Good friends and good eats

Last night we went to a restaurant in the Ticomo barrio. We've gotten take out from there before, but it was a fun experience to go out and eat there. I hadn't been there before, but Nick had gone with Tomas once to get the food and bring it home. It is super tasty Nicaraguan food: gallo pinto (rice and beans) as well as fried chicked, or carne asada. They also have these fried platano chips that are terrific. Nick had an enchilada, which is much different here than what we think of as an enchilada. Here they are prepared not in a tortilla, but as corn flour dough with rice and meat inside and folded over like a pocket. It is then deep fried. In my opinion, almost nothing deep fried is bad... so of course I LOVE Nica-enchiladas. Halle and Kathy came home on Tuesday night and their son Brookes, who just graduated from Northwest University in Kirkland, came home with them for about a two week visit. So, the August, Vinther, and Gutierrez (Amanda y Tomas) families all piled into a van to go to this restaurant. It is in Tomas's old barrio, where much of his family still lives. He was pointing out the homes of family members as we drove by.

Brookes, Halle, Tomas, and Samanta. I think Brookes REALLY likes his dinner:

Drew eating some platano chips. The big round thing on his plate is a potato ball... fried (of course) with soft potato and queso on the inside. So good!


Nick standing at the counter where we order our food:


Today we went to Jessenia's house again for lunch. Drew loves going over to her house. The last time he went over to play, about a week ago, he spent the entire time holding a baby chick. He'd gone planning to play baseball with Juancito (their 10 year old son) but when he saw the 8 day old baby chicks, he just played with them and held one almost the entire time! He named it Chickito and calls it "mi amor." He has many grand plans for getting chickens and building a coop when we get home to the states, but I told him he'd have to take that up with his Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Rick! Today, he was barely interested in lunch, and again, just wanted to hold his Chickito the whole time. We had to force him to put Chickito down and eat the amazing enchiladas that Jessenia and her sister cooked for us.

Me and Sara, one of Jessenia's daughters:



Drew and his Chickito:


Abbey likes Chickito too!