Chicken Soup for the Soul

It finally happened. We missed America. We've been here almost 2 weeks and we are having a great time - things have been moving so fast that it has been tough to even think about missing home. But yesterday's lunch stopped us in our tracks - it made us miss the good 'ol US of A and if we could have jumped on a plane right then and there it wouldn't have been a tough decision.

Adjusting to the food here has been a big part of getting comfortable in Santa Marta. Colombians tend to eat a big lunch with breakfast and dinner being less substantial meals. We've gone out to lunch quite a bit because it is the cheapest meal to eat out and you get a ton of food.  A lot of restaurants here have an "ordinary meal" that is not on the menu but comes with whatever they are cooking the most of that particular day (it almost always consists of chicken/beef soup, some sort of meat, rice/beans, and a plantain/salad). It's cheap (like $2.75!) because it is cooked in bulk and generally, it has treated us very well.

Yesterday we stopped in at a restaurant that we had walked past several times and been wanting to try. We were starving from a morning spent at school and then doing some errands so when they brought the chicken soup, we didn't hold back. After a couple bites of chicken we realized it was kind of funky...

Mondongo = Tripe = Cow stomach

 See those big white things hanging in the picture above? That's "mondongo". And we ate it. And it made us miss America.