Isela Post

Isela is a Belizean mother who has been cooking from memory and from markets her whole life. Her recipes carry the food of the Yucatec Maya tradition, the corner store ingredients of daily Belizean life, and the party table of every celebration she has ever fed people at. She writes for the Belize News Post.

Belizean Rice and Beans
Belize Independence Day Food BelizeEditorial

Belize Independence Day Food

Belize Independence Day food has to last a whole day. The eating starts before the parade and finishes after the fireworks, and anyone who plans it as one sitting spends September 21 in the kitchen instead of on the street. That is the thing to understand before you write a shopping list. People leave the house early. They come back hungry at different times all day. Somebody arrives at two in the afternoon who was not expected. The food has to survive that. So the cooking gets planned backwards from…
Isela Post
September 11, 2026
Plate of Salvadoran salpores de arroz, pale golden rice-flour cookies scored in a crosshatch pattern, one broken open to show the crumb
Salpores de Arroz Recipe DessertEl Salvador

Salpores de Arroz Recipe

Salpores, or salpores de arroz, are traditional Salvadoran rice flour cookies with a dry, crumbly shortbread texture, flavored with cinnamon and anise. Made from rice flour, butter, sugar, and egg, they are a classic Salvadoran pan dulce eaten with coffee or atol, a staple of home bakeries and holiday tables across El Salvador. Why salpores are El Salvador's coffee-table cookie The first time I ate a salpor, I was standing in a kitchen in San Salvador, watching someone's grandmother open a tin from the top shelf. She didn't offer it…
Isela Post
August 4, 2026
Bowl of Honduran sopa de capirotadas, golden fried masa and cheese cakes floating in an achiote-tinted tomato broth with peppers and onion, tortillas alongside
Honduran Sopa de Capirotadas Recipe DinnerHonduras

Honduran Sopa de Capirotadas Recipe

Sopa de capirotadas is a savory Honduran Lenten soup of small fried dumplings made from corn masa and cheese, simmered in a tomato and achiote broth. Despite the shared name, it is not the Mexican capirotada, a sweet bread pudding. Honduran families eat it during Semana Santa as a meatless meal. The first time you make this, the part that surprises people is the order of operations. You fry the dumplings before they ever touch the broth. That single step is what holds the whole dish together, and most cooks…
Isela Post
August 4, 2026
A Honduran tamale wrapped in corn husk served with a cup of coffee
Ticucos DinnerHonduras

Ticucos

Corn-masa tamales folded around loroco or chipilín, wrapped and steamed. The herb is what makes them, and this is how the region's cooks get it right.
Isela Post
August 4, 2026
Glass bowl of Honduran chismol with finely chopped tomato, onion, green bell pepper and cilantro
Chismol HondurasSauces

Chismol

The everyday Honduran table relish of chopped tomato, onion, green bell pepper, and cilantro in lime. Fresh, barely spicy, and spooned over everything from carne asada to fried fish.
Isela Post
August 4, 2026
Honduran montucas, fresh-corn tamales wrapped in corn husk
Montucas DinnerHonduras

Montucas

Honduran fresh-corn tamales from young elote, ground soft and a little sweet, filled with pork or chicken and steamed in the husk. Southern Honduras makes them when the corn is in.
Isela Post
August 4, 2026