Julie Aeschliman is the Education Program Coordinator for MCC Nicaragua.
“Have you eaten a quesillo?
“What do you think of the quesillo?”
“The quesillo here is the best – they don’t know how to make quesillos in Managua.”
“No onions? Can you imagine how they add cabbage instead of onions because it’s cheaper?”
The Quesillo. Darrin Yoder.
I’ve heard all these comments and more. Don’t think for a second Nicaraguans aren’t serious about their inventive rapi-comida because they have perfected the art of fast food with the quesillo. Maybe some of you are familiar with the word quesillo and are wondering what’s the deal with this stretchy, mozzarella like cheese I speak of? How can cheese be a fast food? I too, in my naivete, thought of stretchy mozzarella when I first came to Nicaragua, a bit smug perhaps of all things Central American after a few years living in Honduras. It wasn’t until my coworker dragged me across Nicaragua on a slow-moving bus heading East that I finally purchased my first quesillo and realized I had assumed incorrectly the concept of the quesilllo. Same trip, same day, purchased quesillo #2. Might have been a bit of over kill but I was in love with the idea, taste, and presentation of said quesillo, I was in love with Nicaragua.
May I introduce you to the Nicaraguan quesillo?
In lieu of a recipe with precise measurements, let’s look at the process.
Steps:
- Corn tortilla, Nica style, think large, toasted, thick; could serve as a snack by itself but that would be a different blog entry (See my coworker’s post on tortillas). Take this lightly toasted corn tortilla and lay flat.
Sara Parajon. Andrew Claassen.
- Quesillo: while the whole dish is called quesillo, quesillo also refers to the thin, stretchy, salty artisanal cheese, prepared traditionally in rural areas as a way to preserve milk and as a practical side to other dishes. Sometimes instead of stretched thin, the cheese is braided and this lovely trenza is layed in the middle of the tortilla.
Sara Parajon. Andrew Claassen.
- Pickled onions: The most ingenious addition to this dish are the pickled onions. Next to the salty quesillo and the toasted corn tortilla it is savory and quite satisfying. Go ahead and lay a generous portion of pickled onions on top of the quesillo slice or trenza.
Sara Parajon. Andrew Claassen.
- Cream, called crema in Nicaragua is a thick sour cream like substance that brings it all together. Roll up the tortilla with the quesillo cheese and onions anddrop it in a small plastic bag. Squirt a generous amount of crema into the bag over the tortilla, salt lightly and add hot sauce if you dare. “Ya esta el quesillo” – it’s ready to eat. Quick, and ready to eat out of the bag. Call it breakfast, lunch, snack, really a quesillo can be enjoyed any time of day.
Sara Parajon. Andrew Claassen.
Doña Sara Parajón says she has been selling quesillos in Masaya, about 45 minutes outside Managua for around 9 years. Her secret? All ingredients are ready to be assembled and packaged cleverly in plastic containers.
I realized upon moving to Nicaragua what locals have long valued: food should be fresh, local, and readily available. When there’s milk, and milk in abundance, cheese making is a resourceful way to keep milk from spoiling and gives it a longer time to be consumed.
According to the book, Lo que sabe el Paladar, by Nicaraguan Sergio Ramirez, the tradition of cheese making in Nicaragua is a rural and artisanal trade. It has a lot to do with the isolated conditions of the dairy farms from colonial times until the mid-1900s, especially in Chontales, central Nicaragua. Often, there was only one way to get in and out of these farms- by walking along rough roads/paths after long work hours, made especially difficult during the rainy season. Under these circumstances, cheese was added to the table for reasons of necessity and transformed into a culinary delight; milk that would otherwise have been wasted was converted into an artisanal industry including smoked and salted varieties of cheese.
View over Chontales. Steve Gisel.
Poco a poco, little by little, I am learning to recognize how resourcefulness and joy manifests itself in daily life, whether it’s buying a quesillo, talking with a neighbor, or figuring out how to make my way through traffic. There’s a profound joy I have discovered by listening to and observing my Nicaraguan friends and neighbors talk about food, politics, culture. As a guest in a foreign land I’m learning to recognize that perhaps when I think I know what a quesillo is, I don’t have a clue. What is your “quesillo” moment? What assumptions can you reconsider?
Coming up next in Nica Food Diaries, part 2: Nacatamales, the beloved treasure of Nicaraguan cuisine.
Nacatamal. Julie Aeschliman.