It started with making salsa with Dad back in August. I posted pictures and Mike mentioned wanting to make it here. Cinco de Mayo finally seemed to be a good time, especially after we found dried cilantro at the supermarket in Lethem (I swear, Lethem is turning into a huge metropolis; Savannah Inn, the supermarket, really has all you need). And THEN, I found my beloved Mexican agua fresca drink, Horchata, in a Tang flavor in GT! I brought some down and we all enjoyed it here immensely, and I found a recipe to try it from scratch. So that got added to the list.
Mike found a recipe for a lime mango grilled chicken sandwich, chipotle style, and we had ourselves a menu! Mike and I planned the grocery list which I bought in Lethem on Wednesday, we started preparations for the meal around noon Thursday (it was conveniently a Guyanese holiday - Arrival Day, which you can learn about in my post from a year ago), and spent the day working on it - so fun.
We had to borrow a blender from Maisie and then we had to use it at CH for the horchata and salsa, but the rest was done at K. House. The salsa was done from memory of how I cooked it with Dad, but I realized you gotta think about what you are doing if you want it to be the carefully orchestrated and flavorful salsa of the Ambriz Clan. It was a mix of orchestratedness and my flighty hand when it comes to cooking, and I think the product was a good compromise of the Ambriz style with a Rupununi setting influence. (The native peppers we used were enough to make your sphincter double-take).
I soaked and cooked black eyed peas to be mashed and become refried beans. The guys got firewood and grilled the chicken outside as I mashed our lone pear (avocado) and turned it into guacamole, as close to mom's style as possible, though I had to substitute paprika as the brown flecks instead of chili powder. Mike downloaded mariachi music, which played in the background and I thought of Papa. As the chicken finished grilling, I retrieved the horchata drink from the fridge at CH (a milky rice sweet taste that goes amazingly lovely with rum) and we gorged. Promptly fell into a food coma after.
Another amazing meal/journey.
The all-sensical flavors of Mexico captured right here in Y seemed to be a wild dream come true. It felt like KC home.
Salsa!!!
Mr. Lime/Mango Mike Himself
Cinco de Mayo!!!!!
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