#231 Guacamol

I have a complex relationship with Guatemala. Without question, it’s one of the most beautiful landscapes you can experience. However, my upbringing was not easy in a country where you have to swim against the current to reach what it’s normal in developed countries.

On the other hand, Guatemalan food is something that stayed with me. Janne would be so happy to find her buckwheat and her Estonian “kohuked” (a curd-based sweet snacks) in Dublin. I knew where to find them for her.

When Janne tasted Guatemalan guacamol (without an “e” at the end) for the first time, it was love at first taste. I taught him what I knew, about using oregano, fresh onions, salt, lemon juice and, of course, ripe avocados. Sometimes, she would find good avocados in our local supermarket and she would just buy them. When we had guests, it was a mandatory food to offer.

This progressed to the next stage as she wanted to please me. We always had black beans which would typically be found at first in African shops, but then our local supermarket started carrying them. She tried her hand at making tortillas when we found maize flour. And she even tried to make Guatemalan bread which needed yeast and some other special preparation (I haven’t tasted this bread in any other country).

She didn’t really get into plantain bananas at first. This is an essential part of a Guatemalan breakfast, but a difficult fruit to find in Estonia. Once I found it in Finland at an African shop and brought it back with me. Then, I realized that someone had opened a shop in Tallinn and I got some from him. Janne learned the trick to wait until a plantain banana is completely ripe unlike other countries around Guatemala where they eat it when it’s green.

One of the last breakfasts we had together at home (I cooked), she told me that she had started to like those plantain bananas. It was a full assimilation.

I haven’t even tried to make guacamol anymore. In Guatemala, I did eat it at any opportunity, but I would judge it with my internal Janne voice. Isn’t it a great sign of how intertwined we became in the end?

One day I’ll be strong enough to make guacamol again. She’d love that.