It was never my intention to leave this little slice of the world on the wayside. Life has a way of sneaking up on you, and leaving you with this feeling that everything on your To-Do list needs to be checked off before you can take the time to write in your beloved blog.
But, I had a little a chat with my To-Do list, and it told me not to worry, and go do what you love. And that is why, here I am, back today sharing with you. I missed you.
Today I am sharing with you five little facts about Paraguayan food/meals:
1. Avocado is eaten as a fruit. Paraguayans like to sprinkle some sugar on top and eat it in its skin or in a smoothie with milk and sugar. This means they won’t eat it in a salad, or in their sandwich, or savor the all-time American favorite: guacamole. In fact, the day Jon and I made guacamole not one member of our host family tried it.
2. The preferred breakfast is white bread; there might be some dulce de leche or jam to spread on it. This means no eggs, no pancakes, no yogurt, no granola, no fruit, no cereal, no oatmeal, no French toast, none of it, just good old white bread. There is no need to get complicated so early in the morning, Paraguayans enjoy keeping things simple.
3. Red meat shall never be eaten with the slightest trace of blood. Once I showed Paraguayans images of how Americans like to eat their steak, they couldn’t believe what they were seeing and continuously shook their heads. Ironically, they love blood sausage, while Americans stay away from it.
Back in the good old days, when I was a carefree child, one of my favorite things in the world was eating Velveeta Shells & Cheese. In my mind this was the real stuff, it had “real” cheese that came in a squeezable pouch, none of this powder shenanigans.
It wasn’t until college, when I met a certain someone by the name of Jon, that the wonderful little bubble that I lived in was burst. We were wandering the aisles of the supermarket and I was telling Jon how much I loved Velveeta, it was so smooth and so tasty. Jon very kindly told me that Velveeta is not real cheese, along with American cheese slices. “What do you mean, Jon? It is SO cheese, just look at its color.”
Today is a big day. It’s Halloween. It’s the one day in the year that we can be someone else, imagining ourselves in their shoes. I can be pretty darn lazy when it comes to certain things. This includes Halloween. My signature Halloween outfit for many years? Crazy woman. This consisted of getting my hair tangled and messy, putting on a ridiculous amount of jewelry, and wearing lots of frayed clothes. That was my “costume.”