Mba´epa Jajapo Pascuara

Today´s Post in English: What will we do for Easter?

I´m writing today at the culmination of what was, for me at least, a week of religious festivities. It all started with my semi-secret observance of Passover (also known as ´´Pascua de los Judíos´´ or ´´Easter of the Jews´´) followed by some very public observance of Semana Santa (´´Holy Week´´ in English).

Last Monday, I took off at dawn to visit another volunteer, Nati, to observe Pesach. Having told a few of my closer acquaintances that I was going to share my own religious observance with friends and others that I was helping another volunteer with a special project, I caught a series of buses heading toward Ciudad del Este. About an hour away on the major East-West ruta, I disembarked and headed 8 km in to Nati´s site. Nati is a health volunteer finishing her time in PY this month.

We celebrated the first night of Passover alone and were joined by two other volunteers, Dan and Jen, on the second night. Nati cooked some amazing comfort foods: roasted chicken with root vegetables, matzo ball soup, charoset, eggplant parmesean, matzo brie, chocolate mousse, and crustless pumpkin pie. She also had...lo and behold...several boxes of matzo sent from home and sequestered since last Passover. So our seder was complete. My favorite aspect of the seder plate was Nati´s sculpture of the Pesach offering: a beet carved into a lamb. It´s a very postmodern idea, if you think about it: mixing form and representation with the vegetarian revision of the classical offering.

My favorite part of the seder was retelling the story of the exodus from Egypt in the first person. Nati and I recounted it in Spanish and Guaraní the first night and we all used English the second night. What a wonderful addition to the seder. After all, we are commanded to act as though we personally have been led out of Egypt.

After a fairly smooth trip home, I was immediately immersed in Semana Santa. Because there is no priest in Prettyview, the community is not terribly religious. Thus, this major holiday was marked mostly by eating and partying. The custom in Paraguay in Prettyview seemed to be shaped around what one eats on each day of the week. On Wednesday, everyone makes chipa (bread with mandioca flour) and on Thursday, the tatakua (wood-fired oven) gets fired up again for sopa Paraguaya (like rich cornbread). Plenty of asado and other tasty foods are eaten on these two days as well, as relatives working in Asunción, Ciudad del Este, or other parts abroad swell the campaña population. On Friday, most people stay at home, eat only chipa and sopa (no meat, of course), and act relatively seriously. At the very least, no music was blasting! Saturday and Sunday were taken up with more parties and a service on Sunday morning at the church. Most of the visitors left on Sunday and now Prettyview is more or less back to normal.

I enjoyed visiting with many of my favorite families over Semana Santa. I made chocolate cake (8 pans!) with one family on Thursday and biscuits with another on Sunday (clearly I am not keeping kosher for Pesach). A note to traveling bakers: biscuits might take thirty minutes to reach a light golden color in a gas oven, but they become brown and crispy after seven or eight minutes in a Paraguayan tatakua! They still tasted great, though.

It has been interesting to celebrate these holidays in the Fall instead of the Spring, especially given the northern hemisphere bias in Judaism and Christianity. I explained what I knew about Easter Eggs and Ash Wednesday (the ash custom takes place at the beginning of Lent here, too) and even a little about Passover to those who seemed open.

So that is the dispatch from Pesach and Semana Santa in Paraguay! For your enjoyment, I include photos of our seder plate and the Passover table.

Ñande Róga Paraguaya: 2

Ñande Róga Paraguaya 2: Ja´uta Revido Kosidore

Our Paraguayan Home 2: Let´s Eat Revido with Cocido

Jake: Following positive responses to my previous blog post on gardening in Paraguay, I´ve decided to bring back ÑRP for a second episode on Paraguayan cuisine. This time, rather than relying on pastiche (or parody, if you wish to impugn my motives), I´ve invited a guest host whom I actually know, my former roommate (or minder, if you wish to impugn my habits), Lenore W. Welcome, Lenore!

Lenore: Hi Jake! What's cookin'?

J: Today, we´ll make a traditional Paraguayan breakfast, eaten throughout the campaña: revido with cocido. I first ate this breakfast during my November visit to Prettyview. I woke at the crack of dawn and hopped on an oxcart bound for my work contact´s field. There, we spent the early morning hoeing his mandioca field. Hoeing, or kaapi, is the primary way of cleaning weeds in Paraguayan fields. It´s hard work and requires a lot of skill. I usually kill a few mandioca plants in my zeal and lag behind my hardened Paraguayan neighbors.

But the best part of my first and many subsequent field mornings has been the moment when a younger sibling appears on horseback with a backpack or bundle full of breakfast. At this point, whoever is leading the work calls Jaha jarambosa (let´s go eat breakfast) and the dual burdens of a heavy hoe and an empty stomach are temporarily put aside. Everyone gathers around the mita opening the parcel and out comes breakfast. Often, this is a communcal container of revido and a soda bottle of cocido, which is decanted into plastic mugs. Both are often warm.

I love cocido and revido and, though they aren´t the healthiest breakfast, they fill your stomach and make the rest of the morning´s hoeing possible. Now that I live on my own, I make revido many mornings a week and frequently make a pot of cocido to go along with it.

L: It's good to hear that you have found your morning comfort food!

J: So how can you, a norte in an American kitchen, prepare revido and cocido. Let´s start with cocido. Put a large pot on the stove and igninte it to medium or high heat. Don´t use a non-stick pot as you will be intentionally burning the cocido to make it cocido quemado. Then, dump about 2 cups of sugar into the pot.

L: What?

J: Okay, I know how horrible this is...but just do it. It´s not cocido if it´s not full of sugar. And don´t put the sugar bowl back in the cupboard yet. And you won´t get Type II Diabetes from just one morning of cocido.

L: Really?

J: Don´t worry, Lenore! ¡Tranquilopa! Gently stir the sugar with a wooden spoon as it dissolves and carmelizes. When it begins to bubble, dump in about a cup or two of yerba maté. This is available either everywhere (if you´re in Paraguay) or in fancy supermarkets (if you´re in the United States). Stir with the wooden spoon and try not to gag as the whole thing begins burning and smoking. When it starts to bubble and threaten to permanently damage your pot, pour in between one and two liters of water (less if you´re planning on adding milk later). Watch out! The pot will bubble and issue steam when you add the water.

L: You're kidding, right?

J: No...it´s exciting! Return the pot to a boil and cook the cocido for another few minutes. Dump in another cup of sugar if, like me, you have become a sugar addict, or if you have been hoeing all morning and now need to go run a marathon. Turn off the stove and strain the maté. Add milk to taste, preferably straight from the cow.

L (interrupting): Do you mean this literally?

J: Okay, we won´t add the milk straight from the cow. In fact, if you buy milk from your host mom, like I do, you should flash boil it three times before drinking it. Anyway, back to adding the milk to the cocido. If you do this, you have cocido kamby rehe, cocido with milk. Reserve the cocido for consumption with your revido.

L: Sure, sure, whatever you say, Jake!

J: Clean the pot, because this is the campaña and you just have one pot. Now, return it to the burner and add about three or four tablespoons of oil. If you´re in Paraguay, it is probably soy or sunflower oil. If you´ve just slaughtered a pig and want a heart attack to go with that diabetes, use ñandy, or reliquefied lard. Before heating the fat, add three parts flour to a mixing bowl and one part water to a cup. Salt the water to taste and mix to dissolve the salt. Then mix the water into the flour, maintaining a 3:1 ratio. You should end up with a dough ball that, while slightly sticky, doesn´t stick too much to the sides of the bowl.

L: This is how we made paste in my second grade class, only we used wintergreen instead of lard. It was very sticky, indeed! Perhaps you can re-purpose this substance for decoupage.Do PCV's do decoupage? Lemonade out of lemons...

J: My decoupage class meets martes y jueves in a spare room at the colegio! Turn the heat on and when the oil is sizzling, add the dough ball. Now comes the hard part, if you´re making a big batch of revido. Until the revido is done, you need to keep moving that ball around the pot, flipping it each time the dough on the bottom is hard or crispy. Slowly, as you are flipping and moving, beat it with the spoon tip. I mean, really pound it. You will gradually breakflatten the ball into a disk and then break the disk into little pieces of soft dough. Keep beating the little pieces of dough into smaller pieces. When the dough ranges in size from that of a pink eraser to that of a grain of rice and is no longer raw on the inside of the bigger pieces, you are done. Decant into a plate, add a spoon for everyone, and make sure you turn the burner off or at least bank the cooking fire!

L: So now that you've performed this solumn ritual, what do you actually eat?

J: Very funny, Lenore! Serve the revido with the cocido for a Paraguayan treat. Okay, revido is actually an Argentinean import that everyone in PY eats now, but it´s very common here in Caazapá. Savor the salt, sugar, and oil and the ways they interact with flour and water to fortify you against the hoeing to come. Good morning, Paraguay!

L: Don't they have Trader Joe's in Paraguay?

Lenore W. is a luminary and luminaria of the Seattle arts scene. A dancer, dahlia enthusiast, alternative exercise regimen extraordinaire, book club progenitor, and SIFF addict, Lenore specializes in the preparation of high-fiber, low-glycemic burn foods for consumption in the home or workplace. Lenore´s participation in this episode of ÑRP was made possible by the internet and the proceeds of her recent high-concept dance extraveganza The Bottoms.