Fútbol & Baleadas

Sunday I spent the day like many of you probably did - watching football. Fútbol that is; the Honduran national sport and pastime. The game took place in the next town over, Morazán (about a 40 minute drive in car). I was given a special invitation as the team 'trainer'. My job was to lead the team in some warm-ups and stretches before they soundly defeated the other team 3-0! I found a seat on an 8-ft high cement wall under a tree, which protected me from the light rain, but did nothing against the downpour during the second half. If you end up soaking wet and your team won, it's totally worth it. If your team lost, it's just miserable. Fortunately our team won and I got a nice tan (read: light sunburn) out of it (when it wasn't raining). I think everyone's getting used to me walking around rojito (red) by now. Or at least they stop asking me if I just got done playing fútbol.

The team is doing well. Or they're just lucky. I'm no soccer expert, but I've watched the World Cup and I've seen what a professional soccer game looks like: there's usually a lot of passing and not as much running (compared to these guys). These guys, late teens to early twenties, seem to play like little kids in the street - crowding the ball and making half-field solo attempts at the goal. Maybe I'll read a couple articles about soccer before giving my input, but I'd like to use this as a platform to subtly talk about individualism versus team mentality (something that pervades the culture here). Other advice that seems cliché like 'control the pace of the game' could be of major benefit to these guys that haven't seen your classic sports films. (Not saying I've seen them all, but I do remember Air Bud making a great QB and Point Guard). I'd like to be able to give a great half-time pep talk in Spanish one of these days. That's an outstanding goal of mine.

The other thing I did on Sunday that you probably all did was eat food. Maybe some of you even ate Mexican food, but I bet nobody (minus you other Honduras PCVs) ate Honduran food, let alone the Honduran national dish (that's what I call it at least): Baleadas. The best part is you can eat these for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Just switch up the toppings to give it a different feel. I'm not sure why I love this food so much, since it's one of the most basic foods you could possibly imagine (it should be on the 99¢ menu at Taco Bell). Although when you make the ingredients from scratch, it can get pretty involved. Here's how you can eat one:

Your favorite Mexican fast-food drive-thru:
Order a bean burrito (no cheese)
Add sour cream
Find yourself some queso seco (dry white cheese, probably not available at fast-food chains which is why you're in the drive-thru so you can complete the baleada with the cheese in your passenger seat you bought at the grocery store 5 minutes ago) and crumble it on
Packets of hot sauce to your liking

Home version:
1 packet flour tortillas, warmed
1 can refried beans, also warmed
1 package of mexican cream (crema de mesa in Guatemala, or mantequilla here; sour cream that isn't sour. Or use sour cream if you can't find any)
1 package queso seco
Chili sauce
Avocado, optional
Scrambled egg, optional
Favorite meat, optional

Authentic version:
Handmade flour tortillas, still hot (recipe to come when I learn how to make this. Right now I get them from friends or pay the laundry lady about 50 cents for a dozen)
Refried beans (see recipe below)
1 bag mantequilla
1/2lb queso seco
chili
avocado, optional
scrambled egg, optional
meat of choice, optional

Refried beans (not as easy as you thought):
First, mix beans back and forth several times between two buckets in front of a fan (best to do this outside) to blow away most of the dirt and grass.
Then go through by hand sorting out any rocks or bad beans (split, black, holes).
Next you can soak the beans with plenty of water for a few hours to make the cooking time shorter.
Boil beans with a few cloves of garlic (or add later w/ onion for stronger flavor) until done (40-60 mins), using water from soaking. You'll end up with a sort of bean soup. Don't dump this water, it has a lot of nutrients.
Remove garlic and let beans cool for about an hour (so they don't ruin your blender)
Blend beans in blender (in stages if you have a lot of beans), add water if necessary.
Finely dice some onion and fry with a little oil. Add blended beans and heat until simmering.

Voila! You just made refried beans from scratch! Now you can make those delicious baleadas!
Note: If you don't cook the beans again (i.e. refry them), they will ruin unless you stick them in the freezer to refry (or boil) at another time. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.

Enjoy!