Sopa

I would like to talk a little bit about something that has been a big part of my life during the past year:  soup.  Soup is quite possibly the most-loved food of most Honduran people.  However, it is not mine.  Above, I posted a picture of a soup we ate yesterday, "sopa de res" (beef soup).  As you can see, there are many HUGE CHUNKS of things like beef, corn, yucca, pataste (I don't know what that is in English)... there are usually additional starchy things such as potato chunks, plantain chunks (with the peel still on), green bananas, and beans.  The question I have had in my mind since day 1, and still have not figured out, is how do I eat these huge chunks of things floating in boiling hot broth without burning my hands and my mouth??  I am mostly talking about the meat here, or other things you can't eat with a spoon. I generally have to take all the chunks out and set them on another plate to cool.  However, Hondurans don't seem to have this problem.  Their skin must be un-burnable. 
Of course there are many other types of soup that I have had the privilege of eating this past year: sopa de pollo (chicken), sopa de mariscos (seafood), sopa de frijoles (bean), and my least favorite of them all, sopa de mondongo (cow intestine). 

Some rules about soup in Honduras:
1.  It must be prepared and served on the hottest of days.  I can usually predict the day we will eat soup, because it is the day I am sweating the most, and least feel like eating piping-hot soup.  Hondurans don't like to mix hot and cold-- it's a health thing.
2. No one is allowed to drink water or any other kind of beverage with it.  The soup is your drink. 
3. You must add rice and tortillas to it.  Because of course you wouldn't fill up just eating the huge chunks of things. 


While sopa is definitely not one of my favorite Honduran foods, I should mention that there are so many foods that I do love here.  Baleadas (mainly because homemade flour tortillas are to die for), pupusas, catrachas, tortillas con quesillo, enchiladas, tacos, and pinchos are among my favorites.  And of course, the plato tipico (typical plate) of refried beans, eggs, cheese, chorizo, and tortillas that I eat about twice a day-- and amazingly still haven't gotten tired of.  No doubt, one of the things I will miss most about Honduras is the food.  Just maybe not the soup. :)

Exactly one week left in Tegucigalpa... time is going too fast.  Last week I said my official "adios" to the kids and teachers at school.  I'm expecting this week to be hard as I say goodbye to the other people I have come to love so much in my community.  On the other hand, I know it will be so good to see all of you back home in just a few short weeks!