The vet work took up a lot of time in Leon but we did find some time to play and look around - thanks mainly to our great Nica Vet friends Jorge and Erick. They gave us a flavour of Leon I would never have experienced if I hadn't been with them
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| Leon has 18 churches - you will be glad to know I have not got pictures of them all! |
Leon has a lot of culinary specialities which we sampled - here are a few!
Gallo Pinto: most people in Nicaragua eat this almost daily and it is considered a national symbol. It is composed of a mixture of fried rice with onion and sweet pepper, red beans boiled with garlic. They are mixed and fried all together. It is often eaten for breakfast with eggs - quite often eaten for lunch as well - occasionally for dinner! To be honest you can get quite sick of it...:-)
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| Gallo Pinto |
Vigorón: . A plate is covered with a part of a plantain tree leaf, on top of which yucca, pork, chicharrón and a salad made out of cabbage and tomato is placed - this is delicioso!!
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| Vigoron |
Nacatamale a dough which is prepared with ground corn and butter. This is then filled up with small pieces of pork or chicken, rice, potatoes, tomatoes, onion, sweet pepperThis mixture is packed in leaves of plantain trees (not edible), tightened with a small thread, that makes it look like a tiny pillow. It is then cooked inside the leaves and boiled during five hours - also really nice
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| Nacatamales |
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| Eating my nacatamale at the beach! |
Sopa de Mondongo: this soup is yucca, cow's reticulum (tripe to you and me) and calves feet! You can see the calves foot at the bottom of the bowl the reticulum abobe it and the yucca to the left!! I ate the yucca!!
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| Close up of the calves's foot! |
Quesillo: originally from the department of León. The quesillo is easy to prepare. A piece of cheese (which is named quesillo) is placed inside a tortilla. This is then wrapped up in a plastic bag. Onions and vinegar are added, and the finishing touch is to put fresh cream and a bit of salt on top.
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| Quesillo |
Raspados - now time for dessert - this guy shaves the ice and flavours it with syrups - the 2 favourites are a red one - not really sure of the flavour but I'm sure it's all natural ha ha - the other one is caramelised condensed milk!!
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| Raspado Seller |
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| Health food! |
So when we weren't experimenting with the cuisine we were drinking the beer - only 2 to choose from in Nicararagua - Tona or Victoria - both tasting fairly similar in my opinion!
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| Swift beer after work Luis Erick Jorge and me |
