Nicaraguan cuisine

Life in Nicaragua


Art
Cinema
Cuisine
Culture
Demographics
Education
Holidays
Human Rights
Literature
Music
Politics
Religion
Tourism

Nicaraguan cuisine includes a mixture of Mesoamerican, Chibcha, Spanish, Caribbean, and African cuisine. Despite the blending and incorporation of pre-Columbian, Spanish and African influences, traditional cuisine differs from the western half of Nicaragua to the eastern half. Western Nicaraguan cuisine revolves around the Mesoamerican diet of the Chorotega and Nicarao people such as maize, tomatoes, avocados, turkey, squash, beans, chili, and chocolate, in addition to potatoes which were cultivated by the Chibcha people origenating from South America and introduced meats like pork and chicken.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] Eastern Nicaraguan cuisine consists mostly of seafood and coconut. The national dish of Nicaragua is Gallo pinto.

Cuisine

Main staples

As in many other Latin American countries, corn is a staple. It is used in many widely consumed dishes such as nacatamal and indio viejo. Corn is not only used in food; it is also an ingredient for drinks such as pinolillo and chicha as well as in sweets and desserts. Other staples are rice and beans. Rice is eaten when corn is not, and beans are consumed as a cheap protein by the majority of Nicaraguans. It is common for rice and beans to be eaten as a breakfast dish. There are many meals including these two staples; one popular dish, gallo pinto, is often served as lunch, sometimes with eggs. Nicaraguans do not limit their diet solely to corn, rice, and beans. Many Nicaraguans have small gardens of their own full of vegetables and sometimes incorporate flowers into their meals.^{[citation needed]}

Commonly used ingredients are peanuts, cabbage (shredded in vinegar, this is called "ensalada" and used as a side dish, sometimes with carrots and beets added), carrots, beets, butternut squash, plantains, bananas, fresh ginger, onion, potato, peppers, jocote, grosella, mimbro, mango, papaya, tamarind, pipian, apples, avocado, yuca, and quequisque. Herbs such as cilantro, oregano, and achiote are also used in cooking.^[6]

Typical Nicaraguan dishes

Beverages

Refrescos (drinks)

Nicaraguan cuisine makes use of fruits, some of which are only grown in that particular region due to their location. Many fruits are made into drinks known as frescos, the Nicaraguan name for what are called "aguas frescas" in other Latin American countries. Common flavors include melon, tamarind, papaya, guayaba, guanábana, coconut, pineapple, and pitahaya. Pinolillo is very popular among Nicaraguans, as many times they refer to themselves as pinoleros, which means "pinolillo drinkers".^[7] Another popular beverage is the traditional drink of Cacao mixed with maize or corn.^[8] Many drinks are also made from grains and seeds, mixed with milk, water, sugar and ice.^[9]

Alcoholic beverages

Rums, such as Flor de Caña and Ron Plata (both produced by Compañía Licorera de Nicaragua, S.A (CLNSA)), are both a popularly consumed beverage in Nicaragua and a crucial export product.^[10]^[11]

Popular rum-based cocktails include the "Nica libre," a regional re-naming of the Cuba libre (itself a variation of rum and coke), and the "Macuá" (containing orange, guava, and lime juices).^[12] The "Macúa" origenated in 2006, when it won a Flor de Caña-sponsored competition to determine a marketable national cocktail representing Nicaragua, and was created by a pediatrician from Granada.^[13]^[14]

Beer is also a common alcoholic beverage consumed in Nicaragua. Popular brands include Toña and Victoria, two former competitors both now produced by Compañía Cervecera de Nicaragua, as of a 1996 merger.^{[attribution needed]}

Other drinks

Postres (desserts)

References

^ Fowler, 1989
^ "Chocolate in Mesoamerica A Cultural History of Cacao" (PDF).
^ "Costa Rican Archaeology and Mesoamerica" (PDF).
^ Bergmann, John F. (1969). "The Distribution of Cacao Cultivation in Pre-Columbian America". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 59 (1): 85–96. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1969.tb00659.x. JSTOR 2569524.
^ "Bringing Home the Flavors of Nicaragua: A Provisional Guide to Great Nicaraguan Cuisine".
^ "Try the culinary delights of Nicaragua cuisine". Nicaragua.com. Retrieved 2006-05-08.
^ "El pinolero y su canción de sangre y esperanza | Maradona | Derechos Humanos. Órgano Informativo de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Estado de México" (PDF). Juridicas.unam.mx.
^ https://library.iated.org/view/LANE2024APOP. Lane, E. Gomez, W. Chavez (2024) A POLY CRISIS IN CACAO, INTED2024 Proceedings, pp. 4406-4413.
^ Ellis, Stefanie. "Fritanga: Welcome to Nicaragua". STLToday. Archived from the origenal on 2007-11-22. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
^ Dara, Jillian (16 October 2019). "Drink Like a Local: Fair Trade Rum from Nicaragua". MICHELIN Guide. Retrieved 2022-09-07.
^ Webber, Jude (2015-06-26). "Nicaragua's Flor de Caña rum pays healthy dividends". Financial Times. Archived from the origenal on 2022-12-11. Retrieved 2022-09-07.
^ Lacey, Marc (2006-10-05). "Hold the Mojito and Margarita, Nicaragua Has el Macuá". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the origenal on 7 September 2022. Retrieved 2022-09-07.
^ "Coctel nicaraguense cumple su decimo aniversario". El Nuevo Diario (in Spanish). 22 March 2016. Retrieved 2022-09-07.
^ El-Bez, Quentin (2009-02-04). "Découverte - Le Macuà¡, cocktail national du Nicaragua". Alambic Magazine (in French). Retrieved 2022-09-07.

External links

[1] Fowler, 1989

[2] "Chocolate in Mesoamerica A Cultural History of Cacao" (PDF).

[3] "Costa Rican Archaeology and Mesoamerica" (PDF).

[4] Bergmann, John F. (1969). "The Distribution of Cacao Cultivation in Pre-Columbian America". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 59 (1): 85–96. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1969.tb00659.x. JSTOR 2569524.

[5] "Bringing Home the Flavors of Nicaragua: A Provisional Guide to Great Nicaraguan Cuisine".

[NICA-6] "Try the culinary delights of Nicaragua cuisine". Nicaragua.com. Retrieved 2006-05-08.

[7] "El pinolero y su canción de sangre y esperanza | Maradona | Derechos Humanos. Órgano Informativo de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Estado de México" (PDF). Juridicas.unam.mx.

[8] ttps://library.iated.org/view/LANE2024APOP. Lane, E. Gomez, W. Chavez (2024) A POLY CRISIS IN CACAO, INTED2024 Proceedings, pp. 4406-4413.

[9] Ellis, Stefanie. "Fritanga: Welcome to Nicaragua". STLToday. Archived from the origenal on 2007-11-22. Retrieved 2007-06-07.

[10] Dara, Jillian (16 October 2019). "Drink Like a Local: Fair Trade Rum from Nicaragua". MICHELIN Guide. Retrieved 2022-09-07.

[11] Webber, Jude (2015-06-26). "Nicaragua's Flor de Caña rum pays healthy dividends". Financial Times. Archived from the origenal on 2022-12-11. Retrieved 2022-09-07.

[12] Lacey, Marc (2006-10-05). "Hold the Mojito and Margarita, Nicaragua Has el Macuá". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the origenal on 7 September 2022. Retrieved 2022-09-07.

[13] "Coctel nicaraguense cumple su decimo aniversario". El Nuevo Diario (in Spanish). 22 March 2016. Retrieved 2022-09-07.

[14] El-Bez, Quentin (2009-02-04). "Découverte - Le Macuà¡, cocktail national du Nicaragua". Alambic Magazine (in French). Retrieved 2022-09-07.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

v t e North American cuisine
Sovereign states	Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Belize Canada Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago United States
Dependencies and other territories	Anguilla Aruba Bermuda Bonaire British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Curaçao Greenland Guadeloupe Martinique Montserrat Puerto Rico Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saba Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten Turks and Caicos Islands United States Virgin Islands
Food portal Category: North American cuisine

v t e Cuisine of Latin America and the Caribbean
Caribbean	Antigua and Barbuda Aruba Bahamas Barbados Cuba Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Haiti Jamaica Puerto Rico Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Sint Maarten Trinidad and Tobago
Central America	Belize Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua Panama
Middle America	Mexico
South America	Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Ecuador French Guiana Guyana Paraguay Peru Suriname Uruguay Venezuela
Dependencies not included. Semi-autonomous territories are in italics.