Karina prepared the lobsters and shrimp masterfully, in a fragrant garlic sauce. Also on the plate: fried plantain slices, raw carrot slices with lettuce, olives and tomato wedges, a stew of tomatoes and onions and a buttery garlicky risotto. All simple, real food. We made short work of the food.We got along well with Karina. She said she was going to bring us a gift for breakfast this morning. First time we ever had fried fish and gallo pinto (beans and rice) for breakfast. Extraordinary. Karina's father owns a small seafood store in Masachapa. She knows fresh and she knows how to fry. Very lightly battered and not greasy at all. Fried seafood, done well, is hard to beat. The fish filets she served us are from a local fish called Corvina. Excellent. We were highly honored. BY DENNIS FORNEY
dennis_forney
April 25, 2015
I think we picked one of the hottest days in one of Nicaragua's hottest years to come to one of the country's hottest cities.
A truck loaded with sugar cane passes us on the main road between Pochomil and Leon.
Belize's girl friend Evanya and their little son Edson. Little babies in Nicaragua wear these bracelets with two seeds - one male and one female - to capture the negative energy from heavy eyes - such as hangover eyes - that look at the babies. They remind me of sacrificial zincs placed on the keels of vessels near propeller shafts to capture electrolosys that would otherwise eat away at rudder and prop. Belize doesn't know where the seeds come from. "They wash ashore from the sea." Jeff Fried at Beebe says medicine is more of an art than a science.
We drove today an hour and a half to Nicaragua's colonial capital of Leon. Sugar cane fields. Dry hills and hot. Already missing the coast. The city is especially hot. Surrounding volcanoes must all be pumping out fire. Chilling in a dark, high ceilinged room in an old hotel in downtown Leon.
Dennis Forney has been a journalist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972 and has been writing his Barefootin’ column for The Whale and then the Cape Gazette for more than 30 years. Like his Barefootin' Facebook page to get notified of blog updates.