Earlier that day we heard a rumor that if you went to Ms. Therese's house and asked nicely, she might agree to cook an authentic Garifuna meal for us. We had been in Hopkins, Belize for three days and we had not had the meal we wanted. We wanted Hudut. Hudut is fish cooked in a stew of coconut milk and other ingredients. However, upon nicely asking Ms. Therese about cooking us dinner, she immediately asked us if we would be ok with the armadillo or iguana. We nodded our heads up and down enthusiastically. We agreed to come back later in the day with the agreement that we could show up early to learn about how her food is prepared.
When we arrived, a group of men playing dominoes directed us to Ms. Therese's kitchen in the back of the house. It was a small wood building topped with a thatch roof. Ms. Therese was there, and pots were already cooking on the stove.
She was peeling oranges to prepare them for squeezing fresh juice for our dinner. Sounded great, but we were more interested in what was being cooked in the pots. Luckily, it happened to be iguana season according to Ms. Therese.
Her menu consisted of iguana, iguana eggs and a "boil-up" of root vegetables. The smells were amazing. Some of the broth from the boil-up was dribbled on our hands from a spoon. Flavors were starchy, salty and rich. The iguana was cooking in a liquid colored by annatto and flavored with garlic and freshly grated coconut milk. We couldn't wait to eat.
Ms. Therese answered all of our questions about her family and her kitchen with the most pleasant demeanor. She was proud of her skills and the kitchen she owned. We were in awe. After the oranges were squeezed and the juice strained, Ms. Therese retrieved some ice from her house and placed it into the orange juice to chill. The iguana eggs were added to the iguana already stewing in a pot. It is traditional for the two to be cooked and eaten together in Belize. After a couple of boil-overs in the iguana pot, the eggs cooked for another 10-15 minutes.
It was time to set the table. After laying a table cloth, she walked across the street from her home. Ms. Therese came back with some flowers cut from nearby, and created a colorful centerpiece for our table. After she explained that she loves making everything beautiful when she cooks for guests, she went inside and changed into her dining clothes.
It was service time! I helped her bring our plates to the table. We had a community plate of iguana and eggs. We each had a plate of the "boil-up" vegetables.
Cooking on top of the boil-up was a type of dumpling called a boil cake. It was served, also.
We were excited about trying the eggs, and we debated popping them in our mouths before Ms. Therese arrived to eat with us. We made the right decision to wait for her. She promptly instructed us on how to eat them. The eggs have a soft exterior, and a hole has to be bitten from the outside so you can suck the contents through the hole. The texture is similar to a soft-boiled chicken egg without the hard shell to break, of course. We used our fingers to sqeeze the goodness out of the shell and into our mouths. It was rich and delicious. The star of the table. Ms. Therese's grand- daughter was there to share them with us. They were obviously a treat that everyone in Hopkins viewed as a delicacy. Rightly so.
I do not think we were able to taste the true flavor of the iguana, but the annatto, garlic and coconut milk that it was cooked in had all three of us sucking on iguana bones like lollipops. The boil-up was no push-over either. Sweet potato, banana and a purple yam. Such a rich and deep flavor profile in the liquid they were cooked in. Ms. Therese proclaimed that this dish would definitely make us fat! It did make us extremely full because it was addictive. We hoped the walking and kayaking we did in Hopkins while we were there helped with the fat! Either way, we didn't care. It was the last thing on our mind while devouring quite possibly the best travel experience we have had.
Today there is a lot of buzz about the "best meal ever" on food television and other sources of culinary media. Audrey and I spend time thinking about this and we have been on a mission to taste everything we can, in search of this meal. On this day we got to taste the flavors that define Ms. Therese's Garifuna heritage. The flavors and techniques that she inherited from her grandmother and a long line of Garifuna women that utilized the ingredients of Africa, St. Vincent and Belize to create such a unique part of their culture. Simply put, we found our "best meal ever" in Ms. Therese's restaurant under that mango tree in Hopkins, Belize.
