The rest of Day 2- Snacks, eggs, beer and more

After our amazing breakfast, mom and I walked (several miles) around into town and all about the San Ignacio, Cayo and Santa Elena area. I had many unique food experiences today that I wanted to share.

First I wanted to have a cold drink and stopped at a market. While searching for a chilled coconut juice I found this, sour sop juice. It looked interesting and very thirst quenching and I always love a food adventure. It tasted a little tart, very floral, crisp and creamy in the same moment and had a slight apple flavor to it. Sour sop is a local fruit and in my mind, quite tasty. I found that the sour sop fruit also has many anti-cancer and anti-tumor properties that are very useful in the medical world. So, tasty and good for you.

The very refreshing Sour Sop Juice

Also something cool that I found at the market were packets of coconut milk powder. It is a product of Thailand (so the package said) but it seemed to be pretty popular on the shelves. I’ve never seen it before. So I bought some and plan to experiment with it soon.

Super cool coconut cream powder

While walking around town in the blazing sun, I felt the call of something cold and sweet and gave in for a nice ice cream cone. For only one US dollar I got a single scoop on a sugar cone. I got the rum raisin. It sounded better than it actually was, but it was cold and sweet. And then halfway down the street I walked by a homemade gelato place and smacked myself for not waiting. Oh well. 

Hmmmmm, which ice cream should I have

In market after market I see this and it drives me crazy. Eggs on the shelf. No not a cold shelf or cooler, just the regular open-air temperature shelf. Not sure how safe this is, but it seems the norm here. To someone in the food business, it’s like nails on a chalkboard. OH MY!

Eggs on the shelf.......REALLY!

At night, since our hotel was so far away from the center of town and we were really up for the lacking menu at our hotel. We thought to grab some nice cold Belikin beers and some food for at the hotel to eat in our room. From the open-air fruit market we got some fresh pineapple and papaya. From the store market we got some whole-wheat rolls and cheese. One of the cheeses was a processed cheese that seems pretty popular down here, called Happy Cow (maybe a distant cousin to the laughing cow). The other was a red rind cheese we thought was Gouda, but in fact tasted more like Parmesan. Anyway, it was all very fresh and tasty.

Fresh papaya

Pineapple with very curly fringed leaves

Hotel picnic dinner

Make-shift cooler for the Belikin beers

For the beers we tasted three different varieties of the Belikin beer. First the original Belikin beer, then the Lighthouse beer, and lastly the Premium Belikin. I believe the Premium one was my favorite. It was a bit more robust in flavor and super refreshing.

So with a full stomach and very tired legs, I will sleep very well tonight. We have a big journey tomorrow, making our way from San Igancio to Belmopan and then on to Placentia via bus. Hopefully more food adventures await us tomorrow.