After spending so many hours this week on a bus we figured it was time to pay a tribute to some of the most…adventurous food we eat on a regular basis. Half of me wants to just put some pictures up and let them speak for themselves but first a little background.
When we started our trip, there was no such thing as bus food. Twice in Mexico we were given a can of soda and a small ham sandwich and were quite beside ourselves with excitement…until we bit into the sandwich…and then were thankful for the soda. Generally the food on the buses in Mexico and especially in Central America (Mexico is in North America…never EVER confuse that) is provided by locals who jump on the bus at every opportunity to sell you whatever it is they might have. If this is fried chicken, it might have been cooked last night. If this is fruit, it might have been cut last week. If this is a soda and a bag of chips you are safe but you can only make so many meals out of soda and a bag of chips. They were either indigenous with a giant food basket or a bit more modern with a special vest that a Delta Force commando might wear to hold all their guns and ammunition…only these people are loaded with sodas and frito-lay products.
We’ve come a long way from this down here in South America. Our last bus was a cama bus, only $3 more than the semi-cama and the hours were a bit better, and this meant that wine (much better for sleeping than a cup of coffee loaded with sugar) was included with dinner. Some of these buses like to play “dinner music” as the meal is served which is generally a mix of bad 80’s music videos. The most recent had Jill offer me (a child of the 80’s) an 80’s themed 30th birthday party if in exchange I would agree to provide the entertainment (with some friends, any volunteers?) for a NKOTB (That’s ‘New Kids on the Block’ for those of you who aren’t in the know) party for her 30th birthday. Assuming I can find 4 other able bodied gentlemen to assist me, each of our 30th birthday’s has been planned.
But really, this is about the food. When we do receive it there is often a “prepackaged” portion which we usually save to eat as breakfast, as well as a “fresh” portion; sometimes cold sometime hot, usually some sort of strange ham/cheese combination, or weird congealed pasta. Sometimes the meal is never identified.
I volunteer my husband in your NKOTB efforts, that is if your tribute band is meant to be off key, tone deaf, rhythmless, and has the ability to dance without any sort of coordination like all nice Jewish boys.
Don’t know if you had the opportunity to bus through rural Perú off the gringo trail (i.e., other than the Lima-Arequipa-Puno-Cusco route), but the standard offering there is choclo con queso, perhaps not a gourmet’s delight but a far cry from the tasteless, stale stuff you are describing. It consists of boiled corn on the cob, a chunk of queso fresco, fresh cheese, and a bit of ají molido, sort of a hot pepper salsa. And generally there are all sorts of emolientes to drink. These are all sold at the various stops the bus will make as it winds through the breathtakingly beautiful and dangerous high Andes roads. I once did the trip from Andahuaylas to Ayacucho by bus, about 150 or so miles that requires the whole day, and choclo con queso kept me from starving.
@ Mark- Never tried Choclo con queso on a bus, but definitely had it in Peru. Delicious!
jejeje, i want to see the NKOTB!!
@ Alejandra- Me too!!!! you’ll have to come visit us for my birthday!