Kitchen Series, Part 1
Courtesy of the New York Public Library
Here is the first part in our three-part series on kitchens and the value they add to life at home.
As a graduate student I did field work in some rural sections of Guatemala, Central America. One of them was a place called Retalhuleu. The town was a provincial capital with a vivid contrast between the rich and the poor seen in ones shoes, teeth, and homes--especially the size of ones kitchen and the equipment in it. I rented a room from a women ran a sort of boarding house. The kitchen had no refrigerator or stove and all meals where cooked on a hot plate like device. The women who ran the place prepared monotonous dishes like over fried and greasy plantains and uneventful rice and black beans. The meals left me craving for a serving of salmon from back home.
