Eating a little differently...

Ok so I feel like I have been holding out on you guys about the food here because it is such a HUGE part of Paraguay. So this will be your enlightenment on new food and how to eat normal food but a little differently. the best way to do this is pictures so here we go! To sum up the normal food i eat i only need a few words and please take them in total reality, MEAT, BREAD, CORN, SALT. This is also why people (exchange students) get fat while coming down here because all the food is so dense and the amount of vegetables is lacking.

Okay so this was one of the first differences i noticed about how they eat food differently. For cake  the cut a big circle in the middle and cut around that so the pieces are not as large unlike the thin pie like pieces we cut in America. I do not like the way the cut it here because then you miss out on the frosting

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Okay so this was one of the first differences i noticed about how they eat food differently. For cake  the cut a big circle in the middle and cut around that so the pieces are not as large unlike the thin pie like pieces we cut in America. I do not like the way the cut it here because then you miss out on the frosting

Okay so this was one of the first differences i noticed about how they eat food differently. For cake  the cut a big circle in the middle and cut around that so the pieces are not as large unlike the thin pie like pieces we cut in America. I do not like the way the cut it here because then you miss out on the frosting

MELON! Ok so this is the most common especially rite now is watermelon. We eat at least 2 a day in my house and it is more of a, how much melon can you shovel into your body, literately. Instead of cutting the melon here they just use spoons and hallow it out. So when dinner ends they bring the two halves to the table and everybody starts spooning it out. However, this is slightly ineffective because when there are large groups they have to pass around the giant melon and it takes more time but if they simply did slices it would be melon for all. But, the way the eat the melon even more reflects the culture because everything is a whole.

ORANGE! they eat oranges in a way here that get under my skin! It takes ten minutes to eat an orange it is quite frustrating. First you have to peel it like above..Then...(below)

You cut off the top and squeeze the sides and suck out ALL the juice. Once all the juice is gone then you open the orange and eat the insides... So much time.

This is my new favorite fruit it is called mburucuya in Guarani, or passion fruit as we all know it. I defiantly did not know passion fruit was a fruit i just thought it was a flavor that you could get in smoothies.

it is filled with these little seeds and you eat the insides with a spoon. It is very tart but delish the juice it makes is to die for!

once eaten you can see the insides where the seeds were made.

this is a mburucuya flower (i did not take this picture) but this is how the plants look really pretty.

Now we are at classic Paraguay comida. This is Chipa. EVERYBODY EATS CHIPA. It is a type of bread with a different flavor but i love it! The photo above (i did not take it) it what i see all the time. They are these baskets with Chipa that the venders have a walk around with them on their heads to sell Chipa it is 3mil Guarani´s for a chipa (less than a dolar) and you can buy them everywhere on the busses, streets and parks.

This is Sopa Paraguaya. It is the oldest most traditional food of the country. They think of it as the only solid form of soup but its like corn bread SORRY not soup... 

This is where you cook the sopa. It is called a tatakua. Almost every person in Paraguay has one of these in their back yard, including my family. Because this is how you CAN cook sopa and Chipa. Though you can also cook it in the over the flavor is much richer when you cook it in the tatakua. To see more on it go to: http://brittanygoesglobal.com/2011/06/12/recipe-and-video-for-chipaguazu-a-paraguayan-delicacy/.