My one in a million delicacy !!!

Yes, I admit it. I love food! But not just any food--Belizean food.

When I was away from home, I used to miss our local dishes so much that I would call my mom for recipes. The long distance calls became pretty costly and of course, my attempts never came out as good as hers at home, mostly because I lacked ingredients like recado, an essential seasoning, or coconut milk. And pepper, Belizeans just love peppers and hot (pepper) sauce: habanero's and jalapenos, the hotter the better!

But now that my mom is home with me, I can leave my denial behind and "nyam" my Belizean food.

How I used to miss those sizzling fry jacks smeared with beans for breakfast. Or hot Johnny cakes, those flat round fluffy biscuits cut open and covered with melted butter! Or maybe filled with ham and cheese slices.

In every Belizean town you can find people selling hot delicious meat pies from a basket on their bicycle, or walking through the streets with a bucket of conch fritters, a seasonal treat, or corn and chicken tamales or tamalitos, commonly called dukunu. 

As noon approaches, our office starts buzzing with excitement. For in Belize you don't take a simple lunch break, its dinnertime. We eat our largest meal of the day at 12 o'clock and many schools and workplaces close for a least an hour or so, giving people a chance to go home and eat their meal as a family.

Rice is such an important food in Belize that some have renamed the dinner hour "rice hour" but it could just as easily be "bean hour." Belizeans love their beans--particularly red beans. And the rice? Twice as nice cooked with real grated coconut, (not the variety that comes in the can that I had to use here.)

You can't live in Belize, or spend a vacation here, without eating rice-and-beans. It is the national staple and some people eat it every single day! No kidding.

If you want a change of pace, you can always switch to beans-and-rice. There is a critical distinction and you must be clear when ordering in a restaurant because beans-and-rice is where the beans are cooked separately and spooned with their own gravy over white rice.

Of course the real variety comes in the choice of meat or fish. A lot of items are stewed: stewed fish, oxtail, beef, chicken or pork. There is even stewed lobster, when the season is open. Game meats are popular too, with Belizeans enjoying deer, Hicatee, iguana or gibnut. Side dishes are generally potato salad made from real Heinz salad dressing, the key ingredient that makes Belizean potato salad Belijun, or coleslaw.

And while it may not be so easy to find plantains abroad, at home we grow them in abundance. Fried to a sweet golden brown, they make a tasty side addition to any meal.

Wash all this down with some fresh orange, lime, watermelon or cantaloupe juice and you've got the perfect dinner.

Unless of course you prefer a soup like escabeche (an onion broth with chicken), chirmole or relleno, both black soups. Then of course there is fish sere and hudut both of which are made from coconut milk, conch soup and the ever popular, thick cowfoot soup. (Try it before you dismiss it, you may become addicted or start craving it at 2 in the morning after 

an evening at a nightclub).

After lunch of course there is another food crisis. Where to get dessert? Most restaurants will have a lemon (merengue) pie, milk (caramel cake) and chocolate cake; but sometimes I want something different like bread pudding, sweet potato pound or cassava cake.

Naturally I have to get a little something to tide me over until I can get home and knead some dough to make bread and bun for supper.

So therefore no matter which foods I may encounter myself with I still worship my Belizean food. Its the pillar to my culture and the culinary flavor the my appetite.