10 Reasons Why I'm Moving to Belize - #6 FOOD

It's no secret that I love food. A variety of foods suit my palate, including the Caribbean and Creole flavors of Belize. There is also the Mayan and Mexican influence in Belizean dishes, so just like the diversity of it's people, the flavors of Belize are just as diverse!

A staple of the Belizean diet is beans and rice with fried plantains. Now, you have to know how to order it because if you say "beans and rice" you will get a plate of slow-simmered beans, well seasoned with a side of rice. If you order "rice and beans," on the other hand, you'll get a bowl of steamy goodness all mixed together, like what you'd get in New Orleans.

Know the difference--
Rice & Beans (left) - Beans & Rice (right), often served with chicken and/or plantains

As shown above, this dish can be combined with any number of proteins, but chicken and seafood reign supreme in Belize. However, it is often eaten as the main dish--for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

A favorite way to eat "yard bird," is in a dish they call Stewed Chicken:
Although there are many variations on this dish, most traditional recipes keep it simple – just chicken, red recado, onion and water. Red recato is basically a chili paste common to the region made with the powder of ancho and annato chili seeds. Yet to try it, but it looks and sounds DELICIOUS!

Traditional Belizean Tamales are wrapped in plantain leaves and can be made with or without meat. These local favorites and the dish above, show some of the Mexican influences in Belizean cooking.

Now, the area is super fertile and lots of exotic plants and tropical fruits grow there. In fact, the trees are dripping with them! You can find just about anything at local open-air markets and roadside stands. So having locally grown produce and non-GMO meats, which are also abundant at butcher shops, is a definite plus! I can get back to healthy living/eating. It's too expensive to buy imported foods, anyway, so local is best.

And because Placencia is an old fishing village with a lagoon on one side and the Caribbean on the other, seafood is rather plentiful. I LOVE SEAFOOD (well not scallops or anything too "fishy")! And spiny lobster season runs more than half the year--July to February!

Belizean Spiny Lobster (almost always in season)

Now, I've always been a fan of lobster, well ever since I tried it at 18. And on Fort Myers Beach, I had friends that would go lobstering in the Florida Keys. If you've never had a fresh lobster, hot off the grill with nothing more than garlic butter and lemon juice squeezed over it, then YOU HAVE NOT LIVED!!! And I've seen photos of local men grilling lobsters on the sides of Placencia's "tiny main street," (a boardwalk, basically). I could live off of wild caught seafood and locally grown veggies and fruit, trust me!

These little Belizean treats, called Garnache, are another thing I look forward to trying:

They are

 fried corn tortillas topped anyway you like and they look delicious!

And this is just a SAMPLING of the foods of Belize! Ever since I taught myself how to cook (c.2001), I've been a bonafide foodie! I am good with living off the land. I could even grow my own foods--corn, beans, onions, peppers, potatoes...

I won't be eating straight starch for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but an occasional plate of red or black beans with white or saffron rice, would be doable. I'd prefer to eat seafood, fruits and veggies, locally sourced. But this foodie can make himself happy just about anywhere!

And so the 6th reason in my 10 reasons to move to Belize--FOOD!!! (and the abundance of it)!

Pancake Batter

It's probably not good to mix your pancake batter with tears, but that's nearly where I was this morning. And it's got me feeling totally nostalgic. I don't know. Maybe it was the Beatles listening party I attended last night, or listening to Magical Mystery Tour on the laptop this morning, but I nearly spilt happy tears, nostalgic tears into my Hungry Jack Extra Light and Fluffy earlier.

The girls were both taking showers to get ready for school. I had already browned a pan of Lil' Smokies and was allowing the freshly mixed batter to sit and rise (it makes for super fluffy pancakes). As I stood there at the stove in my ex-wife's house, pouring the fluffy mixture into a pre-heated skillet, my mind raced back to the spacious kitchen at 12983 Quarterback Lane where I used to prepare this same breakfast staple on a ceramic top, stainless steel range. My girls were much younger then--Makenna in first grade and MK repeating 3rd (she swears it was second, but I think I remember). Those were the mornings I'd be up early, starting the coffee for my wife and I, packing lunches with love note napkins and mixing that pancake batter. As this morning's first pancake was sizzling on the hot skillet, I reached for a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips and my eyes were full of happy tears over the years of memories making this same morning treat for my sweets.

As I sprinkled in more than a dozen chocolate chips, I welled up with gratitude for the years I've enjoyed being the girls "special daddy." Sorta like the tears I'm fighting back now. Nothing in all my life has made me as happy/fulfilled as being a dad to two precious girls. I used to walk them three blocks to school on crisp autumn mornings in Indiana. Walking back, sometimes with our family dog(s), I was always wearing a smile...happy in the thought I'd just made the best investment of a lifetime. Now, my girls are much older and I hope they've learned to appreciate the investment. Makenna has always told me that the secret ingredient in all of my cooking is LOVE. And she would be right. The pancakes I made this morning--and every time I've made them on countless school mornings, birthdays and weekends--were made that way. When I told her that as she joined me stove-side this morning, Makenna fought back tears, too. I think she saw the misty emotion in my eyes.

That nostalgic feeling carried over to my trip home from the insurance agency, where I had to make another installment on my auto insurance. Driving up St. Augustine to Madison, I decided to pull in front of the Claude Pepper Building into the loading zone where I used to pick up the girls' mother from work after leaving my office on campus. I worked in that building for a short while, too, so I was well acquainted with the Eatz Cafe' in the lobby level atrium. I wasn't used to the new "check in" procedures, but I signed in and went through new security doors to reach the empty atrium dining area. I purchased some scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes and sausage gravy for around $4 and sat there eating alone...just me and my memories. The ladies in Tracy's office threw us a baby shower for Merikathryn in that atrium, just a few feet from where I was eating breakfast. That was in 2001 when MK was still Merikathryn and such a cute little baby. No, I didn't cry inside the Pepper Building, but I certainly felt this blog post coming on.

I called Tracy after I had left to tell her of my fond memories. She was tied up in an out-of-town training workshop, so I just told her to read this post when she had time.

Our girls have given us many years of happy memories. MK's adoption 14 years ago still seems like a recent one. Then again, it seems a million lightyears away. As I looked at her this morning, double backpacks, embarking on another day in 8th grade, I was amazed at what a beautiful young lady she has become, seemingly overnight. Well, that does it for this entry. Hope you've enjoyed walking with me down memory lane. :)