Teaching English in a foreign land at a small, rural school virtually guarantees a foreign teacher privileged access to "deep culture," that is, aspects of the social life of a place that few fly-by-night tourists would ever see. These pictures illustrate the afternoon outing our teaching team took one day to Comedor Monte Grande, a legendary eating establishment a few miles outside of Cofradia that attracts a huge crowd on the weekends for its succulent sizzling chorizo and a cornucopia of flowering plants for sale (the other half of the business is an immense nursery).
While most of our teachers were primarily interested in the plants, I was fixated on the typical Honduran parilla prepared by the owners and shown in the pictures above (the owners have two children at San Jeronimo School). Laid out on the overworked grill grates are juicy pieces of free-range chicken, a big skillet of refried red beans, and slender links of mildly spiced chorizo (Catrachos, unlike Mexicans, do not like their minced pig guts too picante). And, for liquid refreshment, the requisite selection of U.S. American soft drinks, none of which were diet!
