Jicaro.

Today I visited the Miramar lab with Jessica, a Nicaraguan girl who just finished her studies as a Chemist Engineer and works over a year now for the company. In the lab they grow the shrimplarves which are then transported to the farms everywhere in Nicaragua. I was pretty impressed I must say.
Not only the landscape we drove through to get there but the whole lab was pretty cool.

JICARO TREE

The lab is situated just next to the pacific ocean and man those waves. Locals were surfing and selling fish on the beach. I didn't brought my camera, stupid me, cause I'm not allowed to photograph on the plants.


On the way back we chat a bit about the traditions of our countries, when I realised Belgium really doesn't have a typical dish, right? Anyway, Nicaragua has plenty of typical drinks, liquors, dishes, fruits,...
Papaya and Mango are what apples and pears are to us. So I'm in some kind of heavenly state of mind at breakfast time.
Jessica asked the guy who drove us to stop the car on the way back in the middle of nowhere. She jumped out and came back with this green mango-like fruit called "Jicaro". It grows everywhere here. I don't know if you're familiar with the milky soy-like drink "Horchata" they sell sometimes in Spain, well it's made of Jicaro seeds.
Here they drink a typical Nicaraguan horchata, "Semilla de Jicaro": Jicaro seeds, grounded mais, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, water and of course sugar. When we crossed a little grocery store, (we were back in the living world by then) she asked again to stop and jumped out and came back with a can of that drink for each of us and a bag of "rosquillas". Those are crunchy cookies made of maisdough, cheese and other stuff, but they're good. Must say, "Semilla de Jicara" is a damn good refreshing drink. And I love my Nicaraguan co-workers!

Semilla de Jicaro

So now I'm here with a Jicaro on my desk, ready to make some diagrams of today's lab visit. Fingers crossed that the hotel-owner allows tropical fruit as room decoration.