Fili Post

Fili Post is from Xaibe in the Corozal District of Belize. She is Mayan. She grew up eating game from the bush — gibnut, deer, chachalaca, iguana — and she has been making her own recado from hand-ground spices for as long as her family can remember. She sold spices at a stall in the Corozal market. She still sources locally and grinds her own blends. Her recado is known to locals as the best they can get. She raised yard birds, guinea fowl, and the occasional pig. She writes for the Belize News Post.

Shredded meat piled on a crisp tostada, the way tsik de venado is served
Dzic de Venado Editorial

Dzic de Venado

Short answer: Dzic de venado (also written tsic or tsik) is a Yucatec Maya dish of finely shredded venison dressed cold with sour orange, radish, onion, and cilantro, and eaten on crisp tostadas with strained black beans and habanero salsa. It is one of the oldest dishes of the Yucatán, from a time when deer was a staple of the Maya table, and it is still made today, traditionally on Thursdays. When deer is not on hand, cooks make the same dish with beef. The flavor is clean and bright…
Fili Post
June 15, 2026
A red spiced Guatemalan soup finished with mint and scallion, kak ik
Kak’ik (Q’eqchi’ Maya Turkey Soup) Dinner

Kak’ik (Q’eqchi’ Maya Turkey Soup)

Short answer: Kak'ik is a Q'eqchi' Maya turkey soup from the highlands of Alta Verapaz, one of Guatemala's nationally declared culinary treasures and a pre-Hispanic dish. The name is Q'eqchi' Maya: kak means red, ik means chile. It is a clear, deep red, spicy broth built on a dry-roasted recado of tomatoes, tomatillos, and dried chiles (the smoky chile cobanero foremost among them), poured over long-simmered turkey and finished bright with mint, cilantro, and zamat (culantro). The broth does the talking. Seeds and masa stay out of it. This is…
Fili Post
June 11, 2026
Bowl of Guatemalan pepián de pollo, chicken in a dark toasted-seed recado with vegetables
Pepián de Pollo (Guatemalan Chicken in Toasted Seed Recado) Dinner

Pepián de Pollo (Guatemalan Chicken in Toasted Seed Recado)

Short answer: Pepián de pollo is Guatemala's national dish — chicken simmered in a recado built from dry-roasted tomatoes, tomatillos, dried chiles, and ground pumpkin and sesame seeds. It is a Maya dish, declared part of Guatemala's national cultural heritage in 2007, and every bit of its flavor lives in the recado. You char the vegetables on a dry comal, toast the seeds separately until they smell like roasted nuts, then grind it all smooth. That double toasting is the whole technique. Skip it and you have a different, lesser…
Fili Post
June 11, 2026
A plate of Guatemalan fiambre, a composed cold salad of vegetables, meats, and cheese
Fiambre Dinner

Fiambre

Short answer: Fiambre is Guatemala's great All Saints' Day dish, a giant cold composed salad eaten once a year, on November 1st, to honor the dead. It piles together dozens of ingredients (often fifty or more): pickled vegetables, cured meats and sausages, cheeses, sometimes shrimp or sardines, all marinated overnight in a tangy vinegar brine called caldillo. The dish is unique to Guatemala and exists nowhere else in the world in this form. There is a red version (fiambre rojo, with beets) and a white one (fiambre blanco, without). It…
Fili Post
June 11, 2026
Tikin xic, achiote-marinated grilled fish, served in Campeche
Tikin Xic Dinner

Tikin Xic

What Is Tikin Xic? On the coast at Isla Mujeres they split a whole fish open, paint it red with recado, and lay it on banana leaf over the coals. That is tikin xic. The name is Maya. It means dry fish, from the old way of drying the catch in the sun before it went on the fire. The fish is not dry when you eat it. The name stays from before. Is a dish of the Yucatán coast, from Campeche around to Quintana Roo, and you find it…
Fili Post
June 1, 2026
A bowl of sopa de lima, Yucatecan lime soup, served in Mani, Yucatan
Sopa de Lima Dinner

Sopa de Lima

What Is Sopa de Lima? Sopa de lima is a Yucatecan chicken and lime soup: a clear, citrus broth built on charred tomato, onion, and chile, finished with the juice of the sour lima and topped with crisp fried tortilla strips. It comes from the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico and is eaten across the corridor down into northern Belize. In Mérida they serve this soup all year, in the heat too. The soul of it is the lima. Not the green lime you know from the store. The lima agria,…
Fili Post
June 8, 2026
A whole chicken simmering with vegetables for a caldo
Caldo Cax (Mayan Chicken Caldo) Dinner

Caldo Cax (Mayan Chicken Caldo)

Cax is the Maya word for the hen. Caldo cax is the chicken soup we make from a yard bird, the way it is made all through the Maya country, in the north of Belize and across in the Yucatan and down in Toledo. A whole hen in the pot, achiote for color, the squash and the plantain going in near the end. You eat it hot, with lime and a piece of habanero, even on a day that is already hot. What is caldo cax? Caldo cax is a…
Fili Post
June 8, 2026
Leaf-wrapped highland stew in the style of subanik, a Kaqchikel Maya ceremonial dish from Guatemala
Subanik Recipe Dinner

Subanik Recipe

This subanik recipe follows the Kaqchikel Maya ceremonial stew from San Martín Jilotepeque, Guatemala: three meats (chicken, beef, and pork) bathed in a red recado of dried chiles and miltomate, then wrapped in maxan leaves and steamed until the sauce is thick and the meat falls tender. Why the Kaqchikel call subanik the meal of gods The name tells you everything before you taste a spoonful. In Kaqchikel, suban means a dish packed and wrapped in leaves. The suffix -ik marks any preparation that contains chile. Put them together and…
Fili Post
June 11, 2026
Guatemalan chuchito, a small corn-masa tamale in an open corn husk, served with rice
Chuchitos Snacks

Chuchitos

Guatemalan chuchitos are small, firm corn-masa tamales filled with a simple tomato sauce and chicken or pork, wrapped in a soaked corn husk and steamed. Unlike the large, soft tamal colorado wrapped in banana leaf, a chuchito is a compact street snack — finished with fresh tomato salsa and grated dry cheese before you eat it standing up. The first time I had chuchitos, someone handed them to me still in the husk, hot enough that I kept moving them between my hands. That is the correct way to eat…
Fili Post
June 11, 2026
A vendor pressing a marquesita on the round iron in Merida
Marquesitas Dessert

Marquesitas

In Mérida the marquesita carts come out at night. A man pours a thin batter onto a hot iron, presses it, and it crisps like a big wafer. Then the filling. The old one, the real one, is Nutella and grated queso de bola, the Dutch cheese. Sweet and salty together. He rolls it up tight while it is still hot and hands it to you in a paper. You eat it walking. What is a marquesita? A marquesita is a Yucatecan street dessert from Mérida. A thin batter is…
Fili Post
June 5, 2026
A plate of huevos motulenos with tomato sauce, fried plantain, and a chile
Huevos Motuleños Breakfast

Huevos Motuleños

Huevos motuleños come from Motul, a town in the Yucatán. It is a breakfast built in layers. A fried tortilla, black beans spread on top, fried eggs over that, and then a tomato sauce with ham and peas poured on. Fried plantain on the side, cheese on top. You eat it on both sides of the border now, but the name keeps the town. What are huevos motuleños? Huevos motuleños are a Yucatecan breakfast of fried eggs on a corn tortilla spread with refried black beans, covered in a tomato…
Fili Post
June 5, 2026
Queso relleno yucateco, a ball of Edam cheese stuffed with pork picadillo
Queso Relleno Dinner

Queso Relleno

Queso relleno is the dish you make when there is something to celebrate. A whole ball of Dutch cheese, the queso de bola, hollowed out and filled with seasoned pork, then steamed soft and covered in two sauces. The white one is the white k'ol. The other is tomato. It is a Yucatec dish, and the cheese came to us the way many things came, through the ports of the Yucatan. What is queso relleno? Queso relleno is a Yucatecan stuffed cheese. A ball of Edam cheese, called queso de…
Fili Post
June 5, 2026
Mole de platano: fried plantains bathed in sweet Guatemalan chocolate mole sauce, garnished with toasted sesame seeds
Mole de Platano Dessert

Mole de Platano

Mole de plátano is a traditional Guatemalan dessert of fried ripe plantains bathed in a sweet chocolate mole sauce made with cacao tablets, chile pasa, roasted sesame and pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, and tomato. Syncretic in origin — Maya cacao and dried chiles in sweet sauce are pre-Hispanic, fried plantain is post-colonial — it was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Guatemala in 2007. Ingredients For the plantains: 4 very ripe plantains (skin dark and soft, almost entirely black) 4 tablespoons neutral oil (for frying) For the mole sauce: 8 oz Guatemalan…
Fili Post
June 11, 2026
Rellenitos de plátano, fried plantain filled with sweet black beans
Rellenitos de Plátano Dessert

Rellenitos de Plátano

Short answer: Rellenitos de plátano are Guatemala's classic plantain dessert: very ripe plantains boiled skin-on, peeled, and mashed into a soft dough, then wrapped around a filling of sweetened black beans spiced with cinnamon and cocoa, shaped into smooth ovals, and fried golden. The skins stay on during boiling — they protect the flesh and deepen the flavor. They are sold warm from street stalls and home kitchens all over the country, year-round and especially during Lent. The trick that surprises people is the bean filling. Cooked down with sugar,…
Fili Post
June 11, 2026
Chaya leaves, the Maya spinach used in caldo de chaya
Ts’anchak (Caldo de Chaya) Dinner

Ts’anchak (Caldo de Chaya)

Chaya grows in every Yucatec yard, north of Belize and across in the Yucatan. The Maya call it the tree that feeds you. Ts'anchak is the white soup we make from it. A clear chicken broth, the chaya cooked soft in it, no achiote, no color. You finish it at the table with pepita, with egg, with habanero in sweet lime. Caldo de chaya is the name you will hear in Spanish. Ts'anchak is the name from before. What is ts'anchak? Ts'anchak is a Yucatec Maya chaya soup, known in…
Fili Post
June 5, 2026
Steamed tamales, the dish the cull (k'ol) fills
K’ol Recipe Dinner

K’ol Recipe

K'ol is the sauce inside the tamale. In Belize it is spelled cull, sometimes col, and it is a Mayan word. It is the thick red gravy, a chicken stock seasoned with recado and thickened with masa, that goes between the masa and the meat in a Belizean tamale. The same sauce, cooked with the chicken instead of folded into the tamal, is pollo en k'ol. Cull, col, k'ol. One sauce, many spellings. What is k'ol? K'ol is a Yucatec Maya sauce, a thick red gravy built on chicken stock,…
Fili Post
June 5, 2026
Tamales Colados Recipe Breakfast

Tamales Colados Recipe

People who have not made these before think they are like other tamales. They are not. The masa here is liquid before it is cooked. You strain it through cloth by hand. You cook it in lard until it sets. When it cools, it becomes something soft and smooth. Nothing like the rough masa you pat out for tortillas or bollos. That texture is the point. This dish comes from the corridor. Yucatan, Campeche, Belize. We make them here in Corozal the same way they make them across the border.…
Fili Post
May 29, 2026
Orange Walk Tacos Recipe Breakfast

Orange Walk Tacos Recipe

Orange Walk town has its own taco. It is not a Mexican taco. It is not a Tex-Mex taco. It is a rolled taco, built around recado chicken, served in the market and along the streets of Orange Walk District. You know it when you eat it. The tortilla is the thing. Without the right tortilla you have a different dish. People argue about it. They say you cannot make a true Orange Walk taco outside of Orange Walk. I understand the argument. The tortilla comes from the factory, fresh…
Fili Post
May 29, 2026
Polcanes frying in oil in a large pan, with white cheese and tostadas at a street food stall
Polcanes Recipe Lunch

Polcanes Recipe

Polcanes (also spelled polkanes or polcán) are fried masa fritters from the Yucatan peninsula. A thick disc of corn masa is formed around a filling of cooked white beans, ground pumpkin seeds, and cebollina, then sealed and fried in lard until golden. They are served topped like a tostada: salpicón, chopped lettuce, crumbled salty cheese, salsa on the side. Polcanes are antojito yucateco. Market food. Morning food. In Xaibe, we knew these from Chetumal. Go to the market in the morning and there they are. Sit down, they bring you…
Fili Post
May 29, 2026
Mukbipollo Recipe Lunch

Mukbipollo Recipe

In Mérida, when November comes, you smell it before you see it. The smoke from the pib fires. Families that have not shared a kitchen all year are suddenly in one. That is what mukbipollo does. You can make it any time. The tamal shops in Mérida sell it year-round. But most people first learn this dish because someone in the family is making it for the dead. For the ofrenda. For Hanal Pixan. What is mukbipollo? Mukbipollo (also written pibipollo or mucbipollo) is a large Yucatan tamal. Not the…
Fili Post
May 29, 2026
Joroches Recipe Dinner

Joroches Recipe

In Mérida, you find joroches on the table without ceremony. A bowl of black beans, a few masa balls floating in it, chiltomate over the top. That is the whole dish. Simple food, Maya food. It feeds you. On this side of the border we know it too. The name, the beans, the way you work the dough between your palms. Some people call them joloches. The word is the same. Just the tongue moves different. What are joroches? Joroches (also spelled joloches) are small corn masa balls cooked directly…
Fili Post
May 29, 2026
Maya woman in traditional dress standing in adobe kitchen with cooking pots — chulibuul, Belize
Chulibuul Recipe Dinner

Chulibuul Recipe

Chulibuul is a pre-Hispanic Maya bean and corn soup from the Yucatan Peninsula. You grind the tender corn kernels and that is the thickener. No flour, no starch. Beans and ground corn together give a complete protein the old way, before meat was the center of every pot. Make this when the corn and beans are fresh and tender. Editor's Note: Sometimes Yucatecan Chulibuul is spelt Chulibul or Chulibull but don't confuse it with the Asian dish "Chulbuli" which is a type of chutney. Ingredients 8 ears tender corn (elotes),…
Fili Post
May 29, 2026
Clay pots, dried herbs, stone grinder, and woven baskets with spices on a floor — Mayan food preparation, Belize
Mayan Recipes — Living Food Traditions of the Maya Editorial

Mayan Recipes — Living Food Traditions of the Maya

Mayan food is the living kitchen tradition of Yucatec Maya communities across southern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. Built on corn (ixim), achiote, sikil, and chaya, this is not museum culture. It is what people cook today, in the Yucatan, in Belize, in the Peten. The same recipes. The same techniques. The same ingredients. A Kitchen Without Borders I am from Xaibe, in Corozal. The food I grew up with is Yucatec Maya food. It does not belong to Belize or to Mexico. Those borders came later. The dishes were here…
Fili Post
June 4, 2026
chocolomo recipe steaming meat and broth on ladle belize
Chocolomo Recipe Dinner

Chocolomo Recipe

Chocolomo is a Maya organ meat stew from northern Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula, made from beef or pork heart, tripe, loin, liver, and kidney slow-cooked with recado, bitter orange, charred onion, garlic, and fresh mint. A post-slaughter dish by tradition, it is prepared the same day the animal is butchered. In Xaibe, when you butchered a pig or res, you cooked chocolomo that same day. The heart, the tripe, the liver, the kidneys. Those went into the pot first, and nothing was wasted. Corozal and Chetumal are separated by…
Fili Post
May 29, 2026
panucho-recipe-belize-yucatan-chetumal
Panuchos Yucatecos Dinner

Panuchos Yucatecos

Panuchos yucatecos are small corn tortillas cooked dry on a comal until they puff, then split open and stuffed with seasoned black beans before being fried in lard. They are topped with shredded meat, cabbage, pickled onion, and avocado.
Fili Post
June 1, 2026