Honduran Enchiladas and Is Really Bitter Better?

 

I am fortunate to live in a town with a lot of diversity. There is a meat packing plant that hires people from all over the world to work there and with them they also bring their culture which shows up in restaurants that pop up around town. Most are short lived but we try to enjoy them while they are around. 

The original immigrants were from Mexico and Latin America but later they came from French Guiana, Africa then from the Chuuk Islands in the Pacific and now it seems back to Africa again. Most of the original Mexicans that were hired have moved on to other plants out west but many remained behind. They were a mix of family that came with them and didn't leave with them to the new places, those that developed too deep of roots to move and some that are undocumented and have no real place to go. The Chuuks are still too new to have made inroads into the restaurant business yet but the Hispanics and the Africans both left a bunch of them. 

Besides the traditional Mexican cuisine, there is a restaurant featuring Guatemalan recipes and another featuring El Salvadorian recipes. Both are still excellent places to eat at and when we go out perhaps once a month to eat, we sometimes end up at one of them. This spring, a new cuisine, this one from Honduras opened up and we ate there soon after. It was quite delicious and different than the other hispanic menus we've ordered from. So seeing that it has been nearly six months since, we decided to go back for a second time. 

Above are the Honduran enchiladas that I ordered which look or tasted nothing like the Mexican enchiladas that are everywhere. They were quite tasty and had me wondering why I don't eat out more often. I always have to remind myself that it just isn't healthy nor is it very economical since a meal for five of us cost as much as a typical week's worth of groceries. 

Our bitter gourd crop this year has a bit mystified. We have raised them many times in the past but this year, we seem to have a hard time getting them to fully ripen. They start off yellowish as the one above but don't turn darker green as expected. This one, the largest one which we have been waiting for it to turn color, actually split open one night to scatter it's seeds. So we've been picking them while they are smaller and still a lighter green. My wife says they are okay that way but very bitter. My not liking bitter things shies away from them for the most part except for a taste here and there. I can't help but think though that if you are raising bitter gourd, isn't really bitter better?