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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
June 15, 2026
Yucatecan cochinita pibil, achiote pork
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. The corner of Mexico that matters most to us is the Maya world of the Yucatán Peninsula, and the dishes run straight across the border. We cover a lot of this food already, because it is our…
Joe Post
June 15, 2026
A red spiced Guatemalan soup finished with mint and scallion, kak ik
Kak’ik (Q’eqchi’ Maya Turkey Soup) DinnerGuatemalaMaya

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
Boxboles — Q'eqchi' Maya corn masa rolls with chipilín, served with toasted pepita sauce and crumbled white cheese
Boxboles GuatemalaMayaSnacks

Boxboles

Boxboles are a Maya highland masa roll from Guatemala — corn masa kneaded with chipilín herb, wrapped in squash or chayote leaves, steamed, sliced crosswise, and served with a warm toasted pepita and tomato sauce. The dish belongs to the Achi Maya of Baja Verapaz and the Ixil Maya of the Ixil Triangle, with related versions found across the Guatemalan highlands wherever squash grows and chipilín grows alongside it. What makes boxboles different from Guatemalan tamales? I came across boxboles not in a restaurant but in a market. Wednesday, early,…
Joe Post
June 11, 2026
Tikin xic, achiote-marinated grilled fish, served in Campeche
Tikin Xic DinnerMayaMexico

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 whole chicken simmering with vegetables for a caldo
Caldo Cax (Mayan Chicken Caldo) BelizeDinnerMaya

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 DinnerGuatemalaMaya

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
A plate of huevos motulenos with tomato sauce, fried plantain, and a chile
Huevos Motuleños BreakfastMayaMexico

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
Chaya leaves, the Maya spinach used in caldo de chaya
Ts’anchak (Caldo de Chaya) DinnerMayaMexico

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 BelizeDinnerMaya

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 BelizeBreakfastMaya

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
Polcanes frying in oil in a large pan, with white cheese and tostadas at a street food stall
Polcanes Recipe BelizeLunchMaya

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 BelizeLunchMaya

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 BelizeDinnerMaya

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 BelizeDinnerMaya

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 EditorialMaya

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 DinnerMayaMexico

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 DinnerMayaMexico

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