GoForth and Blog

The custom of eating in Latin America is that lunch is the big meal, and dinner is served late (well, late by most Americans’ standards- at the GoForth household we rarely eat before 9pm), and it’s more of a snack than a meal. I think that’s a great way of eating- eat your big meal when you still have several hours of your day to burn it off. I’m vowing now to make that my habit once I get home… we’ll see how long that lasts. It’s much easier to buy a bagel sandwich for $4.50 for lunch than to spend $15 or $20 on a dinner-sized meal… but anyway, that’s not the point of this post.

So dinner in Latin America is an understated affair. On my second day in Bogotá, when it was time for my first dinner with the family, they all sit down to bread and butter with hot chocolate, and I sit down to the 3-course meal that Gloria has prepared for me. It was embarrassing. So after dinner I told her nicely that the meal was lovely, but I did not need that much food- that I’m in Colombia and I want to eat what they eat. She said, “Oh, but we’re accustomed to eating very small meals for dinner!” I said that was fine- that’s what I wanted too.

So the next night Gloria served me a small plate of papaya and banana, a whole wheat bun, and a piece of mozzarella cheese. I made a big deal of telling her that was Perfecto, to be sure she got the idea. So that’s what I got for a few nights, and then slowly she started sneaking more and more food into the meal, until Saturday night when I was served my 3-course meal again. And Sunday night was the same. I thought maybe it was because I hadn’t eaten lunch with them on those days, so she was worried that I hadn’t had enough to eat. I didn’t say anything, thinking maybe on Monday she’d go back to fruit and bread, but no. Huge dinner. So Tuesday (yesterday) morning before leaving for work I told her that, especially now that I was sitting in an office all day long, I really didn’t need a big dinner. She replied, “OK, that’s fine, but I already bought fish for you.” Grrr. I had to tell her, “Well, if you already bought it….” So last night I had my fruit salad… with a plate of regular salad, eggplant with some weird sauce, french fries, and a cold sardine (I don’t know much about sardines, but I always thought they were small- here they are a pretty good size and served whole, and cold). I really do prefer the fruit-and-bread-and-cheese dinner, but it’s also that I’m not a huge fan of Gloria’s cooking.

So tonight, I was relieved when she asked me what I wanted before preparing something for me. I said fruit would be great. “No tuna?” “No. Fruit is good.” (One night last week when she was clandestinely increasing my meal size she served a plate of mushed-up canned tuna. It was gross.) And fruit I got… she served me a huge dinner plate-full of fruit, arranged quite artfully. It was absurd. It was all I could do to keep from getting my camera. But at least it wasn’t a cold sardine.

Take me Home!