I am very aware that there hasn't been a post about the food in Copan. Forgive me!
Food is near to my heart, so I'm sure there will be plenty to say about the meals, snacks, and desserts I find here this year. But for now, how about just a quick tutorial on what you can expect to eat when you come to visit.
Three main dishes, here we go.
ONE: In Copan, you will quickly learn the word "tipico" (Pronounced "tee-pee-koh". It means "typical"). Here, tipico is the name for a plate of this area's culinary staples - things people eat every single day for one or more meals.
Sidenote: Now the thought of eating the same thing in this fashion was hard for me to grasp at first, but eventually I just compared it to the way kids in the states, for example, might eat cold breakfast cereal every day, love it, never get sick of it, and never imagine doing anything else.
When it comes to tipico, what usually is involved is beans (which are often pureed), eggs cooked to order, butter, cheese, and warm corn tortillas. Looks something like this:
Tipico is what people prepare for themselves at home regularly, and plenty of restaurants feature it on the menu under that name.
Bonus information: other meals that may also appear on any given day - chicken soup, or rice and fried chicken (and in this rural setting, the chicken is
super fresh, if you know what I mean).
TWO: Another popular dish in Copan is baleadas (pronounced "bahl-YAH-dahs").
Flour tortilla with sour cream, beans (which are often pureed), cheese, and sometimes additional ingredients such as eggs and avocado.
The picture above is just a Google image that shows the egg and avocado additions I look for in a baleada. But in Copan, the tortilla is much larger and is heated to perfection on a skillet or griddle with the toppings inside; I never see baleadas here with a small, cold tortilla like in the picture. The average baleada looks more like this:
I'm not the only person in town who likes avocado and egg in my baleadas, but those ingredients aren't included in the majority of baleadas I see people eating.
THREE: Folks here eat baleadas like they're going out of style, but what I eat instead (and as often) is empanadas! (Pronounced "em-pah-NAH-dahs")
Fried, cheesy, gooey, goodness inside a corn tortilla! Goes great with a scrambled egg placed right on top.
Sometimes in town, you can hear the hand-clapping sound of one or more ladies forming the corn tortillas during the process of making fresh empanadas. Whenever I hear those claps, I get an urge to give applause of my own!
