Joe Post

Joe Post is the founder and editor of Belize News Post. He grew up in Corozal Town, Belize, on the Caribbean sea with a view across Corozal Bay to Cerro Maya. He has lived in Costa Rica, Kenya, England, Spain, and the United States. He grew up cooking alongside his mother and grandmother, and has personally tested the vast majority of the recipes on this site. He started BNP in the early 2000s as one of the few independent Belizean news sources online. Over the years, the food became the stickiest thing. News comes and goes. Food stays.

Fried tortilla cups filled with pickled beet curtido, a Guatemalan antojito
Guatemalan Fried-Tortilla Snacks: Garnachas vs Tostadas vs Enchiladas EditorialGuatemala

Guatemalan Fried-Tortilla Snacks: Garnachas vs Tostadas vs Enchiladas

Garnachas, tostadas, and enchiladas guatemaltecas all start from the same humble base: a fried corn tortilla. That is exactly why they get confused. Order one expecting another and you will be surprised. But each of the three carries a single feature the others do not, and once you can name that feature you will never mix them up again. The deciding signal is almost always the pickled-vegetable layer on top. This is the short guide to the three Guatemalan fried-tortilla snacks: what sits on each one, how big the tortilla…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Three molletes guatemaltecos in a bowl of dark panela-cinnamon syrup with raisins, one split to show the pale manjar custard filling
Molletes Guatemaltecos DessertGuatemala

Molletes Guatemaltecos

Molletes guatemaltecos are sweet bread rolls split, filled with manjar custard, dipped in whipped egg batter, fried golden, then steeped in warm panela-cinnamon syrup. They appear on the Guatemalan table twice a year: on the Day of the Dead (Día de Todos los Santos, November 1), where they sit alongside fiambre in cemetery ofrenda spreads, and during Semana Santa (Holy Week). They are not related to Mexican molletes, which are savory open-faced sandwiches. This is a Ladino colonial sweet — the mestizo, Spanish-influenced tradition — with no Maya antecedent. What…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Honduran semitas, jam-layered lattice-topped sweet bakery pastry
Semita Hondureña BreadHonduras

Semita Hondureña

The Honduran semita is a yeasted sweet bread, egg-yolk enriched, topped with a cookie-paste disk that bakes into a crisp sugar crust over a soft, pillowy interior. Sold in every Honduran panadería and pulpería, it is the bread Hondurans reach for with morning coffee and afternoon fresco — not a jam pastry, which is what the Salvadoran version is. Getting that distinction right is the whole story. The definitive Honduran semita is the semita de yema: a round, egg-yolk-enriched yeasted roll topped with a thin disk of cookie dough that…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Stacks of Belizean champurradas, flat sesame-topped cookies, on a white platter over a striped woven cloth
Champurradas DessertGuatemala

Champurradas

This champurradas recipe makes the large, flat, crisp round cookies found in every Guatemalan panadería — roughly saucer-sized discs, four to five inches across, built from wheat flour and masa harina creamed with butter and sugar, pressed thick with sesame seeds on top and throughout the dough. A colonial-era pan dulce staple, champurradas are dunked in morning coffee or the afternoon café de las tres. They are not to be confused with champurrado, the Mexican chocolate-corn drink. Why Guatemalans dunk their cookies — the pan dulce tradition behind champurradas In…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Honduran carne asada thin marinated beef grilling over charcoal
Carne Asada Hondureña DinnerHonduras

Carne Asada Hondureña

Carne asada hondureña is thin beef marinated in sour orange, garlic, and cumin, then grilled over wood or charcoal. In Honduras it is served as a full plate alongside chismol, fried green plantain tajadas, refried beans, grilled spring onion, avocado, and tortillas. Threaded onto skewers, the same marinated beef becomes pinchos. You smell it before you see it. Drive any highway in Honduras on a Saturday afternoon and somewhere off the shoulder there is smoke, a steel drum split into a grill, and thin steaks turning over wood coals. The…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Tortillas topped with Honduran quesillo cheese and tomato sauce
Quesillo Hondureño HondurasSnacks

Quesillo Hondureño

Quesillo Hondureño is a soft, mildly salty, stretched-curd melting cheese made from whole cow's milk. It is the cheese that goes inside a baleada, that melts into an anafre, and that gets folded between two hot corn tortillas for the snack Hondurans simply call tortillas con quesillo. It is not the same as Nicaraguan quesillo, a corn-tortilla street snack wrapped around soft cheese and pickled onions, or Venezuelan quesillo, which is a caramel flan. Same word, three foods that have nothing to do with each other. Why Quesillo Hondureño Is…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Fresh corn masa ground on a stone metate in a Guatemalan kitchen
Guatemalan Tamales Explained: Colorados vs Negros vs Paches vs Chuchitos EditorialGuatemala

Guatemalan Tamales Explained: Colorados vs Negros vs Paches vs Chuchitos

Colorados, negros, paches, chuchitos. Four Guatemalan tamales that get mixed up constantly, because they all start from the same idea: seasoned masa, a piece of meat, wrapped and steamed. But each one carries a single feature the others do not, and once you know that feature you will never confuse them again. This is the short guide to the types of Guatemalan tamales, and the plain rule for telling colorado from negro at a glance. Below is the comparison at a glance, then a quick note on each tamal with…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Brown sargassum seaweed washed up on a Caribbean beach
Sargassum in Belize: What the Seaweed Means for Your Trip BelizeEditorial

Sargassum in Belize: What the Seaweed Means for Your Trip

If you've been researching Belize beaches and seen photos of brown seaweed piled on the sand, that's sargassum, and it's worth understanding before you book — because the panic online is bigger than the actual problem for most trips. What it is and when it comes Sargassum is a free-floating brown seaweed that drifts in on Caribbean currents and washes up on east-facing beaches. In Belize it's heaviest roughly March through October, and it hits the windward coast hardest: Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker, Placencia, and Hopkins all face the open…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Golden baked corn and cheese cookie like a Honduran tustaca, served as a sweet coffee-time treat
Tustacas DessertHonduras

Tustacas

Tustacas are a sweet Honduran corn cookie made from masa harina kneaded with fresh cuajada cheese, filled with grated dulce de rapadura, and baked until dry and crisp. They are not a tortilla dish, not a savory snack, and not a catracha. They are a cookie — baked in a clay oven fired with ocote wood in the workshops of Sabanagrande, eaten at merienda with a cup of hot coffee. If someone hands you a tustaca and it is savory, they gave you the wrong thing. Honduras's tortilla snacks are…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Plate of Honduran enchiladas: crispy fried corn tortillas topped with seasoned beef, shredded cabbage, and onion
Enchiladas Hondureñas HondurasSnacks

Enchiladas Hondureñas

Honduran enchiladas are an open-faced street food: a flat corn tortilla fried until crisp, then built up in layers — seasoned ground beef with cumin and potato, shredded cabbage, a thin tomato sauce, a slice of hard-boiled egg, and a heavy shower of grated queso seco. You eat them with your hands, and they share nothing with a rolled Mexican enchilada except the name. Honduras's tortilla snacks are easy to mix up. Here is how catracha, baleada, enchilada, and tustaca differ. Ingredients The list looks long, but most of it…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Guatemalan revolcado, a pork-head stew in thick red recado
Revolcado DinnerGuatemala

Revolcado

Guatemalan revolcado is a hearty stew of simmered pork head and offal napped in a thick red recado of charred tomato, miltomate, and toasted chiles guaque, pasa, and zambo, colored with achiote and thickened with blended liver and corn tortilla. It is a weekend and fiesta dish, served with white rice and hot tortillas. Ingredients This makes a large pot, enough for about 8 people. In Guatemala the butcher halves the head for you; ask yours to do the same, and to score the skin. If the butcher includes the…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Aerial view of Belize's Caribbean coast and barrier reef
Belize Travel FAQ BelizeEditorial

Belize Travel FAQ

I started Belize News Post over twenty years ago because there was no independent voice for the country online. Most of what's written about visiting Belize is written by people passing through. I grew up in Corozal, on the bay. So here are the questions I get asked most, answered straight. Getting in and getting around Do I need a passport or visa to visit Belize? If you're coming from the US, Canada, the UK, or the EU, you need a valid passport and that's it — no visa for…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Guatemalan paches, potato-masa tamales steamed in banana leaf
Paches DinnerGuatemala

Paches

Guatemalan paches are tamales whose masa is mashed potato instead of corn, blended with a red recado of tomato, dried guaque and pasa chiles, and achiote. They are filled with pork or chicken, bell pepper, and olive, wrapped in banana leaf, and steamed. Quetzaltenango invented them; Guatemalans eat them on Thursdays. Ingredients The masa is the part that surprises people. There is no corn in it. You boil potatoes, mash them hot, and bind them with a little corn flour or breadcrumb so they hold their shape in the steam.…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Indigenous Guatemalan Maya women in traditional dress preparing typical highland food
Pulique DinnerGuatemala

Pulique

Pulique is a highland Maya stew of chicken or beef simmered in a tomato and tomatillo recado thickened with corn masa. Seasoned with the signature herb epazote, mild guaque chile, and achiote, this ceremonial dish from the Maya highlands around Sacatepéquez carries güisquil, potato, and green beans in a smooth amber broth. The first time you make this stew, the moment that matters comes near the end. You whisk masa into the pot, keep the spoon moving, and watch a thin tomato broth turn thick and golden in front of…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Guatemalan enchilada: an open-faced tostada topped with beef, purple beet curtido, hard-boiled egg, and dry cheese
Enchiladas Guatemaltecas GuatemalaSnacks

Enchiladas Guatemaltecas

Enchiladas guatemaltecas are open-faced tostadas, not the rolled enchiladas of Mexico. A Guatemalan cook builds each one by layering escabeche — long-pickled beets, carrots, green beans, chayote, and cauliflower in a vinegar brine — alongside seasoned ground beef, a spoon of tomato sauce, a slice of hard-boiled egg, dry crumbled queso seco, parsley, and raw onion on a crisp fried tortilla. The beet-purple color and the egg slice are the unmistakable marks. The first time someone hands you an enchilada in Guatemala City, you wait for the fold. It never…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Three Guatemalan tostadas topped with refried beans, guacamol, and tomato salsa, finished with onion, parsley, and grated queso seco
Tostadas Guatemaltecas GuatemalaSnacks

Tostadas Guatemaltecas

Tostadas guatemaltecas are crisp fried corn tortillas, each spread with exactly one topping: frijol (refried black beans), guacamol, or salsa de tomate. All three are finished with thin onion rounds, chopped parsley, and grated queso seco. The custom is to serve them as a set of three, one of each spread, so that each tortilla shows off a single thing at its best. They appear at home as a light appetizer, at family gatherings, and at Guatemalan ferias (patron-saint festivals) sold from the same stands that serve atol. Ingredients For…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
A plate of Guatemalan garnachas: small fried corn tortillas topped with meat, tomato chirmol, pickled cabbage curtido, and crumbled dry cheese
Garnachas Guatemaltecas GuatemalaSnacks

Garnachas Guatemaltecas

Garnachas guatemaltecas are small thick corn tortillas, two to three inches across, that get cooked on a comal, sliced in half, and then fried until the cut faces turn golden and crisp. That double-step — comal first, then oil — is what gives them the density to hold a topping stack of seasoned beef, vinegar-softened curtido, simple tomato salsa, and crumbled dry cheese without buckling. Sold at street stalls and ferias across Guatemala, they are a one-bite Ladino antojito eaten by the handful. What Makes Guatemalan Garnachas Different From the…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Plated Guatemalan chiles rellenos with white rice
Chiles Rellenos Guatemaltecos DinnerGuatemala

Chiles Rellenos Guatemaltecos

Guatemalan chiles rellenos are roasted, peeled bell peppers stuffed with a picadillo of ground beef or pork and diced vegetables, then dipped in a whipped egg batter, fried golden, and served in a light tomato sauce. Unlike the Mexican version, they use no cheese and no chili-walnut sauce. Ingredients The pepper comes first, and it matters which one. Guatemalan cooks reach for the sweet bell pepper, the chile pimiento, not the dark poblano you would use across the border in Mexico. Everything else builds the picadillo around it. For the…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Dried red chiles in a stone molcajete, the recado base for hilachas
Hilachas DinnerGuatemala

Hilachas

Short answer: Hilachas is a Guatemalan home stew of beef shredded into fine threads and simmered in a tomato-and-tomatillo recado built on guajillo chiles, cinnamon, and cloves, with potato, carrot, and green beans cooked in. The name means rags or threads, for the way long-simmered flank steak pulls apart into strands. It is a ladino dish — everyday comedor food, not Maya heritage — and its signature is a double process: you cook the beef until it shreds, then separately build and fry a smooth recado before combining them. That…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Fresh tomatillos, the green base of the sauce for Guatemalan jocón
Jocón DinnerGuatemala

Jocón

Short answer: Jocón is one of Guatemala's four great Maya recados: chicken simmered in a bright green sauce of tomatillos, scallions, cilantro, epazote, and green chiles, with body from toasted pumpkin and sesame seeds ground fine and a little torn tortilla. The name comes from the K'iche' word jok'om, meaning mashed or ground — a direct reference to that seed-grinding step at the heart of the technique. It is a dish of the western highlands, declared national Intangible Cultural Heritage of Guatemala in 2007, and it is the stew that…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Hudut, the Garifuna dish of pounded green plantain served with coconut fish stew
Garifuna Food: Traditional Dishes of the Garifuna People BelizeEditorialGarifuna

Garifuna Food: Traditional Dishes of the Garifuna People

The traditional food of the Garifuna people is built on three ingredients: plantain, coconut, and cassava. The fish, the spices, the technique all come after those three. Hudut is the dish most people name first, and they are right to. Mashed plantains pounded in a wooden mortar, served alongside fish simmered in fresh coconut milk. You eat it with your hands. That is Garifuna food in its clearest form. The Garifuna are an Afro-Indigenous people descended from Carib, Arawak, and West African ancestors who were exiled from the island of…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026