Cooking Class

We went on a market tour and cooking class. There are many places to take a cooking class here with most of them in a formal kitchens where they cook more things. We choose to do a class in a Guatamalan home. We didn't cook as many things, but it was just the two of us, our guide Axel, and Elsa the teacher / head chef. We started at the market and then Axel drove us to Elsa's house in a neighboring town.

First about Axel. He and his wife do tours for a living. He first took us to the market where he pointed out different foods and explained how the market works. On Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, the market is in full force with farmers bringing their produce and vendors coming from all over. It is very busy these days. We were here on Monday and were overwhelmed. This day (Friday) it was still busy but not overwhelmingly so. Axel bought 5 different fruits popular here that we were not familiar with. Later, at the house, he prepared them and let us sample them. There are many food vendors here as well, like a food court, but we don't eat the street food. We cannot drink the water here so unless the food has been prepared with filtered water, it is not safe to drink and foods prepared without filtered water not safe to eat. Alex took our fruits and washed them with chlorine and then rinsed then before we ate them. (In our apt we have a filter but we also boil the water first and then put it through the filter.)

Elsa is a very typical Guatamalan women. She spends most of her day in the kitchen preparing food for her family. Her husband is a coffee farmer. She has four children, three of whom live with her. One daughter is married and lives elsewhere. Her other daughter works, a son works and goes to college, and another son is on secondary school preparing to be a mechanic. She prepares breakfast, lunch, and dinner for everyone on a wood burning stove. She also makes and sells breads in the afternoon. She walks daily with her corn to the grinder and then back. This is needed to prepare the dough for tortillas. They do whatever they can to make living easier as incomes are not large.

Elsa walked us through how to make Pepian, a Guatamalan stew, rice, Mole- a chocolate cinnamon dessert with plantains, and tortillas. The mole contained many of the same vegetable that were in the stew, but run through a blender
We cooked the chicken and chopped and roasted the vegetables needed for the stew, rice, and the mole. Then we attempted to make tortillas. It does take practice. When we were done, we ate together. Elsa did not speak English but is an extremely hospitable person telling us we are part of the family and welcome anytime. Axel was a great translator. Over a delicious lunch we talked about cultures, education, politics, and may other topics. Axel is a very smart man and made sure everyone was involved in the conversation via his translation.

We returned full and more educated in the Guatamala culture.Læs mere