 of those small home made tortillas with my lunch of pork and rice, but wasn’t successful.  Today I will say with confidence, Dos tortillas sólo, por favor!   I’m pretty sure this sentence construction is flawed, but hopefully I’ll get my point across because as you can see from this Saturday afternoon lunch above, portion control is problematic.

I’ve been in my own place for a week now and have pretty much set up my kitchen, I’ll get back to the business of cooking, but for now it’s 100% restaurant nutrition and as you know it’s a challenge so I am going to focus on the fun part of life here while I work on getting back to creating Thin Recipes.

But first, a note from the comfort food department.  Now, as a professional dieter, I can tell you that comforting yourself with food is rarely a successful option, but I have decided that this morning, as long as I control my portions, bacon is on the menu.  I like to cook bacon in the oven because it keeps things much neater, stays flat and results in a lot less clean up.   The challenge here is that I don’t have a baker’s rack to put the bacon on so it’s going to sit in this baking sheet in its own rendered fat.  That’s what paper towels are for, right?!

The portion control is this … two rashers of bacon = 3 points.  I haven’t been tuned into WW since the program changed a few weeks ago, but I see there are some changes afoot — such as a reduction in points, from 29 to 26 points now?!  Ahh!  I need to do some catching up — STAT.  Anyway, I’ll eat those 3 points and enjoy them with a slice of toast and an egg.  Today calls for a good old American breakfast.  I needed a break from corn tortillas this morning.

It was good.  Very good.  And it gave me the energy and stamina to edit and post the photos from last weekend’s trip to the Fortaleza San Fernando in Omoa, on the north western coast.  The fort dates back to the 1700s, used to defend against pirates.  The town of Omoa borders Guatemala and according to Wikipedia, is currently home to approximately 600 fisherman and their 400 boats.  It was a rainy day and we had to get back to San Pedro Sula relatively early, which didn’t leave us much time to explore more than the fort, but it was a nice afternoon, with lots to see.

The Moorish influence is seen everywhere with rounded turrets and and church steeples.

If this fort needs something to brighten it up, the incredibly vibrant hibiscus flowers easily do the trick, although I somehow doubt busy defenders of the port were very much into plants and flowers and making things look pretty.  What do you think?

There’s something artistic about these doors.  I doubt the builders of this fort give it much thought, but the symmetry and contrast of these doors is pretty cool, if you ask me.

I find this creepy as well as a surprise.  It was very resourceful of the builders to use coral which was likely much more abundant a few hundred years ago than it is now.  I just wonder how they dove for it?  I suppose those big diving bells were used in the 1700′s.

There were stores of canon balls in various rooms.  It surprises me that there are any left.

I wonder what gave this pot its color — naranja?

And this wheel reminds me of something out of the American southwest.

I don’t know why, but these canons, neatly lined up, remind me of pigs.  I told you, I don’t know why!  I suppose it could be all the pork – cerdo – I eat here?

Either way, it led me to wonder what pirates ate.  I remember learning about rickets and scurvy and how on long crossings people became undernourished because of the lack of food storage and refrigeration, so I headed to my keyboard and took a look around to find the answers to “What did the pirates of the 1700′s eat?” –  and yes, after a short while at sea, food was not very plentiful and eating less than fresh food was the norm.  Pirate cuisine, if you choose to believe the answer I found, started out plentiful and varied, but quickly became scarce.  I’ll bet they wished these canons were pigs!

 

Me?  I’m happy to have modern refrigeration and supermarkets.  Like the one here where I keep collecting stamps which turn into dinnerware sets.  I think it’s more about the fun of filling up an empty book than the actual dishes, but it has come in handy in this new (bare) apartment.