HONDURAS 12/27/2010: Americans in Honduras – Dia 7: La Cena (Last night’s dinner)

OK.. This little addendum to today’s travelogue is mostly for foodies.. but perhaps everyone else will find some interest.

I had scoped out the town earlier today, and also read about a restaurant called Rinconcito Graciano. When I found it today, it was closed but the woman outside (with baby in tow) said it opened at 7. I said I’d be back around 8.

What I had read was that the owner and chef (Lizeth Perdomo) is involved in preservation — both of the town and of the traditions of Lenca cooking passed on by her grandmother and great grandmother (family recipes). When we arrived the door was locked but Lizeth (who turned out to be the woman I met in the afternoon) immediately came to the door, unlocked it, and let us in. It’s her house, and the front room (and also a tiny side yard) had been turned into the “restaurant.” You guess it– Mike and I were the only diners.. but what a treat. Lizeth (at least this is what I think, since the conversation was totally in Spanish) grows most of the food; she only uses natural ingredients grown locally. The little pillows on the chairs are stuffed coffee sacks; the menu is handwritten on recycled paper. Drinks (she didn’t have any wine or beer, although natural home made brews are on the menu; we could have walked around town to get some beer or wine and bring it in, but it seemed to complicated) are served in the scooped out shell of some kind of vegetable… and then sit on a little wooden disk for “stability.”

We started with a cucumber juice (naturally, I must have asked 10 times to confirm that she didn’t use any water in making the juice)… which was just cucumber and lemon.. It was sublime!.. We had ticucos (tamales made with loroco – a central American flower bud – and also beans and some other stuff; and chorocos (which seemed also like a tamale). Both were great.. Oh by the way, everything is served on lenca pottery (a dark brown heavy ceramic, somewhat crudely formed; she cooks with lenca pottery too)..

For the main course Mike had some vegetarian thing.. that seemed a bit like a cross between an omelet and a frittata.. but was neither, with herbs and vegetables. I had the beef. We shared a side dish of chayote.. And then we shared another different juice, whose origin we have no clue… but it was also wonderful. We ended with “chocolate” which was a hot chocolate but made with cacao, vanilla, cinnamon, and some other spices.. and didn’t really taste chocolate-y..

All in all, a fantastic meal. I just don’t quite know how Lizeth makes a go of this. So, should anyone be thinking about traveling to Gracias, Honduras… be sure to eat here. It’s totally unique… including us keeping an eye on her 16-month-old while she intermittently runs in and out of the “kitchen.”

By the way, (again if I got it straight)… Lizeth went to the University in Ceiba and studied marketing. She’s been written up in a lot in magazines, so maybe she’s got a marketing plan… but based on the sign-in book that she asked us to fill out, she hasn’t had too many customers. She said it was busy in the summer and that the restaurant is now 8 years old.

Speed is not a strong suit here in Gracias.. It took us more than two hours for the meal (and remember, we were the only diners). Lizeth’s garden is in the back of the house, and the kitchen looks like it’s still in the Lenca era… but somehow she does it. .. including making her own bread (whole wheat) and thicker-than-usual tortillas (both of which were wonderful).

Remember Rinconcito Graciano.