Guatemala!

This week’s food adventure brought us to Guatemala. I’ve never had Guatemalan food and was pleasantly surprised to find out that there was a Guatemalan-owned restaurant in Old Brooklyn, El Rinconcinto Chapin. Roughly translated to “The Corner Guatemalan,” the restaurant is a clean, friendly neighborhood spot in a part of Cleveland that is experiencing growth in its Hispanic population. 

We settled into the cozy corner booth and placed our order: a drink on the Specials board, atol de elote, the Chapin appetizer sampler, hilachas, and pepian. As always, I try to pick the most authentic dishes that I can, but I will admit to feeling swayed by the giant burritos I saw heading to neighboring tables. 

Order in, time to research!

Guatemala is located in Central America and is thought to be the center of Mayan

civilization. Guatemala is probably an indigenous name originating either from the words Quauhtemallan meaning "land of trees" or Guhatezmalha meaning "mountain of vomiting water," referring to its volcanic eruptions. I'm going with "mountain of vomiting water” which sounds WAY cooler. In 1524, the Spanish colonized Guatemala and they became fully independent in 1841. With its rich agricultural potential, Guatemala became ripe for exploitation and in came the United Fruit Company, a company supported by Guatemala's authoritarian rulers and the United States government despite their history of brutal labor regulations and massive concessions to wealthy landowners. The Guatemalan people rose against the policies of the dictator Jorge Ubico and thus began the Guatemalan Revolution which ended with a US-led coup that overthrew the democratically elected president and installed a military regime. A 36 year civil war followed with massive human rights violations and the genocide of the indigenous Mayans. CIA-trained paramilitaries are thought to be responsible for over 93% of the human rights violations during the war. This project is helping me re-learn world history that wasn't sanitized by textbook companies and whew.  There is so much that I didn't know and all of it is very, very depressing. 

Interesting positive tidbits about Guatemala:  public transportation is FUN thanks to their famous chicken buses, the landscapes are stunning, blue denim and chocolate were both created there and coffee and cardamom are the biggest exports. The cuisine is heavily influenced by the Mayans and features maize, chiles, and black beans as main ingredients. A popular custom is to eat paches, a tamale made from potatoes, on Thursdays and sharing food with others is part of the Mayan philosophy of "I am you and you are me."

On that note, let's eat!

We started with a piping hot mug of atol de elote which was an incredible creamy, sweet, corn drink. Think horchata, but with corn instead of rice. This is a traditional afternoon drink, but it feels like a decadent dessert. It was my favorite part of the meal. 

The Chapin sampler had chuchito (a small type of tamal filled with chicken and a tomato-based recado and wrapped in corn husks), dobladitas (a folded bread made with corn flour), mini bean and cheese pupusas (a corn pancake of sorts),  plantanos fritos (perfectly caramelized fried sweet plantains), and yuca fries. Everything was prepared well - crispy and hot - but it definitely could have benefitted from a dipping sauce. The spicy pickled vegetable garnish was a welcome dose of flavor on the plate. 

The hilachas and pepian were up next and both left us underwhelmed. When the rice is the most flavorful part of the dish, that is a bad sign. The hilachas (shredded beef stewed with carrots & potatoes in a tomato sauce served with rice and fried sweet plantains) had tender beef and excellent plantains, but no seasoning to speak of. The pepain (boneless chicken breast in smoky recado sauce with green beans served with rice and refried black beans) had more flavor courtesy of the recado sauce, but that flavor wasn't appealing at all - less smoky, more burnt. The warm flour tortillas were handmade and excellent, so we used those to scoop up the black beans and make it feel like the meal wasn't a total loss.  

So Guatemalan food wasn't my favorite. I am chalking this up to not ordering correctly because other plates coming out did look more appealing than ours. If you have better meal suggestions, I'd love to hear from you! I really liked the vibe of the restaurant and our server was great, so I'd love to be able to go back and redeem our Guatemalan food experience.

Six down, 46 to go!

El Rinconcito Chapin

3330 Broadview Rd

Cleveland, OH 44109

216.795.5776

Website

Operating Hours:

SUN | 11:00am - 6:00pm

MON | 11:00am - 9:00pm

TUES | closed

WED-SAT | 11:00am - 9:00pm