Mercado Huembes and Managua

Monday morning in Managua dawned early with cats attacking the mattress I was sleeping on in the living room. I think it was retaliation because I wouldn’t let them sleep with me. The room I had previously occupied had been reassumed by another Paolo who had been visiting home in Italy when I had stayed at the house last.

Ilaria one of the women living in the house was heading to Mercado Huembes, one of the largest markets in the city, and invited me to tag along for some shopping to which I quickly agreed. We hopped on a local Managua bus using Ilaria’s pass card, which are required for all buses in Managua. The buses were actually pretty nice too compared with some of the old school buses that they call chicken buses down here. The bus fare is also very cheap, about 2.5 cordobas per ride. Just to put that in context, $1 US is equal to 27.5 cordobas right now. Although, when you consider that the average income for a Nicaragua family is $400 US a month, you can understand why the bus fares are so low.

We arrived at the market and wandered into the maze of stalls that fill up several city blocks, most of which are covered by big tin roofs. It’s easy to get lost amongst all the stalls. Areas seem to be grouped by what they sell and often the smells would let you know what area you were coming up on before you arrived. You would catch a whiff of cinnamon or cloves and realize you were near the area where they sell herbs and spices, or the pungent smell of blood and realize you were near the meat stalls. But you could find almost anything under the sun including clothing, shoes, baskets, kitchenware, hammocks, pottery, paintings, makeup, vegetables, fruit, toys…etc.

We had to ask directions several times in our search for the items we wanted. Ilaria was mainly shopping for food and I had been looking for a way to repay the Italians for all their generosity to me. They were always sharing their food and drink with me so I decided that I would cook dinner for everyone that night. I wanted to do something that would be like something we would make at the farm and also something that was as close to typical food from the United States as I could. However, when talking to the Italians before I had realized just how much of a melting pot our cuisine in the United States. Our immigrant past means that pretty much all of the food we eat has roots in other cultures.

I decided to make beef stew since it’s something we make at the farm fairly often so I picked up potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, bell pepper, then wandered over to the spices where I was able to find oregano and bay leaves. Then it was over to the meat section of the market where I was able to find some beautiful beef for the stew.

The Italians tended to eat late so I started cooking about six that evening. Of course, I realized I was missing a couple of items so I had to head to the little local mini-mart and bought some tomato paste to enrich the flavor of the meat, and I had to borrow a few garlic cloves as well. The cats were my new best friends after I shared the meat scraps with them. In fact, they were so persistent that we had to close the door to the kitchen and shoo the cats out so that they wouldn’t jump up on the counter to try to find more meat. I browned the meat and then added in the garlic, onions, peppers, and celery and sautéed them for a bit. Then added water, salt, oregano, a bay leave, and some tomato paste and let everything simmer for more than two hours. Then added the chopped up potatoes and carrots and cooked them until they were tender. The Italians made up the table outside on the back patio and we brought the pot of stew out and dished up. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out and even more so because all five of the Italians said that it was delicious and had more than one serving. It was so nice to be able to do something for them and have them enjoy it.