You would think that in a country that consumes as much chicken as Guatemala, you would find chicken wings on every corner … but no. Until recently, it was impossible to even buy a chicken wing that wasn’t attached to a chicken breast … which meant that in order to prepare Buffalo Wings for two, you would have to buy about a dozen chicken breasts and cut the wings off. You can see the problem. Anyway, I recently found a new “poultry lady” who, with some prior notice, can find me a few pounds of wings (without breasts). For several days I have been adding new wing recipes to my BigOven files (now there is a program that I can heartily recommend if one likes recipes and cooking!) and studying them and imagining them … and finally decided to begin with three of my favorites … Buffalo Wings (left), teriyaki wings (right) and crispy parmesan wings (center). Sunday seemed like the ideal day for wings, which can be eaten in front of the televised “futbal” games, so I prepared them for a late Sunday lunch today, and served them with small baked potatoes and a yogurt-chive sauce. All three of these recipes were relatively easy to prepare, require no long marinating time, and other than the wings themselves, oh yes, and the parmesan cheese, contain ingredients that are easy to obtain. I will definitely use these three recipes again.

Yes, its true. We have the world’s best pollo guisado right here in Peten! We discovered it shortly after making El Remate our home (13 years ago). In those days, we would go “to town” once a month for whatever supplies we needed. We would take the early bus in, and go to the market for breakfast. The first few times we went, we tried pollo guisado in different “comedors” in the market, and in the end, Comedor Elena won hands down, and we have been going there for our “breakfast” of pollo guisado at least once a week ever since.

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I wanted to try a new dish today, but I haven’t been to town for supplies in a while so I was limited to things I could pick up in the local tienda. I had tried this dish once before, but I had used large muffin cups to bake it, and they overflowed. This time I baked it as one casserole, and it turned out great!! It is made from a combination of sausage, sauteed with chopped onion and red pepper, then diced cooked potatoes, chopped tomato and chopped cilantro are added. I always use about twice as much chopped cilantro … I love the flavor! Also, we can get two types of sausage here … a red sausage called chorizo, that is based on achiote, and a light sausage called longaniza, which is flavored with cilantro. For this dish, I prefer the chorizo. The whole sausage potato mixture is spread into a buttered baking dish and topped with eggs. Just before it is fully cooked, you add grated cheddar to the top. Unfortunately, the only cheddar I can get here is similar to orange rubber in both taste and texture, so even though I added it, it is more of a visually appealing feature than a taste addition. I served it with whole wheat toast, but I think it would be better with hot biscuits. And its very filling … if I serve it as part of a Gringo breakfast, one egg section would probably be sufficient after the fruit, yogurt, granola, muffins etc.

This enchilada plate is also at the top of the “favorites” list amongst the Gringo Perdido clientelle. We call it “Enchiladas Giselita” … since Giselle taught us this recipe on one of her recent visits to the hotel. The enchiladas, which have been stuffed with shredded chicken breast and herbs, are placed on a bed of pureed red beans, covered with a delicious green tomatillo sauce and shredded mozzarella and garnished with avocado quarters.

Gringo Perdido is this beautiful little ecological hostel in the middle of the jungle that I have the great good fortune to manage. You can check it out at www.hotelgringoperdido.com. This dinner is one of the house favorites and is so popular amongst our guests that we usually serve it for their first night’s dinner. It includes a traditional cole slaw with apples and raisins, a cream of brocoli soup, teriyaki chicken strips with garlic baked potatoes, vegetable rice and steamed carrots/guisquil. This feast is accompanied by Reina’s home-made hot whole wheat bread and one of a variety of icy cold fruit drinks. Your desert is a fresh tangy tasty lemon meringue pie, served with strong Guatemalan coffee or Te de Santa Maria – a local jungle tea that is reminicent of anise.

The other day I planned a menu of Chicken Chili and Pizza Muffins. I reached for the bottle of white beans on the top shelf, and as I began to open the jar, I realized that the beans were full of holes. One thing I have learned in the jungle is that, where there are holes, there is a creature making the holes. I know the people who live here have a way of dealing with them when they are full of whatever bug eats beans, but I can’t. So I threw them out. The nearest store that carries white beans is 30 kilometers away. I decided to make the muffins anyway. To begin with, the recipe was in grams. How many cups of flour are in 250 grams? I went to my computer and pulled up a conversion chart. No such conversion as grams to cups. Using a double formula of grams to pounds and pounds to cups, I eventually figured I was ready to begin. I keep the mozzarella frozen to prevent it from becoming blue cheese before I can use it. Fortunately, the other ingredients were straightforward. I decided to add a half green olive to the top of each for decoration, and I like the way it turned out. They tasted great hot from the oven … with a pat of my butter/olive oil blend … and would probably be best with a hot creamy thick soup like Lentil with Lemon grass.