Food! Are we in heaven?

Ceviche and crusty bread in a seaside town. Zoom in on all the deliciousness in this yummy dish: bits of all kinds of seafood in a tangy brine.

 Yes, those are green beans, not the bell peppers that I thought I was getting from the picture on the menu: twice! Liked them both times, too.

 Fresh juice everywhere. Just imagine raspberries blended up into a liquid. That's it. And pebre (pico de gallo--rather spicy) instead of fry sauce for those papas! 

 The mother of the farm's security guard made this "pan de campo" for us. Crusty, flavorful and baked in her horno. Smear avocado on a slice of this bread with tomatoes, onions, salt and pepper for a fabulous supper.

 The day's shopping trip--to one of the produce stands that line the roads here. Strawberries, raspberries, basil, potatoes, plums, lemons, avocado and melon jelly!

Here's a woman baking empanadas in one of two adobe hornos (ovens). There's a little door near the ground where wood is placed and a fire heats the food above it. We went to a nearby town to see if we could find a huaso (cowboy) hat for our wall. We didn't find a hat, but there were many restaurants to choose from. We decided to stop at this little hole-in-the-wall place and were not disappointed. Just watching her make the empanadas and smelling the wood-fire baking the food was worth the trip there. I ordered the empanada and Jay ordered pan de choclo, a quiche-like dish with a yummy crust and a corn filling.

Now the tuna update: prickly pear fruit. They are in season now, and are juicy and fairly sweet. People buy them by the bagful. I understand they are picked in the morning when the thorny things are less thorny and then the gunny-sacks they put them in removes the small pricklies. The seeds are hard and many, but I think people just swallow them down. I've had many slices and quite like them. The sliced ones are on the plate beside a fruit called membrillo, which looks like a suede pear. The suede coating rubs off and then you can eat it like an apple. It's kind of sour and goes well with salt. It also has the texture of cellulose but with the mouth-puckering factor of alum. It must be an acquired taste. I'll keep trying as they get riper, but don't think they are going to be something I buy. We have plenTY on two trees!

"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." Robert Louis Stevenson