Chateau DeFay

As I mentioned in a previous post, some friends and I went to Chateau DeFay, a few kilometers outside of Antigua Guatemala.

With high expectations and more than enough enthusiasm we set off on our way. We heard that the road was rough, that people had been throwing their garbage by the wayside but that it was well worth the journey. The Chateau is quite beautiful, that much I will admit. My wife and I had some fun taking some pictures in the very nicely kept back yard.

The rain, however, drove us back indoors to explore the rest of the building. We wandered through the rooms until we found the stairwell that goes up the tower and, needless to say, hustled up the tower taking pictures out of the windows on the way up and down.

Finally we headed back down to the reception area for the free wine tasting. For those of you who aren't familiar with the place, Chataeu DeFay is supposed to be a winery. While everything seems to point in that direction (such as the bottles of wine labeled "Chataeu DeFay") there is some very conflicting information about it. During the wine tasting they told us that they make a bunch of different wines. They were OK but definitely over priced. The curious thing came when we took the tour and they told us that they were still a few years away from producing all their own grapes and that they imported some. After seeing the vines we went to the winery where they showed us their equipment and the tour guide let slip that they didn't have any grapes last year. I guess that explained the incredibly clean machinery (with the exception of the label maker). None the less, we did enjoy that wine.

Now, wether or not they make their own wine, grow their own grapes or overcharge for their wine, this place is permanently on my radar for the food. This is, after all, a food-lovers blog and not an oenophile blog and, ironic as it may seem, the food here was so much better than the wine. We started off the meal with a mouth-watering antipasto which consisted of some mozzarella squares, pimento, black olives on tomato slices all drizzled with some amazing extra virgin olive oil.

After this we had the pasta. The menu basically consisted of a bunch of pastas and about 3 meat dishes. When confronted with this kind of menu, it leads me to the conclusion that they must be good with their pasta and put the meat/chicken/fish on there just to please the pasta haters. This is a prejudice that was not seen in anyone in our group. I had the anchovie pasta. The two anchovies on top were a nice touch aesthetically but did not help the dish's taste in any way I could discern. By ditching the two anchovies that crowned the pasta, the taste of the pasta improved exponentially. It was creamy and delicious and struck a wonderful balance between creamy and light.

The winner by choice was the Pasta al Pesto. While quite gratifying to my taste buds, several of my friends found it to be somewhat bland to their taste. While quite colorful, Pesto does sometimes tend towards the bland if you're not careful.

The pasta Pomodoro was the best dish. Despite being the most simple, it also gave those fresh vegetable a real chance to shine. If Chateau DeFay has anything going for it, it's gotta be the fresh vegetables that they've got floating around they're kitchen. I just barely managed to snap this picture before it was devoured.

The pasta Amatriciana was also among the chosen dishes and proved to have some bold flavors for the adventurous taste buds. A little salty and a little spicy it kind of gave a naughty/nice kind of vibe that played with your head a little while before you made your mind up about what was going on in your mouth.

So at about Four O'Clock we decided to make our way back home because the road was indeed rather difficult. Not only does one have to deal with ruts, rocks and mud but we found ourselves in the middle of some rather picturesque fog.

All in all we spent a very nice day there. For anyone who's planning on going, I would give the following advice: skip the tour, take a lot of pictures and eat the pasta. Think of it as a destination meal rather than a visit to a vineyard. You'll be so much happier to find your expectations of a decent meal met and even surpassed without the letdown of seeing where grapes could be, will be, were but aren't. Also, don't trick yourself into thinking that the garbage situation won't be so bad. Keep you windows up and your AC on and the smell shouldn't be too bad.

Monoloco, Palace and Cook & Relax

So this has been a really fun week for food! While we are going through a bit of car trouble (if it's not one thing, it's another!) We have had the opportunity to get some really good eats going on.

On Sunday we joined our good friend Mario Chang who was singing a concert in the prestigious Hotel Casa Santo Domingo (where the awesome chef Mario Campollo works). Unfortunately none of us had the budget to sample those delicacies so we moseyed on over to Monoloco afterwards.

After digging in to the gigantic pile of nachos with cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo, tomato and beans we dove into the chicken, mushroom and artichoke pizza which really blew me away. I always hear people talking about the nachos but, I have to say, the pizza is by far the best thing we had. I don't know that I would venture to say it's the BEST pizza I ever had, but I can confidently say that it is certainly up there.

Since we had such a great Sunday, we didn't buy groceries so on Monday I went and got some hamburgers for Del Puente but traffic was much lighter than usual so I got a chance to drop in on Chef Juan Manuel Rossi at Cook & Relax. He was featured in an article from the fine folks at GuateDining back in January.

So as we sat down to chat, he pulled up a couple of plates with some of their latest foods including some delicious cous cous with grilled vegetables, rehydrated polenta with bacon and some camote in a cinnamon syrup which was quite a fun mouthful. We'll be going to a class with him today so next week I'll be sure to have some pictures of what's going on in the kitchen.

So as I mentioned, our lack of groceries has had us eating out quite a bit this week. Yesterday, my friend Charlie Quan joined me to go snatch a bit of the famous Pricemart Pizza. Before trying it, I never would have given it a second thought but it’s interestingly quite justified in its reputation! We decided to go for the Pepperoni Calzone which, despite the dripping of grease, was so good I almost didn’t get a chance to snap this picture. It was pretty much gone in no time at all.

So for those of you who have been a bit shy to try it, I say go for it! My only recommendation is, ask for a fresh batch because they’re best when they’re straight out of the oven and into my mouth.

There is another place that I’ve been dying to go to and was finally met this week. The Palace in Z. 4 is a very clean, well kept, vintage looking restaurant. We had a Volovant with a delicious creamy sauce (I had chicken, Susan had mushroom). It was warm and fluffy and everything nice. I was almost sad to see it gone and was strongly tempted to get another but decided against it for the sake of my waistline.

So that’s what I’ve got so far this week, stay tuned because today we have another cooking class, tomorrow a Father’s Day lunch and on Sunday we’re going to check out a Vineyard outside of Antigua which seems very promising.

Del puente and other experiments

Wow so that's frustrating. I was almost done writing this post when it got erased. Yeah, not happy. So, I will now try to remember everything I had written.

My wife likes to eat out. I LOVE eating out. It's better than going to the movies which, for me, is quite a statement. So when we finally sat down to figure out where all our money was going we came to the shocking (or maybe not so shocking) conclusion that we were spending an inordinate amount on food. That was when we decided to change our habits and stopped eating out as often and, even more important, as expensive.

But once we were caught up on credit cards and bills we decided it was time. So on Sunday we went to "Enchanté", a delightful little French restaurant. It has a balcony hanging over this impressive cliff and it's green just about as far as you can see. We got a complimentary glass of an australian zinfandale which was quite refreshing. My wife had the steak with French fries which, though not very evenly cooked, was delicious and was accompanied with a mushroom sauce and some very good French fries (I must admit to having tried a bit of everything).

I had the mussels in a white wine sauce with red onion and, I believe, cilantro. They were quite phenomenal. I had waited a long time to eat mussels and this was well worth the wait. The bill was a little overinflated, I felt, but overall I did enjoy the meal. On our way out the door they showed us in to a little gourmet store they had in the restaurant where the special offer of the day was 2x1 on an $80 bottle of EVOO. not quite having recovered from the check I thought we might pass on that offer.

 So then on Friday we went to Cook & Relax to our cooking class for some Italian cooking. We made one pasta with pumpkin and anchovy, one with pimentos and one with a white sauce and asparagus along with garlic bread. It all came together well (and better with a couple glasses of wine) and a good time was had by all.

Then on Saturday we decided to try a burger join that was in the same area as Enchanté called Del puente. Here's my with the sign:

I have occasionally been accused of hyperbolizing but this was quite certainly delectable. The meat is 100% angus beef with a special mojo made by them and sold in the store along with several cuts of beef and anything on the menu. They have several freezers full of their own stuff which I think I just may take advantage of before too long.

So that was my week in food and I'm planning to hit up that burger joint again soon since the meal total for both of us came to Q58 or about $7.50 and was quite outstanding.

Have you eaten anything interesting lately? Let me hear about it!

Oh the ribs, the ribs!

In Latin America, as well as many other Catholic-influenced countries, Easter is celebrated with Holy Week. This is an entire week when everything stops and people do one of two things. Either they go to religious processions and participate in the joy of it all or they get hell out of Dodge and spend a few days away with friends or family. The most popular location is the beach, which is what took us to the Lake.

Lake Atitlan is a beautiful lake in Solola. Here's a picture for you to see what I'm talking about:

Lake Atitlan - Seth Mariscal

I bought a rack of spare ribs and had brined them and cleaned them and lovingly carried them to the place of their demise. And then it happened. I had prepared a dry rub that I have used before, sprinkled it on and put it on the fire. It never occured to me that something could go wrong! It was so simple.

When it came time to try the ribs I almost cried (and may have if the saltiness of the ribs hadn't sucked every drop of moisture out of my body). Such a shame that a beautiful cut of meat so go to such a waste! Fortunately my wife and friends were good sports about it and we cut off the crust and the meat was juicy and tender and quite delicious. Though not as much as I had hoped.

On the upside, we did have a great time, the baked potatoes were great and smokey and I got to use my new charcoal chimney.



Charcoal Chimney - Elba Mazariegos



Delicious, Fresh and Wonderful

Being married is different. I think that's somewhat of an understatement but it is wonderful. I do love every minute of it. One of the ways it has changed things is that now I cook more. I have to since my wife is used to eating home cooked meals everyday and not eating out that often (like me!). So I FINALLY discovered fresh mushrooms. All my life I kind of ignored mushrooms. I could take them or leave them, made no real difference to me.

I tried to think back as to why they never really jumped out at me before but then it suddenly hit me: I had always eaten canned mushrooms. No wonder I didn't find anything special in them, they were always that processed brown flavourless mush! It all started a little while back when I decided to make a mushroom sauce for our steak and the taste surprised me.

It all pretty much started when we went to the new pizza hut restuarant. We had been doing some after-work errands and were hungry and thought we'd drop in at pizza hut for a quick bite to eat. Lo and behold, we found ourselves in an actual restuarant, not a fast food pizza place like most Pizza Huts. They had Menu's with actual food. When it came, it was every bit as good as it sounded, fresh ingredients, great flavor and freshly made drinks. Not one processed defrosted piece of crap! Needless to say, I was astounded.

The waiter recommended a pasta with shrimp and red pepper flakes that added just a touch of heat. It was incredible. I really enjoyed the dish and was pleasantly surprised at the flavor of the fresh ingredients. This further motivated me to start using fresh ingredients that I had not usually used before. Thus, the mushrooms.

So, if you're ever in the mood for some good food at a good price in a good location, I would suggest that you try out this particular Pizza Hut.

Pizza Hut Majadas

8va. Calle entre 23 y 25 avenida, Zona 11, Paseo Miraflores
Guatemala City, Guatemala


Next to Tony Roma's and KFC.

Life changing events

This has been an amazing year. It's hard to say one thing that has stuck out from the rest. It's had its ups and downs bit overall I'd say that it's been very good.

Work has been great, the new house is very nice and my fiancée is a great girl. The best.

It's on sleepless night like this one where your kind of start to think about how life is changing. In a couple months I will be cohabiting. No longer will my mess be mine alone to deal with!

Recently I've been picking up some pretty basic cooking tips that have proven to be quite effective though I haven't been able to go all out since I don't have a real stove, oven or fridge. There's no furniture nor anywhere to put most things.

Soon that will change, though, and a great amount of culinary experimentaion will begin!

Well, I will continue my feeble attempts at sleep! I leave you with a picture of me and my ossobucco (great stuff!).






- Seth Mariscal, enjoying life since 1982.

A Time to Sell, a Time to Lay Low

So a lot of things have been going on, things I can't really write about, but things that have affected my life none the less. I've been bouncing around houses lately (thanks for opening your homes to me!) and am working on selling my and my dad's cars.

I've come up with a bit of a "marketing strategy" on Facebook for promoting it amongst my friends since I don't feel all that comfortable giving strangers a way to contact me. I've found that being safety-conscious in Guatemala is a literal lifesaver. It's not enough to be a "tough target" as they say, since there is a great deal of serendipity involved. Wrong place wrong time is a harsh truth that entirely too many people have come to meet in this country (though I'm sure we're not alone in that!).

These past couple of weeks have been really bad. Two, Three, Five violent deaths a day for two weeks piles up quite the body count! So many people gone, poof, just like that. Children left fatherless, Parents left childless and wives left widows. It breaks my heart to think of it. It surprises me that the police usually find the occasional evil-doer much the way a blind squirrel finds the occasional buried nut.

It can get especially frustrating because with all the killings that have gone on lately, the only person that they've managed to arrest for murder was a guy who killed a thief who was in the middle of robbing a cellphone in the middle of rush hour at gunpoint from a motorcycle. When citizens step in to pick up the slack where police are either unable (or unwilling) to do so are, of course, summarily and thoroughly punished.

Such are the frustrations that one must live with in a country such as this. But in the midst of it all we all find a way to live our life. Live it fully and cherish it completely for we get but one life to live and must make the most of it. Do all you can, love all you can, give all you can and when your time comes you will go with a smile of satisfaction and with peace in the knowledge that you have given it your best and made God (and Mom) proud.