An Expensive Night Out With Friends

Whoa, I spent so much money tonight! 😵

Water (bottle) Q2
Dinner (pupusas) Q15
Mochaccino (large) Q25
Lemon Meringue Pie (small) Q20
Candy!!!! Q35
TOTAL Q97

That's approximately $17 Canadian or $13 American. We are crazy big spenders!!

Don't you love how the prices went up as the night went on? Good thing we decided not to hit up the bar or we would have blown thru all our money in short order! 😊

Karina's Kitchen!

I mentioned to NJP that I had a craving for pupusas and he said we should go to La Cocina de Karina, right near his house. It's an adorable little food stand on the side of the road in Jucanya Norte. Check out the awesome prices!
Behind the "restaurant" is her house. They basically just grabbed stuff from her kitchen and brought it out as they needed. it. There was only one table, and we claimed it! (Bert, NJP, Amazing Iva, and I.)

Karina cooking our delish food.

Karina did a great job of describing the dishes to us. She offered several types of pupusas, plus tablitas of BBQ meat with onions and cole slaw, all served with escabeche and ensalada and sauce.

Are all these words completely unfamiliar to you??? 😄 Check out this webpage to find recipes to try in your own kitchen! ⇒ Recetas Salvadoreñas

I got pupusas de chipilín. This is before I piled on the toppings!
That's NJP's rosa de jamaica drink to the left. So pretty!

The red jar is a warm tomato sauce, the yellow is HOT pickled carrots, cauliflower, and peppers, and the white jar is the mild cabbage salad.

NJP & Iva got the plate of roast meat with tortillas and coleslaw and onions and stuff.

Eating at Karina's food stand was a very Guatemalan experience. We had to pause our conversation while a truck went by with loudspeakers announcing some event. Dogs barked. The wind blew our napkins around. And then kids set off firecrackers in the street! There was even an old lady who offered to sell us food from her basket...while we were sitting in a restaurant...that serves food. Baffling.

After dinner, we went in search of sweets! We stopped in at Té Quiero coffee shop, their new second location at the Plaza de Jardin de America. They offer Starbucks style fancy coffees and desserts. My mochaccino cost more than my whole dinner! We sat outside at the back near the motorcycle parking. The whole plaza is still lit up with Christmas lights. Great conversation and good laughs!

Iva pointing out the cheesecake she wants.

My yummy mocha.

As we were walking out, a peeked thru a window and saw CANDY! The doors were closed but the lady inside saw us gawking and let us in. We spent a fortune on treats. She said it was Q5 an ounce and we could mix and match. Well, let me tell ya. It is really easy to buy Q35 of candy when you've got a bowl and tongs and a sweet tooth!

SUGAR!!!

That was my wild Saturday night. We're living the lush life here in Panajachel! 😎