After some research online, I quickly came to the conclusion that Indiana's most traditional dish is 'Pork tenderloin sandwich'. I find it interesting that some of the main foods that we consider to be typical for the USA, have their origins in Germany. I'm mostly thinking of the ubiquitous hamburger (from Hamburg), but also of frankfurters (from Frankfurt). Indiana Pork tenderloin sandwich is pretty much a burger and chips and a variation of the European dish Wiener Schnitzel.
I've made Schnitzels before, so Pork Tenderloin sandwich was quite straight forward and familiar to me. I couldn't find a perfect recipe, as there seems to be some variation in how the version from Indiana is made - I mostly got my inspiration from the following recipe and then improvised. I didn't want to oven bake the tenderloin, as I didn't have time and I also didn't want to deep-fat fry it, as this is really unhealthy, so I just pan fried it. Finally, I used pork loin chops, not tenderloin, so traditionalists should stop reading now!
The ingredients
The main ingredients
300g Pork tenderloin (or loin chops, depending on how fast you want to cook!)
4 burger baps
2 pieces of stale bread, to make breadcrumbs
2 eggs
Half a cup of milk
Half a jar of pickled onions
Half a jar of cornichons (or gherkins)
Three healthy dollops of mayonnaise
A box of oven-bake french fries
Garlic salt
Oregano
How I made Pork Tenderloin sandwich
First you should use a food processor to make the breadcrumbs - it's important that the bread is fairly stale, as this creates better crumbs for the 'breading' of the pork. Of course, you can buy ready-made breadcrumbs, but I find it easier to make my own.
Use a food processor to make breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs
The recipe I looked at recommended adding Garlic salt and oregano to the breadcrumbs, which I think were a really nice addition to the taste of this dish, although I doubt that either of these ingredients is very traditional for the Indiana version! I also added ground black pepper, but I omitted the salt, as I'm trying to keep down my salt intake.
Add Garlic salt and Oregano to the breadcrumbs for a non-traditional twist
In a separate bowl, I whisked the two eggs together and then added milk to create a sticky liquid which helped the breadcrumbs stick to the pork pieces.
Whisk the eggs
Egg/milk and crumbs for 'breading' the pork
If you're using loin chops, as I did, you will need to take the fat off, then cut each chop in half lengthwise and then cut each length into two thinner slices. The real trick to making tenderloin, or any kind of Schnitzel, is that you need to tenderise the meat and flatten it out into thin slices. I don't yet have a meat tenderiser, so I used a rolling pin instead. It's a good idea to cover the pieces of pork in cling film, before you tenderise them.
Pork chop cut into four thinner slices
Ready to be bashed - sorry, tenderised - by a rolling pin!
The slices of pork after they have been tenderised
The result was a plate full of thin pork slices.
I then dipped the pork slices in the egg/milk mixture and in the breadcrumb mix, then fried them over a high heat.
Add the pork pieces after dipping them in the egg/milk mixture and breadcrumb mix
Fry the pieces until the pork has cooked through
You can choose whichever condiments you like for this dish - my preferences were pickled onions, cornichons and mayonnaise. If Pulp Fiction is anything to go by, then it's clear that people in the US prefer ketchup on their fries, just like in the UK and unlike Belgium/Germany/France where people use mayonnaise. I'm not sure why I opted for mayonnaise, but it seemed to fit better with the dish and I enjoyed dipping my chips/fries in the mayo and smearing it over the fried pork.
Pork tenderloin sandwich with fries
I guess it's a matter of taste. I found an interesting blog post about the use of ketchup and mayonnaise, which you might also find interesting.
The finished dish with a selection of condiments
Anyway, the result was delicious - an easy dish to make and one you should definitely try for yourself.
Image credits:
All photos were taken by me, please feel free to reuse, under the Creative
Commons license:
Attribution (especially to this blog
post) Share alike Non-commercial
I was vaguely aware of the name 'Kurt Vonnegut' before I started researching for this blog post, however, I'm not sure if I'd ever have made it as far as reading one of his novels, which I have now done, having just finished Slaughterhouse 5 (1969), probably his most famous book and a seminal work of the post-war period.
A satirical novel about the bombing of Dresden?
Whilst a satirical novel about the bombing of Dresden might not sound like an easy read, actually, Slaughterhouse 5 is incredibly accessible, enjoyable and beautifully written. I don't usually have a lot of patience for satirical or humorous novels, so I surprised myself by liking Vonnegut's book, as much as I did. The title of the novel itself is satirical - when I first picked it up, I assumed there would be a climatic scene in a slaughterhouse where someone (possibly 5 people) would be murdered. In fact, the slaughterhouse is a refuge for the main character of the novel and ensures he survives the bombing of Dresden when thousands of other people perish.
Theme: Humour
Vonnegut uses humour to deal with a topic which is, actually, incredibly traumatic. His position is ostensibly anti-war, having experienced the bombing of Dresden first-hand. Vonnegut, like his main character, Billy Pilgrim, creates a parallel fantasy world where he can escape the real horror of war and look at it from a slightly skewed and sidelong point of view. I guess there is nothing more ironic than an American of German descent witnessing the destruction of a German city from the viewpoint of an enemy combatant.
Although we mostly associate laughter with the feeling of being happy, I'm sure most of you reading this blog post will also recognise the connection between fear and laughter. Why do we laugh when we're afraid? Well, I guess, it dispels some of the tension in a situation. Being Irish, I'm also very conscious of our national tendency towards humour, historically a respite from the horrors of being a colonised nation.
Theme: The unreliability of time
Dresden after the bombing by Deutsches Bundesarchiv
One of the most interesting themes of Slaughterhouse 5 is the unreliability of time. Vonnegut very clearly weaves the narrative around events in Billy Pilgrim's life, as he comes unstuck in time and travels backwards and forwards to different periods of his life, as well as to his parallel life on a faraway planet called Tralfamadore. Vonnegut connects the different time periods and parallel lives of Billy Pilgrim with some beautiful images and continuity in the elements of the narrative.
For example, when, as an older man, Billy Pilgrim survives a plane crash in Vermont, Vonnegut places some Austrian tourists in the vicinity, so Billy comes around to the sound of the German language, immediately transporting him back to the forest in Luxembourg where he was taken prisoner by the Germans in the Second World War.
It's a real joy to join Billy Pilgrim on this narrative roller coaster backwards and forwards through time and across the universe! It also reminded me a little bit of someone in their dotage, confusing one period of their life with another, each being equally real. By breaking with the constraints of a time-logical narrative, Vonnegut somehow removes a fear of death that would otherwise dominate the story that he wants to tell.
Theme: Sexual (im)potency
I was quite interested in Vonnegut's portrayal of sexuality in Slaughterhouse 5. When Billy is first captured by a young German soldier, he describes him as a 'heavenly Androgyne' and 'as beautiful as Eve'. I think Vonnegut is expressing the feeling of being captured as akin to sexual passivity or impotency, ie. when you give up control to your captor - it's a strangely erotic experience. Apparently, Slaughterhouse 5 was the first work of fiction which referred to the fact that 'fairies' (gay men) were sent to concentration camps by the Nazis.
The old sex and death routine, so popular in the 19th century, also makes an appearance in Vonnegut's novel - Billy falls asleep on the train on the way to his father's funeral and wakes up with a massive erection! His oedipus complex is certainly complex! According to the novel, Billy is very well endowed, but his sex life on earth is unfulfilled. By contrast, on Tralfamadore, Billy is a great lover and satisfies the fictional porn-star, Montana Wildhack, even if their love-making is arranged by the Tralfamadorians, who want to observe human reproduction.
Theme: Illogical relationships with women
Billy's relationship with women in the novel is, at best, absurd. When he returns from the war and has a nervous breakdown, he is admitted to a psychiatric ward. His mother, 'a perfectly nice, standard-issue, brown-haired, white woman with a high-school education' comes to visit him and he describes her thus:
She upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrassed and ungrateful and weak because she had gone to so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy really didn't like life at all.
Shortly after the scene with his mother, Billy describes his relationship with his wife, Valencia:
Billy didn't want to marry ugly Valencia. She was one of the symptoms of his disease. He know he was going crazy when he heard himself proposing marriage to her . . .
To Billy, his relationship with his wife defies all logic and merely serves to confirm his insanity.
Theme: The annoyingly cheerful Englishmen
I was amused by Vonnegut's depiction of the annoyingly cheerful Englishmen that Billy meets when he arrives at the Prisoner of War camp in Germany. Billy arrives with a ragtag bunch of American POWs, looking like a 'filthy flamingo'. The English POWs welcome them with a very cheerful song, Hail, Hail, the Gang's all here! which was featured in that classic English musical, The Pirates of Penzance. According to Billy 'they made the war look stylish and reasonable, and fun'.
Knowing Vonnegut's anti-war sentiment, you can read between the lines and sense the resentment that the American POWs feel when confronted by this jolly bunch of Englishmen. Sure enough, the cheery welcome soon turns to hostility, as the Englishmen look down their nose at the Americans and despise them for their ragged appearances and low spirits.
The Englishmen seem to get on very well with their German captors, playing chess together and sharing a common disdain for the general appearance of the American POWs. In a very subtle way, Vonnegut highlights the sense of separation between the Americans and the Europeans, not to mention the absurdity of American soldiers fighting in Europe, many miles away from home, with an 'ally' that seems to have more in common with the enemy!
Theme: The joy of human nature
One of the things I enjoyed most about Slaughterhouse 5 was the way human nature penetrated the absurd situations that Billy found himself in. A reference is made to Lot's wife and how she couldn't help looking back, although warned not to - Vonnegut describes her looking back as a plain and simple 'human reaction' and there is a real sense of optimism in the idea that people will still behave like people, even in unnatural situations such as war.
Another example of this is when the American POWs arrive at the camp in Germany, the German soldiers laugh with relief, as they realise how pathetic the enemy is. Again laughter as a release for anxiety!
There is so much going on in this novel that I can't hope to do it justice in a short blog post, so why not order a copy and read it for yourself!
Image credits:
The image of Dresden after the bombing has been released by the Deutsches Bundesarchiv under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. You can see more information at the file description page on Wikimedia commons - Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1994-041-07 / CC-BY-SA [CC-BY-SA-3.0-de], via Wikimedia Commons
I've also embedded two videos from YouTube.
The first is the official trailer for the 1972 film directed by George Roy Hill. I haven't yet seen this movie, but it's on my 'to do' list!
The second is a very clever recording of Hail, Hail, the Gang's all here uploaded by Dan Priest, which shows original footage from an WW2 entertainment show for Russian and US soldiers
Probably the state's most famous export, the Jacksons have gained global recognition in a way that might have seemed unimaginable for a family from Gary, Indiana. No matter where I go in the world, when I say my name is 'Michael', most people immediately say 'Jackson', which shows how much of a global phenomenon Michael Jackson was, as he dominated the pop industry in the late 20th century and became an even much bigger star than his talented siblings in the Jackson 5.
Michael Jackson through his brother's eyes
It's a massive topic to undertake and there is so much information out there, that I thought it would be best to concentrate on the biography Michael: Through a Brother's Eyes (2011) by Jermaine Jackson. There's something really beautiful when families sing together and, likewise, I wanted to hear about Michael Jackson from someone who knew him best in their early years, growing up in Indiana.
I must put my hand up at this point and say that I wasn't a massive fan of Michael's music - I enjoyed it, as most of the world did, but I never bought any of his albums and I wouldn't really be listening to his music now, if it wasn't for the fact that I've been researching for this blog. A lot of his work and the music of the Jackson 5 is really familiar to me and, I must admit, it's been nice to take a trip down memory lane and rediscover some of their classic tracks.
There has been so much negative publicity about Michael, that it was refreshing to read an account of his life that was written by someone who really loved him. Of course, I understand that Jermaine's story is less likely to be objective but, in some ways that doesn't matter, as it balanced off all the negative publicity I've read about Michael over the years in the press.
Peter Pan or Paedophile?
That Michael Jackson loved children is very well-known and accusations of paedophilia overshadowed the latter part of his life. On one hand, he could be seen as a Peter Pan-type character, who lost his childhood to the demands of celebrity and being in the public eye - he compensated in later life, by building a paradise for children at his ranch in Neverland and he literally became the boy who never grew up. One the other hand, he violated expected standards of American society in relation to his conduct with children, especially children who came from vulnerable families and weren't related to him.
Sharing a bed with a child who isn't your own child is definitely unacceptable in Western culture, although this might seem less unusual in other cultures around the world. Like it or not, we now live in the shadow of a more innocent age, when adult/child contact was freer, but also abused by many sexually repressed adults, such as celibate priests. If Michael Jackson's contact with children was innocent, then it still transcended the accepted norms of a society that views such contact with suspicion.
Guilty until proven innocent?
By coincidence, during the time I was researching this blog post, I saw a very interesting Danish film called Jagten (The Hunt) (2012), dir. Thomas Vinterberg. The movie deals with a teaching assistant who is wrongly accused of sexually abusing a young girl who is in his care. It highlights how quick we are to judge and what a nightmare it is to be wrongly accused of such a serious crime.
It's almost too easy to believe that Michael Jackson behaved inappropriately with children - people judged him (or were prejudiced against him) because of his eccentric personality and odd behaviour - but what if he was innocent, then how wrong would that judgement/prejudice be? My personal take on it is that he cleared his name in court and we should respect this judgement.
Thriller, Kingdom Hall and the American obsession with death
There are so many aspects to the Michael Jackson story that I could write about but, in the interests of a succint and readable blog post, I want to concentrate on one other aspect of Michael Jackson's life that fascinated me. Before I started my research, I didn't know that the Jacksons were raised in a fairly strict Jehovah's Witness household. Religious beliefs had a really strong influence on the lives of Michael, Jermaine and the other Jackson siblings, whether they ultimately rejected their religious upbringing or not.
I had the pleasure of re-watching Thriller (1983) after so many years - I remember first seeing it on MTV when I was a child and, I think it's fair to say that this video changed the pop industry forever, as well as influencing the development of modern dance.
It's shocking to realise that it's already 30 years since the video was released and amazing that it still feels incredibly 'fresh', despite the technological developments in video and film production that have happened since then. I think it was the most expensive pop video ever produced at that time, costing half a million dollars and being directed by John Landis of American Werewolf in London fame. If, like me, you haven't seen this video in years, then do yourself a favour and click on the embedded YouTube video!
The video displeased the elders at Kingdom Hall, so Michael put a disclaimer at the beginning to assure fans that he wasn't endorsing belief in the occult. Like so many things in Michael's life though, you can't help wondering what his real motivation was. He certainly seems to have been fascinated by the 'dark side' and troubled characters (eg. Billy Jean which was based on a stalker and Smooth Criminal which is believed to have been inspired by the gruesome murders of the 'Night Stalker', Richard Ramirez).
We think of Michael and the Jackson 5 as being African-American performers and that's certainly how they were first 'sold' to the US public, however, their heritage is more complex than that and I was really interested to learn that the Jacksons also traced some ancestry back to the Choctaw and Blackfoot tribes. It's a heritage they were proud of. Jermaine describes how, during their camping trips to Wisconsin as children, they would walk along the Indian trails.
The more I learn about the United States, the more I sense a national obsession with death. As I watched the ghouls rising out of the graveyard in Thriller, I couldn't help but imagine the souls of millions of native Americans who were killed in the name of Manifest Destiny (see my previous blog post on this subject). Perhaps Michael's treatment of the occult and death were guided by some sort of ancestral memory, which conflicted with the religion he inherited from his parents?
There is so much more that I could write about Michael and the Jackson 5, but I'll stop there for now and leave you with one last video from YouTube which shows Michael's first performance of 'the Robot dance' - a hint of what would come in later years, it shocked contemporary audiences, when he first performed this on the Carol Burnett show in 1974.
Videos:
All of the videos are taken from YouTube.
The first is one of my favourite Jackson 5 songs, Can you feel it? It's so upbeat and optimistic and I also loved the 1998 remix by the Italian dance group Tamperer featuring Maya, which reminds me of driving from Omagh and Derry.
Black or White (1991) is one of my favourite Michael Jackson songs, with another great video from John Landis.
The third video is Thriller (1983) and the fourth is a recording of Dancing Machine from the Carol Burnett show in 1974.
Indiana is the third place in the United States that I have decided to blog about. I really enjoy learning about the United States, especially as I have yet to visit this country, which has had such an influence on 'modern' culture, both in Western societies and around the globe. I learned a lot during my previous blogging experiences about Oklahoma and Wisconsin and I'm sure that Indiana will be no exception.
Not to mention the fact that around 40% of people who visit this blog are from the United States - it's to be expected that an English-language blog would get the majority of its visitors from the biggest English-speaking country on Earth, nevertheless, I'm grateful for the interest US readers have shown in my writing and I hope they have found my blog posts interesting and informative!
Entering White County by J Stephen Conn
Before I started researching for this blog, I only knew one thing about Indiana, which was that it has some great universities that offer comprehensive language courses. I had a Tajik colleague in Samarkand who spent some time teaching Uzbek in Indianapolis and this sums up my 'personal experience' with the state of Indiana.
Of course, now that I've starting researching, I've found out a lot more about the state and I look forward to continuing my research on topic areas such as The Jackson Five, Kinsey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the writings of Kurt Vonnegut.
I've also learned that Indiana was originally designated as an 'Indian territory', hence the name, and lay on the border between French and British influence in the 18th century. Like Oklahoma, Indiana was designated as a place where Native American Indians would live, until the Europeans later changed their minds and did everything they could to claim the land back and make Indiana the 19th US state (just after Louisiana and a year before Mississippi joined the Union).
The United Methodist church in Caley
Indianapolis was specifically designed as the capital of the new state and lies almost exactly in the geographical heart of Indiana. Indiana had two former capitals, Corydon and Vincennes, which have since played much smaller roles in the state's destiny. The other major cities in Indiana are Fort Wayne, near the border with Ohio and Evansville, which is in the south near Kentucky.
The small city of Gary, where the Jackson Five grew up, is practically in the suburbs of Chicago and, indeed, the 'suburb' of East Chicago is in Indiana. This is one the US's biggest steel-producing regions and attracted a lot of African American workers, who decamped from the southern states, in search of better opportunities in the north. I first became aware of this demographic trend when I was blogging about Oprah Winfrey and Wisconsin.
Indiana is also known as 'the Crossroads of America' - Indianapolis is a hub for many of the interstate highways and Indiana finds itself slap bang in the middle of the US and the heart of the Mid West! This might not seem significant until you realise how convenient Indianapolis is as a convention centre - whether it's the Gen Con gaming convention, or Star Trek meetings, the city promotes itself as a central location for nation-wide meetings.
Monon, White County by J Stephen Conn
Indiana's nickname got me thinking about the significance of 'crossroads' in different cultures around the world - whether it's the 'comely maidens' dancing on the crossroads of Ireland, as imagined by our first President, US-born, Eamon DeValera, or the grim English tradition of executing and burying criminals under crossroads (such as Tyburn in London), the place where roads meet has interesting cultural associations. It's a magical place of voodoo, or a meeting place with the Devil - somewhere beyond the rules of civilised society, an area between settlements, at once sacred and out of human control.
And of course, there are less scary Crossroads in Western culture - I'm thinking of the famous soap opera that I watched as a child on British television, or the French supermarket chain, Carrefour, where I have spent many a hard-earned euro!
So join me on this virtual journey to the crossroads of the United States - let's find out together what Indiana is all about!
Image credits:
For this blog post, I wanted to highlight the work of semi-retired clergyman, J Stephen Conn, who is an avid traveller and seems to have methodically documented many counties in each of the United States. I thought it would be interesting to randomly choose one of the Indiana counties, White county and show you the pictures Mr Conn has taken there. I think it's an interesting slice of 'everyday life' in the United States.
You can see more of Mr Conn's work on his photostream.
It's time to say ¡hasta luego! to Honduras - I hope you've enjoyed this virtual journey around Honduran culture, just as much as I have.
A summary of the themes
During my research about Honduras, I learned about the country's turbulent history and the origin of the name, Honduras. I read about the inspiring community leader, Elvia Alvarado and the impact of liberation theology on the politics of Central America. I read a novel by one of Honduras' most famous modern writers, The Big Banana by Roberto Quesada. I also learned about the hazardous journey many Central Americans make to a new life in the United States, as documented in Enrique's Journey by Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist, Sonia Lazario. And I learned how to make Enchiladas Hondureñas.
Tools for research
I read five books as part of my research about Honduras:
Lonely Planet: Honduras and the Bay Islands (1st edition, 2007)
Books I read, as part of my research
Don't be afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart (1987) - the story of Elvia Alvarado, translated and edited by Medea Benjamin. The Institute for Food and Development Policy
The Big Banana (1999) by Roberto Quesada, Arte Publico Press
Enrique's Journey (2006) by Sonia Nazario, Random House Trade Paperback edition
The Mosquito Coast (1981) by Paul Theroux - I read the 1982 Penguin edition. I didn't blog about this book - it's one I've read before and I read it again for sheer pleasure, it's still a classic story and I'd highly recommend it.
I also watched several movies as part of my research:
Walker (1987), directed by Alex Cox (who did Sid and Nancy)- although it's mostly set in Nicaragua, I found this movie to be a fascinating portrayal of the 19th century filibuster, William Walker, who tried to take over Central America in the mid-19th century. The style of the movie was Acid Western which is a genre I'm not very familiar with.
DVD cover of El Espiritu de mi Mama
El EspÃritu de mi Mamá (1999) by Ali Allie was a beautiful movie, probably the most famous one to come out of Honduras in recent years. I had to order this one from the US, as it's not readily available here in the UK.
The Mosquito Coast (1986), the movie based on the book, directed by Peter Weir and starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.
I did all of my research listening to the music of the following Honduran bands:
Grupo Garifuna de Honduras (traditional Garifuna music - really beautiful stuff, many of the songs also featured in the movie El EspÃritu de mi Mamá)
El Sol Caracol (a modern pop-rock band, that I've really grown to like - I particularly liked their song Pero a tu Lado - Only by your side - and could picture myself boogeying away to this in a niteclub in Tegucigalpa!)
Banda Blanca (a more old-fashioned show band, playing hits like the Spanish version of John Lennon's Imagine)
Aurelio Martinez (a more modern, funkier Garifuna singer, who is incredibly popular on the world music scene)
Pero a tu Lado - a song about Tegucigalpa by the band El Sol Caracol
Other themes
As usual, if I had more time, there were many other themes that I would liked to have blogged about. Perhaps I'll come back to some of them later. These included:
The Mayan Apocalypse The deeps/depth Macaws Garifuna culture and language The treatment of LGBT people in Central America Diving The banana industry Pirates Underworlds Fr Jose Andres Tamayo - the eco-warrior priest The currencies of Latin America Tobacco The Fountain of Youth The 'White City' of La Moskitia The legend of La Sucia, aka Bubbly Susan
Dinner-party trivia
And I learned some trivia about Honduras that will, no doubt, come in handy for dinner party conversations!
- The Honduran currency, the Lempira is named after a native Lenca chieftain who led a revolt against the Spanish invaders in 1537. - British pirates dominated the Caribbean coast of Honduras up until the 19th century - Miskito people were so-called because of the 'muskets' that the British pirates gave them, so they could fight against the Spanish - 30% of the words in the Miskito language are of English origin - The writer O Henry first coined the phrase Banana Republic - Honduras had a 'soccer war' with El Salvador in 1969 - so-called because the conflict broke out after a football match, although the underlying tensions concerned Salvadoran immigration to Honduras - the five stars on the Honduran flag represent the five countries involved in the Federal Republic of Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica) - Honduras qualified for the World Cup only once, in 1982 - Despite being a nominally Catholic country, there are around 100,000 Protestants in Honduras - Of Honduras' 225 native species, almost half are types of bat! - The Tolupan people of Honduras are believed to be one of the most ancient American peoples and speak a language which some linguists believe is related to Sioux. - Honduras' second city, San Pedro Sula, has been called the 'Aids capital of Central America' - The oldest clock in the Americas can be found in Comayagua cathedral - it was built for the Moors of Alhambra around 1100CE. - La Moskitia has the largest rainforest in Central America
In the News
Since I started blogging about Honduras, more than a month ago, I've noticed the following stories in the news:
The Honduran national football team wins during a World Cup qualifying match against the United States. The Honduran economy is on the brink of collapse. The government proposes to boost the economy through the development of 'Charter cities' which would be run by companies, without regard to social and human rights The President sends soldiers to the capital to keep law and order Honduras marks the one year anniversary of the terrible Comayagua prison fire
The Final word in Death
It's hard to research about Honduras and not come across the fact that this small Latin American country has the highest intentional homicide rate in the world. That's a rate of 91.6 out of 100,000 people, way ahead of the world's second most dangerous country, neighbouring El Salvador, which has a homicide rate of 69.2 per 100,000 people. Cote d'Ivoire comes in third at 56.9 and is Africa's most dangerous country.
It's a far cry from countries in Europe, like Ireland and the UK (both 1.2 per 100,000 people) - the murder rate in Honduras is more than 75 times higher! Europe's most dangerous country is Greenland (19.2) followed by Russia (10.2). Asia's most dangerous country is Kyrgyzstan (20.1).
The intentional homicide rate in the US is 4.2, but this runs as high as 24.0 in the District of Columbia, where the federal capital, Washington D.C. is located. The countries with the lowest homicide rates include; Monaco, Palau, Hong Kong, Singapore and Iceland. Japan also has a fairly low homicide rate (0.4) for a country with such a big population.
On a slightly more cheerful note, I'm going to leave you with a wonderful manga video to the soundtrack of Banda Blanca's 'Imagenes'- enjoy and up next month is I . . .
As part of my research on Honduras, I read a truly amazing book by Sonia Nazario called Enrique's Journey (2007). Nazario was born in the US, but has Argentinian heritage and is a highly successful investigative journalist, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2003 for her work on Enrique's journey - a series of news articles for the Los Angeles Times.
Enrique was a teenager when Nazario met him on the Mexican border - he had travelled all the way from Honduras and was trying to get to North Carolina, to be reunited with his mother, who had left him and his sister behind when he was still a child. Enrique eventually makes it across the border and is reunited with his mother. What I really appreciated about this book was that Nazario doesn't end Enrique's journey there, but also documents the experiences of Enrique and his mother as they try to rebuild their relationship after so many years of separation.
Mexican train by saguayo
I'm someone who loves to travel and live in different countries - if I'm not physically travelling then I'm mentally travelling, through my research for this blog. Nevertheless, I understand that most people would prefer not to live outside the place they were brought up in. I also sense how distressing it must be for people who aren't 'born travellers' to suddenly have to uproot themselves and go live somewhere else. Living abroad is great when you have some choice in the matter - not so great when you're forced to leave your home in search of a better future.
Some people never get up the courage to make that choice and Nazario quite rightly points out that it's mostly the optimists in societies like Honduras who decide to seek better opportunities elsewhere.
Nazario does a fantastic job at highlighting how difficult the choice to go to the United States is for young Hondurans, especially the young mothers, thousands of whom are forced to leave their kids behind with elderly parents and other relatives. But often it's a choice between physically being there for their children or providing them with money so they can have a good education and a better future. Enrique's reaction to his mother, when they're finally reunited, illustrates the complex emotions felt by those children that are left behind and the bewilderment of their parents who feel they made a difficult choice but, ultimately, for the right reasons.
Train by saguayo
It's a horrendous journey between the Guatemalan border in Chiapas, southern Mexico, to Nuevo Laredo on the border with the US. Nazario did her research well and tells some harrowing tales of violence, robbery, rape and exploitation of the immigrants from Central America, as they pass along a well-established route, controlled by gangs and La Migra, the Mexican immigration authorities.
Immigrants mostly ride on the trains and I remember watching a really poignant movie about this called Sin Nombre (2009) by the director Cary Joji Fukunaga. The train is an iconic 'being' for the immigrants. Immigrants call it El Tren Devorador (the train that devours), because of all the people who lose their lives falling off or being murdered by gangs. They also call it 'The Iron Horse' and the 'The Pilgrim Train' as it is their passage to a new life. The train sits in stark contrast to El Bus de Lágrimas - the Bus of Tears, that La Migra uses to transport immigrants back to Guatemala, where they must start their journey all over again.
I was horrified by accounts of the injuries immigrants suffer, when they fall off the trains, breaking bones, losing limbs, becoming disabled - realising that their American dream ends right there. Immigrants from Central America don't bring their passports or any ID with them, in the hope of blending in with local Mexicans and avoiding El Bus de Lágrimas. Sadly, when they fall off the train and die, they are unidentifiable and usually end up being thrown down a hole in the local graveyard, leaving behind relatives, children and parents who have no idea what happened to them.
Enrique also mentions the kindness of people along the way, especially the villagers in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, who feed, clothe and shelter immigrants, most of whom have had a terrifying and exhausting journey from the southern border. Nazario also documents the amazing work of priests and volunteers who have devoted their lives to providing some respite and humanity for people making that awful journey.
Passing between two trains by saguayo
Like many immigrants, when Enrique arrives in the United States, it doesn't quite live up to his expectations. The life of an immigrant is pretty hard - they suffer racism, work in incredibly low-paying jobs and are always looking over their shoulder and living in fear of deportation. Enrique also suffers from the trauma of the journey and turns to alcohol and drugs, squandering his wages, instead of saving for the future.
Towards the end of the book, Nazario gives us the facts about immigration. How cheap labour allows US citizens to have a more comfortable life. How remittances sent back to countries like Honduras increase the dependency on money coming from abroad, which decreases motivation to sort out the problems at home. Most importantly, she points out how immigration destroys family life in the immigrants' home country. Like Enrique's mother, Lourdes, many immigrants think that they will only be gone for a year or so and will be united with their children pretty soon. Then they struggle to make ends meet in the US and every spare cent is sent home. They can't return to Honduras because it means leaving the US and US wages, behind for good.
It was a compelling read and I'd highly recommend Nazario's book to anyone who would like to understand the immigrants and their journey. I only wish Nazario had published other books based on her investigative journalism but, unfortunately, I think this is the only one.
Image credits:
As much as I would love to illustrate this blog post with fast-paced, journalistic images of immigrants riding the trains in Mexico, those are not the kind of images that tend to be copyright-free.
Instead I want to illustrate the work of flickr member saguayo who is from Mexico City and has shared these wonderful images taken in the Mexican train museum. You can see more of saguayo's work on his photostream.
I've cooked a Central American dish before for this blog, when I made Tapado, a Guatemalan seafood soup. This time I thought I would opt for something even more typical. Although mostly associated with Mexico, enchiladas are found throughout Central America and the Honduran version I made is just one of the many Honduran versions of this classic dish.
I used a recipe book this time, Cooking the Central American Way (2005) by Alison Behnke - although I also looked at other online recipes, as I usually do and added an ingredient, crème fraîche, to the original recipe.
The ingredients
Enchiladas Hondureñas - the main ingredients
For the main meal
Vegetable oil - aceite vegetal
1/2 kilo minced beef - 1/2 kilo de carne picada
1 onion - 1 cebolla
1 green pepper - 1 pimiento verde
2 small tomatoes - 2 tomates pequeños
250ml vegetable stock - 250 ml de caldo de verduras
It's all about the avocado!
Served with
4 corn tortillas - 4 tortillas de maÃz
Grated cheese (Cheddar) - queso rallado (de Cheddar)
1 avocado - 1 aguacate
1/4 cabbage (shredded) - 1/4 repollo (rallado)
Crème fraîche - crema fresca
2 eggs - 2 huevos
Salsa - salsa roja
How I made Enchiladas Hondureñas
Preparing the main meal was very straightforward and nothing that I haven't done before. First I heated the vegetable oil in a heavy-base frying pan, then I fried the onion, adding the green pepper and the minced meat, which I fried until it had turned brown.
Prepare the onion, pepper and tomatoes
Fry the onion and peppers
Once I had browned the meat, I add the chopped tomatoes, then the vegetable stock and let the whole mixture simmer for about twenty minutes.
Brown the minced beef, then add the tomatoes
Add the vegetable stock and simmer for twenty minutes
The bits on the side
Enchiladas involve lots of 'bits on the side' - the range depends on where you get your recipe from! I followed Behnke's recipe by shredding some cabbage leaves. I decided to steam the leaves, although I don't have a steamer, so I usually improvise by putting the vegetable(s) I want to steam in a collander. I place the collander in a pot 1/3 full of boiling water and cover with the pot lid, so the vegetables are steamed, without touching the boiling water.
Shred some cabbage leaves - I did this by hand
How to steam when you don't have a steamer
I hard-boiled the two eggs and grated some cheese. I took the cheat's option of buying salsa in a jar and then spooned this into a ramekin, to be added to the enchiladas later.
Surprisingly, this experience was the first time I'd ever opened an avocado. Avocados originate in Mexico/Central America and are used a lot in local dishes and Mexican specialities, like guacamole.
Prepare the avocado
It was quite easy really, I simply sliced the avocado down both sides, cutting it in half and removing the stone, which is quite large. I then used a spoon to scoop the avocado pulp onto a saucer. I then chopped the avocado pulp into smaller pieces.
Unlike Mexican enchiladas, which involve folding tortillas around the meat/vegetable mixture, Hondurans prefer to pan-fry their tortillas until they are crispy, then pile all of the meat/vegetable mixture on top.
Hondurans fry the tortillas until they are crispy
Tortillas ready for their topping
So this is exactly what I did - tortillas, topped with meat, then grated cheese, avocado, crème fraîche, slices of egg, shredded cabbage and a spoonful of salsa on top.
Almost finished - where's the cabbage?
Enchiladas Hondureñas with extra salsa on the side and a cold Mexican beer
As you can see from the photo, it was quite a feast!
Image credits:
All photos were taken by me, please feel free to reuse, under the Creative Commons license:
Attribution (especially to this blog post) Share alike
Non-commercial
After some research online, I quickly came to the conclusion that Indiana's most traditional dish is 'Pork tenderloin sandwich'. I find it interesting that some of the main foods that we consider to be typical for the USA, have their origins in Germany. I'm mostly thinking of the ubiquitous hamburger (from Hamburg), but also of frankfurters (from Frankfurt). Indiana Pork tenderloin sandwich is pretty much a burger and chips and a variation of the European dish Wiener Schnitzel. 
