Editorial67

Editorial covers everything that is not a single recipe: ingredient guides, food history, cultural explainers and roundups that connect dishes by ingredient, occasion or country.
These are the pieces that give a recipe its context, whether that is what recado actually does, how Guatemalan fried-tortilla snacks differ from each other, or what to eat in a country you are visiting.
Maya, Garifuna, Mestizo and Creole traditions run through all of it.

Belizean Rice and Beans
Belize National Dish BelizeEditorial

Belize National Dish

Ask a Belizean what the national dish is and you will get one answer, delivered without hesitation: rice and beans, stew chicken, potato salad, fried plantain. Four things on one plate, with gravy over the rice. Nobody consults a list. Nobody hedges. That consistency is the interesting part, because Belize is a country of six districts and at least eight cultural traditions that mostly do not eat the same food. This is the plate they agree on. What Is the National Dish of Belize? The national dish of Belize is…
Joe Post
September 11, 2026
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
Uniformed contingent marching behind a Belize Police vehicle past buildings hung with Belize coat-of-arms bunting, with the community lining the street to watch
September Celebrations in Belize BelizeEditorial

September Celebrations in Belize

September is a favorite time of year for a lot of Belizeans, and the weather is part of why. The summer heat is turning. Storms roll in during the morning and clear off by ten, and the rest of the day belongs to whatever the town has planned. Belizeans call the whole thing the September Celebrations. Not Independence Day, not St. George's Caye Day. The September Celebrations, plural, because it is a season and not a date. School children march. Not a few schools in the capital, but towns, villages…
Joe Post
September 11, 2026
West Bay beach, Roatan, Honduras
Roatán and the Bay Islands EditorialHonduras

Roatán and the Bay Islands

Short answer: Roatán and the Bay Islands sit on the same Mesoamerican reef as Belize, which makes them some of the cheapest world-class diving anywhere. Roatán is the developed one, with West Bay's beach and resorts; Utila is the budget, backpacker dive island; Guanaja is the quiet one. The islands are an English-and-Garifuna Caribbean world a little apart from the mainland, and they are Honduras's safe, easy-going coast. Fly into Roatán (RTB) or take the ferry from La Ceiba. For a Belizean this coast feels like home, because it is…
Isela Post
August 4, 2026
The Maya ruins of Copan, Honduras
Copán Ruinas: Visiting Honduras Maya City EditorialHonduras

Copán Ruinas: Visiting Honduras Maya City

Short answer: Copán is the great Maya city of western Honduras, famous for its carved stelae and the Hieroglyphic Stairway, the longest Maya inscription anywhere. You visit from the easygoing town of Copán Ruinas, a short ride from the archaeological park, and it pairs naturally with a trip through Guatemala since the border is close. Give the ruins a half to a full day, then the town's coffee, hot springs, and the Macaw Mountain bird park fill out a second. Check the current entrance fee at the gate; bring cash.…
Isela Post
August 4, 2026
Temple I rising over the Gran Plaza at Tikal, Guatemala
How to Visit Tikal from Flores EditorialGuatemala

How to Visit Tikal from Flores

Short answer: Flores is the base for visiting Tikal. The ruins sit about an hour and a half northeast of the island, and you get there three ways: a shared shuttle (cheapest and most common), a local colectivo from the Santa Elena bus station, or an organized tour with a guide. The park is open daily from six in the morning to six at night, with a special pre-dawn entry from four for the sunrise. Decide first whether you want the sunrise: it shapes the whole day. Most people see…
Isela Post
August 4, 2026
Salvadoran pupusas on a griddle
El Salvador Food: A Guide to What to Eat EditorialEl Salvador

El Salvador Food: A Guide to What to Eat

Short answer: Salvadoran food runs on the griddle and the masa. The pupusa is the national dish and the place to start, but the table is wider: fried yuca, stewed-chicken sandwiches, flat fried enchiladas, sweet cheese breads, and a morro-seed horchata that is nothing like the Mexican one. Two things turn up with almost everything, curtido and salsa, so make them once and keep them on hand. The indigenous roots here are Pipil (Nawat-speaking), not Maya, and it shows in the corn-and-comal heart of the cooking. Pupusas have become a…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Temple I rising over the Gran Plaza at Tikal, Guatemala
The Maya World: Food and Travel Across the Region EditorialMaya

The Maya World: Food and Travel Across the Region

Short answer: The Maya world is one cultural region spread across five countries: Belize, Mexico's Yucatán, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The borders are modern; the food, the corn, the recados, and the coast are older and shared. Belize is our home base, but the kitchen does not stop at the line on the map. This is the guide to eating and traveling across the whole region, country by country. We started as a Belizean food site, and Belize is still the heart of it. But the more you cook…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Mexican burrito with cream
Yucatán Food: A Guide to the Maya Kitchen of Mexico EditorialMayaMexico

Yucatán Food: A Guide to the Maya Kitchen of Mexico

Short answer: Yucatecan food is the Maya kitchen of southern Mexico, and it is the same tradition as northern Belize. This is where so much of the food we cook comes from: panuchos, salbutes, cochinita pibil, the recados, the achiote, the sour orange. If you have eaten in Corozal, you have eaten Yucatán. We cover a lot of this food already, because it is our food too. Below are 20 Yucatecan dishes worth knowing, each with a full recipe. The one thing worth saying plainly: the Yucatec Maya are a…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
A spread of Guatemalan typical food
Guatemalan Food: A Guide to What to Eat EditorialGuatemala

Guatemalan Food: A Guide to What to Eat

Short answer: Guatemalan food runs on the recado, the dry-roasted, ground sauce that carries the meat. The three to know are pepián (the national dish), kak'ik (the Q'eqchi' Maya turkey soup), and jocón (the green one). Around them sits a world of corn, tamales of every kind, and plantain sweets. The country cooks two traditions at once: Maya dishes like kak'ik and boxboles, and Ladino mestizo dishes like hilachas, revolcado, and chuchitos. For a Belizean this food is family, because the recado craft is the one we share across the…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Hudut, a Garifuna coconut fish stew with pounded plantain
Hudut vs Sere vs Tapou vs Tapado: Garifuna Dishes Explained BelizeEditorialGarifuna

Hudut vs Sere vs Tapou vs Tapado: Garifuna Dishes Explained

Hudut, tapou, sere, tapado, bundiga. People mix these up constantly, and it is easy to see why: they share the same three Garifuna staples, plantain or green banana, coconut, and fish, and several of them look alike in the bowl. But they are not the same dish, and the difference usually comes down to one thing: how the starch is handled and whether everything cooks together or stays apart. Here is the whole family, sorted out, with a link to each full recipe. The Garifuna coconut dishes at a glance…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026