mmm-yoso!!!

Antigua: La Fonda de la Calle Real, and Antigua at night.....

I'd readily admit that I did almost no research on where to eat before our trip to Guatemala. Work and other commitments kept those efforts to a minimum. In the end we had to depend on guidebooks, and other info to guide our eating. There was one restaurant that seemed to always be on the radar on all the Antigua websites and in all the guidebooks; La Fonda de la Calle Real....simply known as La Fonda. La Fonda serves upscale "Comida Tipica"......upscale enough for Bill Clinton to eat there during his visit, and is an institution in Antigua with three locations.

 

We chose the location on 5 Avenida Norte, because.....well, we were in the area, and two, we were starving after our morning tour of a few of the surrounding villages. There's quite a bit of ample seating in the large restaurant, and we were taken to a table in the bright and sunny courtyard area. In the rear is a kitchen and grill area which the Missus headed off to.....and proceeded to have every pot opened...asking a zillion questions...all of which was answered with good humor.

  

After placing our orders....in which I made a faux pas of ordering the same dish twice (ok, since it was pretty good), a plate of garnishes and seasonings was placed at our table.

 

It included a chili powder, oregano, lime, and cilantro and onions. We ended up using all of the cilantro and onions and lime.

We also used up all the green "Salsa Picante" to the amazement of the staff, who warned us beforehand, "muy picante, muy picante..." We even had a refill.

 

This was nice and tangy, and mildly hot. We found the food we ate in Guatemala to be fairly mild in the heat department.

The bowl of oregano was also a nice touch, as it came in handy with a few of the "Caldos".

 

We started with an order of Tamalitos de Chipilín (16Q - $2):

  

This proved be very dense rectangles of masa, and in spite of the menu saying it was flavored with Chipilin, black beans, and cheese, quite bland and dry. The salsa ranchera was a bit watery for our tastes, and on the mild side.

I had ordered a bowl of Kac-Ik ("Cack-ik", "Caquik"), a turkey soup that is from the city of Cobán in Central Guatemala (54Q - $6.75). 

 

The soup was accompanied by mixed rice and a tamal. The broth was thin, but had a pleasant hint of onion and garlic. The addition of lime brought some of the background flavors out....I detected what I believe was mint and perhaps clove in the soup. I also added the onion and cilnatro for some bite. In spite of the color, the soup was mild in the heat department, with whatever combination of chilies used added a mild smokiness to the broth. I really enjoyed the turkey meat, it was gamey, and didn't look at all like "Western" turkey. In fact, the Missus didn't believe it was turkey.....She thought it to be lamb. I had to grab one of the Servers to explain to the Missus that this was indeed turkey!

We also ordered the Frijoles Volteados (31Q - $4), your basic Guatemalan refried black beans:

 

To my amusement, this was the Missus's favorite dish of the meal. This is where Her love affair with Frijoles Volteados began. I'm not quite sure what it is, but the Missus, an avowed frijoles hater just loves this. The hand made tortillas provided were grilled over an open flame, making them crisp.....on the menu it said it was "tortilla chips", but this was way better.

The Missus went to work on the frijoles, which when combined with the salsa picante, onions, and cilantro made for quite a treat.

So much of a treat that the Missus's main course, Estofado de Cordero (79Q - $10), went unheralded.

 

And yet, it was very good! This stew from the region of Tecpán, had a nice tomato tangy richness, and the "cordero" had a good "flavor of the pasture." 

I selected the El Comal de los Recados (76Q - $9.50), which was a sampler. I neglected to notice that Kac-Ik was included in this as well. But since we enjoyed it, that wasn't a problem.

 

In addition to the Kac-Ik, the rice, and tamal, this sampler included Revolcado de Pollo, a thin stew of sorts. There was a mild chili flavor, with hints of garlic and onions, and you could tell that offal played a big role in the making of this stew. It was a bit too strong in flavor for the Missus (I didn't tell Her about the offal until later - when I displayed the small minced livers).

Also included was a dish I really wanted to try, Pollo de Pepian, a dish that I've read about.

 

The base of the stew is a seasoning mix that includes "Pepitoria" (pumpkin seeds) and a variety of chilies. Every version of this I ate was different, so it's hard to really get my bearing on this dish. The only thing in common was the use of pepitoria and a tomato base. This version was much milder than I thought it would be, though the chicken was nice and tender.

There was something quite deceptive about this meal....it was very heavy.....major food coma heavy. A group of women on the table next to us, ordered in a similar fashion, each got an appetizer, a main (which they polished off), and they even each got a dessert, which they demolished. We, on the other hand were totally finished off. La Fonda is not cheap, in fact it was the most expnsive meal of our trip coming it at close to $40. But we managed to learn a bit about eating in Guatemala (and even Honduras), meals are leisurely, and very hearty. We headed back to our room and passed out!

Later that evening we decided to take a stroll.......and found an interesting mixture of people. Youngsters heading home from school and workers headed West toward the buses. Tourists were wandering about, looking for a place to eat, perhaps a hostel, or in search of liquid refreshment.

 

And even at night Antigua is very photogenic.

 

We headed to Parque Central, where we found rows of people with their camera gear out....tripods, remote flashes....you name it. All cameras were aimed at the beautifully illuminated Cathedral of San Jose:

 

After for a while sitting and watching people set-up, line-up, adjust, set-up, line-up, check settings.....set-up, line-up, it seemed that very few photos were actually taken......we headed back to our room. We were still feeling a bit sluggish from lunch, and settled for two pieces of chicken and a few tortillas for dinner.

A tour of the villages around Antigua......it's all about Parque Central!

There are tons of tourist activities in and around Antigua, coffee tours, volcano hikes, and so on..... Before sleeping the Missus and I chatted about what to do in the morning. We picked up the conversation when we woke a 500am the next morning. We decided to discuss the days plans over some coffee.....and to our surprise we found that Antigua gets started pretty late. There's not much open a 6am. Most of the locals don't live in Antigua, and come from outside Central Antigua area via car or "Chicken Bus":

One of the few places we found open during that early hour was Cafe Barista right off of Parque Central. So while the Missus had Her latte:

 

And I my "Cafe Negro" (black coffee - it was quite good!):

 

In our very Westernized surroundings......

 

We tried to plan our day. What the Missus didn't want, was to be marched around with a bunch of other tourists. She decided that instead of the volcano hike, She wanted to visit some of the surrounding villages. So we started checking around, only to find that tours like that weren't offered....which wasn't much of a loss to us, since we kinda wanted to do our own thing. Finally, after going to Atitrans to make our shuttle reservations to Copan Ruinas, we found an agency where we could hire a driver for the morning. Our own little "Chicken Bus"...... I'm sure that our shuttle driver from Guatemala City, Mauricio would approve. When Mauricio found out that the Missus wanted to ride on the Chicken Bus, he became very concerned, "I do not recommend it...." 

The Missus ran down the block to a nearby Tienda (market) for some Agua Pura, while I took care of the paperwork. Soon enough a minivan pulled up and we were on our way. Our driver Nino ("not Niño!") spoke a bit of English, but was more comfortable with Spanish. The Missus was, doing pretty well...the key word was "despacio...." (slowly). And for some reason, we could get the gist of what he was trying to say.

Our first stop was the village of San Antonio Aguas Calientes . Aguas Calientes, is an indigenous village known for their textiles. Of course there's a Parque Central:

 

And requisite Church:

 

But what Aguas Calientes is most known for, and what draws tourists here, are the bright and colorful hand made textiles, much of it located in this building right of the Parque Central.

 

We were told that the textiles in Aguas Calientes are the most famous in the country......and I must say, they were the best we saw during this trip.

 

This woman was wonderful, She demonstrated the weaving technique, and went on to spend almost 20 minutes with us trying to explain the different patterns and symbolism used in the wide variety of textiles.

 

And though we didn't purchase anything, we made sure to give her a few dollars for her knowledge and effort. On the upper floor of the building is a museum of sorts, with displays of the textiles and designs of the different people and regions of Guatemala.

 

Our next stop was to be Ciudad Vieja. We drove through a few villages on our way to Ciudad Vieja.

  

 

As we passed this intersection, the Missus exclaimed, "stop! stop, please....."

 

She had seen this vendor.

 

She was selling tostadas.........a simple thing, but this is where the Missus, who really doesn't care for frijoles, became enamored with what they call "Frijoles Negro Volteados" (fried black beans), which is smeared on the deep fried tortilla.

 

Along with the beans the tostada is topped with a bit of encurtido (pickled vegetable, in this case cabbage), and bit of "salsa picante" by request.

 

We soon found out that "muy picante" in Guatemala, isn't very picante (spicy) by our standards.

After our brief "breakfast" we made it to Ciudad Vieja. The village itself was once the capital of Guatemala, until it was destroyed by a mudslide in 1541.

 

This Parque Central was bit different, mainly because of this:

In Parque Central is the public laundry....and it seemed like it was wash day! Women were walking down to the square, baskets of laundry balanced on their heads as if in defiance of gravity.

 

Nino even got the Missus a turn at some laundry. I'm guessing that many homes in the area don't have water hook-ups. No bones about it, this is hard work.......

 

 

Our next stop was the village of San Juan del Obispo. This village was the home of Guatemala's first Bishop, Francisco Marroquín, and there is a lovely Church and Convent, in Parque Central. We however, we distracted. by all the kids laughing and carrying on.......  

And because of road work, we could go no further. So we stopped and admired the view.

 

In short order, all the kids stopped right where we stood, and started yelling........

 

At first I couldn't make out what they were saying....and then it hit me! They were all screaming "AGUA AQUI! AGUA AQUI!" I ducked behind a pillar just before the tanker truck turned its hose on the kids.

 

I'm sure the screams of joy echoed through the entire village!

 

It was a pretty hot day, and a good splash of cold water would have made for the perfect remedy. The lively screams of joy and laughter couldn't help but bring a smile to your face.

 

The kids followed the tanker truck out of town, like a four wheeled Pied Piper.

 

Our last stop of the day was the town of Santa Maria de Jesus. This town is the usual starting point for hikes to Agua Volcano. And in this Parque Central, it was market day!

 

We were instantly immersed in a world of bright colors and smells that were both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

 

 

There was a wide array of tropical fruits.

 

And we even spied some pacaya...... 

 

And even some Iguana for sale.

 

After walking around a bit we headed back down the mountain. On one of the side streets, the Missus saw another tortilleria. The heat coming out of this tiny windowless room was stifling.

 

A young lady of 20 years, was hard at work

 

 

The young lady was very friendly, and apparently just a curious about the Missus, as the Missus was with Her. Man do I miss hand made tortillas, and these were wonderful, perhaps second or third best we had during our trip.....and we had tortillas with just about every meal.

 

It had been a busy morning....four villages, just miles apart, but each one different. For villages, four Parque Centrals, each one a different picture etched into our minds.

We headed back to Antigua.......it was time for lunch!

Antigua: We arrive, some sights, and Pollo Campero of course......

Our flight left LAX at 1am in the morning, by the time we arrived for our connecting flight in Mexico City, the Missus was exhausted. Unfortunately, we had a six-and-a-half hour layover. The Missus, who had worked seventy or so hours in the previous six days up to our trip was totally fried. Thank God for the American Express Lounge!

 

The Missus collapsed from exhaustion on one of the couches, while I checked the internet, and managed to catch a couple of movies...all of which I'd seen before, but it helped pass the time. Another benefit, which didn't become apparent until later, was that we were the only folks in the lounge. This minimized contact with anyone who could have been carrying the dreaded swine flu, which had not yet become major news.

We arrived, bouncing over the cobblestone streets of Antigua to our hotel, the Hotel Casa Florencia (more on that later) at about 430 in the afternoon. The first thing we did after stowing our bags was to take a walk around the city. Central Antigua itself is not very large, and easy to navigate. The streets are set-up in a grid pattern, the Avenidas go north - south, the Calles go east - west. As with most cities, towns, and villages, the center of town is marked with a Parque Central.

The town itself is colorful, and picturesque, but there's one landmark that seemed to always be in view. It is the Volcan de Agua, which rises over the beaming, bright, and vivid city.

  

Located to the south, Volcan de Agua seems part guardian, standing protectively over Antigua, and yet, it also seems to loom somewhat menacingly above the city at the same time. Mudslides, eruptions, and earthquakes play a very large part in the history of Antigua. The city was once the capital of Guatemala, but after a large earthquake in in 1717 which destroyed over 3,000 structures, followed by a whole series of earthquakes in 1773, the capital was moved to the current location of Guatemala City, and Antigua was mostly abandoned. You can still see many ruins about and around the city.

 

You can always find your way in Antigua, by finding Volcan de Agua.....just look south.

 

Parque Central is the heart of the city, with the Cathedral of San Jose, and the central fountain.

 

With its lactating maidens.....

 

Of all the structures around Parque Central, I was always drawn to the Palace of the Captains General, which borders the entire south side of Parque Central.

 

Once the Spanish Colonial Government was located in this building, which has been destroyed, damaged, and rebuilt after several earthquakes, the last of which was in 1976. Perhaps it was the 27 arches that lined each floor, or the play of light and shadow........

And yet, one just had to glance south to see....

 

Another symbol of Antigua is the famed Arch of Santa Catalina.

 

First completed in 1693, it was built to allow Nuns of the Convent of Santa Catalina to fulfill the conditions of cloister, out of public view and contact, to access a vegetable garden across the street.

And yet, the Volcan de Agua looms above this Antigua icon as well.

 

One only need look up while navigating the cobblestone streets....

 

 

Somehow that volcano managed to get itself into most of out photos of Antigua.

In the mornings, when I opened the door of our room at the Casa Florencia, guess what greeted me?

 

Even now, as I look south, I fully expect to see Volcan de Agua in the the distance......

And then there's Pollo Campero.....which seems like an inauspicious first meal. But one must remember that many folks consider Pollo Campero to be Guatemala's gift to the food world. Founded in 1971, Pollo Campero is literally translated to mean "Country Chicken", and now has branches in 11 countries, including one in Shanghai! Now I've had Pollo Campero in the states, there are several locations in the LA area, and truth be told, I was underwhelmed by greasy and dry chicken. But, I had been told that PC in Guatemala was a different story; and seeing all the folks with bags of PC at La Aurora Airport was an affirmation.

 

After stowing our backpacks, I spoke to the very nice young lady at the front desk of our hotel. Like many folks we ran into in Guatemala, they found my questions about food, a bit well strange and humorous. The young lady brought one of those handy dandy maps out from under the desk, and marked off some of the important places for us; the banks, the large grocery in town, and of course the two Pollo Campero locations. There was one caveat, we were assured that the 5 Avenida Norte location was much better than the location next to the market. The 5 Avenida Norte outlet is just down the block from The Arch, and you can either get in line for "para lleva" (take0out), or take a seat in the pretty large dining area.

 

The Pollo Frito at Campero has a distinctive smell.....much like In-n-Out, you can pick up the scent blocks away. As we entered PC, we suddenly realized that in addition to being exhausted.....we were pretty hungry as well, and went a bit crazy ordering.....

The Missus wanted some greens so we started with the Ensalada de Casa (House salad - 35Q/$4.25):

 

A fairly routine salad, topped with what seemed like "Pechuguitas" (chicken breast strips), which were mildly spicy.

We also ordered a "Torta Sensasion" (Pollo Torta - 15Q/$1.85).

 

A basic chicken sandwich.......one thing we noticed in Guatemala, is that they like their bread really dry, and crumbly. We never quite got used to that. The Missus, who is not fond of frijoles, instantly fell in love with the way frijole negro is made in Guatemala. It is rich and creamy, with a nice flavor. Still, this was just a chicken sandwich.

There was something on the menu I just had to try......the Campero Dog (10Q/$1.25). I saw folks buying dozens of this.......the PC outlets in Flores and La Aurora Airport even had 2 for 18 Quetzal specials.

 

It seemed like this dog had been finished in the deep fryer. Topped with guacamole, coleslaw, and ketchup(!), this just looked wrong. It was pretty good, especially topped with PC's "Salsa Picante", the green stuff, which was tangy, spicy, and mildly sweet....we ended up using it on everything...even as pseudo-salad dressing!

 

I'd eat it on shoe leather! The ketchup however, was not our thing, it was waaay too sweet.

And of course we had some chicken...."traditional" (2 pieces - 23Q/$2.75):

 

Man was this better than in the states....crisp, non-greasy, with a wonderful flavor! It tasted close to broasted.

Another thing that PC in Guatemala has over those in the states are these ladies:

 

In front of every Pollo Campero you'll find ladies sitting with wicker baskets covered with cloth. These ladies are selling tortillas. Which sell for about 4 tortillas per Quetzal (12 cents).

 

Wrapped in brown paper, these tortillas are a perfect partner to Pollo Campero's Pollo Frito....heck, I even just ate the tortillas with the salsa picante on them. On several nights....tired from a day of hikes or travel from town to town, we settled in for two pieces of Pollo Campero, tortillas, and of course, salsa picante.

 

If you want to do it one better, a few streets away (actually everything is pretty much a few streets away in Antigua), you can find a Tortilleria like this one:

 

These shops are usually tiny windowless rooms with a hot comal constantly going. The heat is oppressive, and it is usually a young woman making the tortillas....the constant stacatto "patt-patt-pat-pat-pat" heard outside the door.

 

In Guatemala, tortillas are made with only masa and water. The young lady in this shop, named Susanna, was very nice, and explained that there are three basic types of tortillas in Guatemala, white, yellow, and black.

 

Susanna was only seventeen, and worked in these conditions everyday, we could imagine how hot it got in the room.......it was a humbling experience. We ended up sharing one of our tamals with her. A few days later we walked by the shop, Susanna saw me, and gave me a big smile, and a hearty wave....I guess we kinda stood out here.

Pollo Campero is not cheap by Guatemala standards, but we've seen those women selling tortillas getting on Chicken Buses with boxes of Pollo Frito. That says something. We ate at five different locations of Pollo Campero on this trip, and this location was the best, the Flores location the worst(stay away from the Papas Fritas)....it was like the stuff I had in LA. So what makes the chicken at PC better in Guatemala...who knows, maybe it's the "manteca" (L-A-R-D)? But it is better.

Folks in Guatemala sure love their Pollo Frito.....but lest you think that's all we ate......stay tuned!