And back to regular programming...
One day
when I was having my favorite dinner of lettuce tortillas (imagine a fried
pancake but savory, with lettuce, cheese, and green onion inside) at my
neighbor’s house, Erminio asked “so Emily, when are you going to make us a
barbecue?” He was joking, but I thought it was a brilliant idea. I mean, I am
over at their house all the time. And everyone loves barbecue. I told him, I
will do a barbecue for my one year in Paraguay anniversary. I don’t think he
believed me, but I am very serious when it comes to culinary experiences.
Some
differences between Paraguayan and American barbecue:
In the
states, barbecue is made on a grill, generally outside. It randomly happened to
be freezing cold so we made the barbecue in the kitchen. First, Mirna put down
a piece of metal on the floor. The she put charcoal on the metal and started up
the coals with some embers from the fire. She balanced a grate on top of some
bricks. And that’s where we put the meat. Here Erminio is cooking, it was
pretty smoky.
In the
States, my mom often uses barbecue sauce or a marinade ahead of time on the
meat. Here, we used lemon and salt, but we mostly put it on after cooking,
spreading the salt onto the meat with our fingers and then squeezing the lemon
on top. The sharp, fresh flavor was really a delicious contrast to the meat.
Here you can see my container of salt on the table along with the (orange)
lemon. Also, we ate standing up.
In the
States, we might buy a “coleslaw mix.” Here, I picked a cabbage straight from
Mirna’s garden, we added some tomato (from the garden as well), lemon juice
(using a lemon from the tree out back), and don’t forget the salt. It was
delicious.
Cutting the
first bite:
Emily stop
taking pictures and eat some meat (says my niece):
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