Saturday 05:30
 |
| How I remember it! |
My Mum used to be famous for her bread pudding, she had a
special tin for baking it in, and very two weeks or so the “gloopy” mixture of
stale bread and cake, sultanas, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, all spice etc would go into the over and come out
again after an hour or so as this amazing rib-sticking pudding. It was always cooked at the weekend and a
slice was always cut and wrapped for Gordon Phillips, my organ professor at
music college. Well imagine my surprise
to see what looked like bread pudding in the local bakery here, after enquiry
it was indeed bread pudding but made with stale bread and bananas and only Q.2 (18p)
per portion. It was at this point that
the alarm bells should have started ringing as a)I didn’t know what their
definition of stale bread would be, and b) this tray full was sitting on the
counter (a feast for flies). Well I am intrepid and so bought two
portions! Who knew when such a delight
would be available again!
 |
| More tea vicar? |
 |
| mmmm Nutri-leche |
My prize having been got home I decided to go the whole hog,
got out my teapot, and decided to brew a pot of Guatemala’s finest tea (yeah right) actually Lipton’s Yellow Lable
Tea, it never quite tastes right with the Long Life UHT “Nutri-Leche” but beggars
can’t be choosers.
So pot of tea milk and sugar and my trophy Bread Pudding, I
sat down on the terrace and enjoyed the tea cake and the view of the
garden. Again I should have been alerted
to the fact that is was still a bit “gloopy” and didn’t have the lovely thick
crust I remember from my mothers efforts. Never mind. Tea and pudding consumed I was about to get
on with some studying when BLAM! My
system responded with a big, Never, nunca, ni, ningun y NO! Suffice it to say
that for 12 of the last 15 hours I have been to the “littlest room in the
house” every 15 minutes, the cramps have stopped, I feel like death warmed up
but am OK. Note to self: recreate the
original when in UK
in August! Second note to self: Don’t
let your stomach rule your head! Third note: Live and learn!
Bet you are all pleased I shared that with you! Just imagine the tales I will have to tell
next year when I spend time in the Amazon jungle in a village! Leg or breast? And we will not be talking chicken here!
Actually, I have been thinking about my up coming trip to Calcutta, when in India I absolutely preferred the street food to anything a 5*
hotel might concoct. The only times I got sick in India was courtesy of the Hyatt,
Marriott, Hilton, etc. or when selecting from a “buffet.” And this time with a
restricted budget I mean to find out the “best” and cheapest food in Calcutta
(fortunately I will have the 22 members of the Orchestra – all VERY streetwise
young guys to be my guides, protectors and family for 5 weeks. I recall one restaurant in Mumbai that only
had 1 item on the menu Lamb Biryani, the restaurant seated about 400 people and
the queue would be going right round the block.
You were ordered to a seat, (no reservations here), a plate of Biryani
and salad was put in front of you, along with a mug of water, you ate and left,
20 minutes tops! You mixed with the
glitterati of Mumbai as well as the almost down and out. The best Biryani in
Mumbai, so good in fact hundreds of kilograms of the stuff were sent daily by
air to far flung corners of the globe, to appease the appetites of homesick
Bombay-ites.
 |
| Ricardo |
 |
| Abdia |
Today and tomorrow I am entertaining. I have my oldest (and oldest) friend in Guatemala
coming over for dinner. Ricardo is a
dentist in a big practice in the city we met way back in 2006/7 and have remained
firm friends since. I always enjoy his company and of course more opportunity
to practice the Spanish. And tomorrow I host Abdias, who has a great love of
classical music so we talk and listen and eat, perfect.
I am also hoping to meet with one of Guatemala’s
really up coming young photographers, Eny Roland, he is really pushing the envelope here,
and he needs to practice his English!
Facebook, really does have a positive side inasmuch as through “friends”
of “friends” (I use the term lightly) you can start to talk with a vast range
of people.
 |
| Eny Roland - Self Portrait |
 |
| Public Art Project- Eny Roland see http://artegaleriaurbana.blogspot.com/ |
 |
| Eny on frontcover of Cine Magazine |
Another month of lessons would be good, but at £5 per hour,
they will have to wait. Anyways I reckon
by 2020 I will be fluent! It’s just that
I currently need about 15 minutes to tune into a persons accent before I can
confidently understand everything they say. And I need to turn the translation
unit off in my brain, but can’t find the switch!
The trick is to know make sure I used all the rules
regulations, colloquialisms, “perifrases” and all the other junk to make it all
come to life. I have to be nearly oin
top of the mountain by October 22nd when I land in Trujillo, Peru. The project is very specific that my Spanish
must be at an intermediate level in order to teach the classes. Well I have another 60 days here and I am
sticking to a regime of 4 hours a day, and then when I am in India I will take with me my trusty
flash cards!
As, having viewed on the internet some Spanish academies in Calcutta, I rather feel I
would be teaching them. Spanish with a heavy Indian accent is a sound to
behold.
 |
| About 500 vegetable stalls! |
Having said all that, I can actually make myself perfectly
well understood! A daily dose of cable TV helps,
American series in English with Spanish subtitles, and also Spanish soaps ~ the tears, the looks, the raw emotions and
the hammy acting!
So now, I need to plan some menus, traditional Guatemalan of
course! And will be off to the market around 7:00 to snap up the food whilst it
is still fresh.
Bread pudding anyone?
 |
| Weights are pretty approximate & fridge what fridge |
 |
| The meat market |
Hasta Luego Amigos!
No comments:
Post a Comment