Fruit and Chocolate

This week’s theme had two different topics, chocolate and fruit. I was especially excited about chocolate, because, well, what girl doesn’t like chocolate? As we have talked about in class, we associate it with so many different feelings and situations. I haven’t really seen my family eat much chocolate or even dessert very often. Occasionally after dinner a few people will have ice cream or jello, unless it is a birthday. Then there is a cake, and that is, as far as I know, usually made of chocolate. When I was talking to my Tica mom and sister about our chocolate theme for the week, they immediately started telling me about a chocolate cake that my mom makes which is delicious. It is made from scratch and has dulce de leche in the middle. They said that is a common dessert to have and very popular. Other than that one example, I got the impression chocolate is not widely eaten here, which surprised me. I figured that since chocolate is native to Central America that it would be used a lot more often. Similar to the way beans are eaten so often. My Tica sister even thought it was a little strange that we were doing a whole unit on chocolate. Interesting!

The other topic for the week was fruits and vegetables. Fruit is so common here and it is so fresh! Every day on the walk to school I see at least 4 fruit stands, selling fresh fruit (at great prices!). Then the supermarkets always have a lot of different fruits and vegetables. And lastly, there are farmers markets which sell fresh produce. So many options! I eat fruit every morning before school, so I was interested in knowing where my mom buys these fruits. When I told my mom I was going to the farmers market in Zapote, she was so excited for me. She said that is her favorite market and she wishes she could go more often! She said unfortunately, she doesn’t have enough time, especially since my Tica brother needs the car every Sunday for soccer. The produce there is much cheaper. My mom usually buys the fruit at the supermarket. She said it is a little more expensive, but it is very convenient and still fresh. She said convenience can be key especially when you are buying fruit as often as you do here. My mom buys fruit a couple times a week (exact amount of time varies from week to week). I think that one of the differences between here and the U.S. with regards to purchasing fruit is at what stage we buy the fruit at. At home it is common to buy green bananas because you are anticipating the wait to eat some of them. You buy fruit to last you a “while” (relative term). Here, it seems that people buy fruit much more often but they buy them fresher.

Sunday’s excursion to the farmers market was an adventure. I didn’t know what to expect, because I don’t have many farmers markets at home. Not many fruits are grown up in New England, so it would be hard to have one. The first word I would use to describe the farmers market was chaotic. Everywhere I looked, there were stands and crowds of people on a mission to find the best food for the best prices. It was a bit overwhelming. I went in with a list of fruit to buy for my Tica family so I immediately looked for those items. One thing I noticed immediately was that there were at least 5 stands selling the same product so I was going to have a lot of decision making to do. The people working were so nice, talking to us about the produce and even letting us try it if we didn’t know what it was. After trying one fruit, I wasn’t sure what to do. Should we tip the guy who just let us eat one of his fruits? I didn’t want to be rude, but I don’t know what is custom here! I think the stand workers really made an effort with customers, which is important, especially when two stands down there is another worker selling the same food as you. The farmers market was very colorful, selling pretty much any kind of vegetable you could ever want, as well as fruit. There were multiple times where I would look at a stand and wonder what they were selling! Visiting the farmers market in Zapote made me want to go see more farmers markets, both here and in the U.S.