Nicaragua: Lose yourself to dance

Caesar salad dressing, garlic sauce, garbanzo beans, basil, curry, mozzarella cheese, chocolate-covered almonds, and Mexican imports such as salsa verde, jalapeños, and mole.

Each time I take a step into the grocery store here (simply known as the "Super"), I am delightfully surprised by finding a food item which I had previously thought unavailable for purchase in my town. It makes cooking my own meals feel even more fun and adventurous.

Creativity within the Nica diet tends to lack, despite the availability of somewhat "diverse" ingredients. Most stick to their beloved rice, beans, fried plantains, and chicken. And most are content with this plate the majority of the time. Every once-in-a-while I get a craving for a hearty plate of rice and beans, but those occurrences are becoming fewer and far-er between. If I am offered a plate of Nica food, I'll usually accept it (minus whatever sort of fried meat they try to include); however, if I am cooking for myself (which is the case 95% of the time) you can bet your bottom dollar that one of my meals includes more vegetables than an average Nica eats in an entire week.

One of the teachers I'm working with here proposed an exciting opportunity to me a few weeks ago: let's cook dinner together. Her conditions were that I choose the menu and teach her how to cook a dish that I like, hoping to diversify the variety of recipes she uses. Since it was our first cooking-together experience, I didn't want to choose something too exotic and foreign to her palate, therefore we settled on a simple pasta.

We cooked the spaghetti noodles, sauteed the onions, green peppers, and tomatoes with olive oil and garlic, added a pre-made tomato sauce, then topped the sauce on the noodles (she added chicken to hers) and dinner was served. I didn't think it was anything too special, but after all of the cooking and eating was said and done, this teacher friend contently reclined back in her chair, belly full, and admitted to me that she didn't know spaghetti could be prepared with ingredients other than noodles, ketchup, and cream. Yep, that is the Nicaraguan way to make it, and I hope she never makes it that way again.

I still haven't decided what we will cook next time. Suggestions welcome.