Breakfast Musing in Honduras
Words and Photos Courtesy of: Renee Johnston
(Renee Johnston is the 1st grade teacher at Santa Monica. This post can originally be found here on her personal blog.)
———————————————————————————————————-
Forward:
I’m going to be honest. I started this blog exclusively so I could talk about the breakfast cereal I eat in Honduras. It is extremely likely that I will never write another word here ever again. Apologies in advance.
***
I don’t know if anyone will appreciate this, but its a source of ongoing fascination for me, and I really need to share.
This:
is your typical box of “FANS” brand cornflakes. It is the cheapest kind of cereal you can buy in Honduras, and taste-wise, it’s only a small step down from Kellogg’s. But this is completely beside the point.
The first thing I’d like to call to your attention re: FANS (pronounced “fawns”) is the 1983-era box design, which I have come to love– to really really love. But, what I appreciate most about FANS, even more than its pale yellow exterior and industrious sportspersons, is the thoughtful inclusion of two recipes on the side of every box.
Recipe 1: “Tangy Party Meatballs”
Recipe 2: “Sour Cream Salmon Loaf“
While the fixins for either dish are definitely worth additional scrutiny, I’d argue the work involved in concocting a Sour Cream Salmon Loaf really lives up to its name, its unspeakably unappetizing name :
SOUR CREAM SALMON LOAF
1 Can (15.5 oz.) Salmon
1 pkg. (8 oz.) Sour Cream
½ Cup melted Margarine
1 Egg, beaten
2 ½ Cups Fans Corn Flakes
Measure the Fans Corn Flakes and then crush them into crumbs. Drain off half of the liquid of the salmon. Combine all ingredients. Place in a loaf pan. Bake 40 minutes at 350* F.
****
And all you budding chefs out there, not to worry; you have some options:
“If firmer texture loaf is desired, use less margarine and add 1 more egg. “
*****
Other Interesting Facts About FANS:
1. Even though you can’t actually buy them anywhere in the United States, all of the writing on a FANS box is in English. This has confused me for a while now, and so today, I did a little detective work.
2. As it turns out, FANS is “manufactured” in Miami Florida by a company called Luban Int’l, which, since 1979, “has been offering fine quality, North American products to the Caribbean Islands as well as in Central and South America.” So, evidently, there is in existence a North American company that takes raw materials that were very likely grown in Latin America, and turns them into low-quality, generic food products to be shipped back to Latin America. Nothing about that is particularly surprising. But more importantly, this means that somebody in Miami, between 1979 and now, thought it was a really good idea to let people in Honduras et al. know that you can use your FANS brand cornflakes to make Tangy Party Meatballs, whenever the need arises.
***
I realize that, for some of you, this may be the only news you’ve heard from me since I left for Honduras over a month and a half ago. Sorry. I can only hope that, at the very least, this update lets you rest assured, no matter how challenging my life and work here has been, I am eating VERY well.
Besos.
