Food

Food

    Although exist an enormous variety of food in New York, I find the transition from my home country aliments arduous. First, I considered Honduran food delicious. For instance, you can enjoy a fresh and natural meal with traditions and recipes that my ancestors used (Mayas). Second, New York food is extremely expensive, as I expected the price of a meal could be three or more times than the price of the equivalent meal in Honduras. Finally, due to diversity of cultures represented in New York, we have plenty of dishes to enjoy, but you can’t find a tasty and healthy at low rates.

    Many years ago my ancestors invented what we called “Tortilla”, the Tortilla is made from maize flour, and is one of the most important components of the Honduran food. Moreover, almost the 67% of the population used this food as the most important part of their diet because is inexpensive. We use firewood to cook the tortillas given them a spectacular flavor. In this way, many dishes that we prepared are cooked with firewood enhancing the experience of eating. Additional components like beans, Mantequilla (is a kind of fresh butter), avocado, fried plantain, recent grinded coffee, just to mentioned a few. Hence, there is a huge difference of the flavors with the same ingredients between my home country and NY. 

    When we decided to look around outside the campus, it was easy to realize the vast difference in price between aliments from my home country and in this city. As I mentioned, a dish with the same ingredients in my country could be 3 or 4 times cheaper than the ones in the restaurants in NY. Naturally, the cost of living influences all the area. The ingredients imported take a huge role in these rates. For example, bananas are imported from Honduras, USA get those bananas that follow the standards established, but not necessarily the ones with a good taste. 

    Finally, there are many differences between Honduras and USA. I find American food one of the biggest challenges to overcome; Not only because of the flavor, but also the price. In order to overcome this challenge I’m absolutely going to cook in my time as student in Indiana. If any of you are close to West Lafayette, IN, I will be honored if I could cook four you guys.

P.S. I miss my tortillas. 

Servio Palacios

spalacio@purdue.edu