The Original "Baleadas"

Honduras' Most Known Street Food

Baleadas de Honduras

"Baleadas" is one of the most representative dishes of the Honduran cuisine and the most traditional street food in the country. It is a flour tortilla stuffed with beans, crumbled salty cheese and a bit of sour cream (queso duro and mantequilla); usually eaten at breakfast or dinner. 

"Dona Tere" - The First "Baleada" stand

This Mayan rooted dish was born in the city of “La Ceiba” in the famous street called "Baleadas of the Line”. Its development is attributed to a woman known as "Dona Tere", which had her food stand on the shores, where the trains of the Banana Standard Fruit Company once ran. 

The natives of the area, Los Ceibeños, named this Honduras Street food “Baleadas” because  they used to eat a flour tortilla folded in half, fill with beans in "bullet" (whole grain red bean) and sheered salted cheese. This, being bitten by one of its ends, caused a pressure that makes the beans go bullet "fired" out of the tortilla, hence the origin of its peculiar name.

La Ceiba, Honduras

Recipe

Ingredients:

1. Wheat flour tortillas. 

2. Refried Beans

3. Crumbled salty cheese   

    (queso seco)
     
4. Sour Cream (mantequilla)    

   
5. Other ingredients (egg,
    beaten, butter, avocado, etc)

Steps to follow:

1. Heat an ungreased griddle, comal or skillet over medium flame. Meanwhile, heat up the refried beans in a saucepan, stirring in a little water.
2. Place a flour tortilla into the skillet and heat it on both sides to soften it up. Place the tortilla on a serving plate. Smear some refried beans on one half of the tortilla, sprinkle it with some crumbled cheese and drizzle it with a little sour cream. Fold the tortilla in half over the filling.
3. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and serve hot.

Other Baleadas Fillings: Scrambled eggs, seasoned ground beef or pork, sliced avocado, plantain, leave it to your imagination !

New York

There are many different opinions on what Street Food really is and no one can say what is right or wrong. Street Food can be whatever people perceive it to be.

In my mind, Street Food is all kind of food sold in the streets in the different countries worldwide. It could be hot and cold or sweet and salty, the sky has no limits.

If we take New York for example, you have all these amazing food wagons in every street corner selling everything from Roasted Almonds to Hot Dogs and it smells so good. It is quite difficult to differ what’s good and what’s not at the different Street Food places. Our tip would be to always look at the queue, if it is big, then you know where to go!

Here are a few examples from fellow food lovers: (keep in mind that there are many more than these out there)

The King of Falafel is serving amazing chawarma, falafel and chicken platters and have a menu that shows a wide range of Middle Eastern specialties. It is open from 9 am to 11 pm Monday to Saturday

Address: 30^th street and Broadway. www.thekingfalafel.com

Korilla BBQ is the next one and it serves everything from burritos and tacos to homemade tofu and they even have a website that tracks where they are located every day. Their website is very interactive and you can chose from a menu and place your order there before picking it up. www.korillabbq.com

Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream is selling creamy and delicious homemade ice-cream from 8 am to 6 pm every day. They serve chocolate chip cookie ice-cream, ricotta pound cakes and tons of other flavors.

Address: 67th and Central Park West.

N.Y. Dosas is a nice vegetarian food cart that serves healthy and delicious vegetarian crêpes and crunchy dices of carrots and peppers from South India.

Address: West 4^th Street and Sullivan. 

This blog was created to share experiences and recipes from the every day delicious Honduran cuisine. The recipes are from the traditional Honduran meals that can be found throughout the streets in all the regions of Honduras.

So, What is Street Food?

According to us, Street Food is food and beverages which are quick and easily prepared and often portioned into take-away containers.  Street Food is; Convenient, quickly available, tasty, easy to make, often cheap and authentic. In Honduras you can find these shops in every street corner, in every city and in every region all over the country.

Typical Street Food in the different regions of Honduras are:

-Tacos - Fried corn tortilla stuffed with slices of chicken, peppers, unions, melted cheese and coleslaw.

-Baleadas - Flower tortillas served with beans, cheese, eggs and sour-cream.

-Tamales - Corn husk filled with tamale dough, stuffed with either pork or beef and onions, garlic, chile sauce.

-Carne Asada - Corn tortillas with salsa, salad, beans, fried plantaines, sour cream, avocados, sausage, rice, cheese, beef

-Elotes Asados - Grilled corn

-Enchilladas - Fried corn tortillas stuffed with beef, coleslaw, salsa sauce and chees

-Tortilla con Quesillo - Fried corn tortilla stuffed with melted cheese, tomato sauce and mashed beans.

-Catrachitas - Fried corn tortillas with mashed beans and cheese