Traditional Mayan Foods:
The typical Mayan kitchen is found with a variety of traditional cooking instruments that are indispensable for preparing a wide range of typical foods, that are both nutritious and delicious. The most important include: the comal or clay griddle used mainly to cook and/or heat up tortillas; the “piedra” or grinding stone, used to grind corn, seeds, spices, herbs and tomatoes for salsas, pastes and other cooking ingredients; tinajas, water jugs, traditional made out of clay, but in more recent times, plastic; escudios, clay bowls and guacales, plastic bowls, using for extracting water from the pila (outdoor wasking sink) and carrying/holding foods that are being processed; and the petate, a woven reed mat used for sitting on while cooking, weaving or visiting. Many families still cook over an open fire and use either rocks or a steel base to place the comal or pots on. They used firewood or leña, which the husband usually gathers from local forests, or in some cases just buys already cut and ready for use. Tortillas, the main staple of the Maya, are prepared daily starting around 5 AM in a process that includes washing and grinding corn kernels before patting them into their typical round shape and cooking them on a comal |
