Desayuno Criollo Venezolano con un Toque Internacional

Perico Criollo con un Toque Internacional

Esta mañana estaba pensando en qué desayunar, y al hacer una revisión mental de los ingredientes existentes en nuestra cocina , se me aguó la boca al pensar en hacer un "Perico Criollo", un plato de huevos revueltos con cebollas y tomates salteados.
A mí particularmente me encanta añadirle a la receta básica algunos ingredientes que no solo mantienen la integridad del plato, sino que lo enriquecen con sabores y aromas complementarios.
Normalmente este plato se come con "Arepas" (torta de maiz para los mejicanos) o con pan, pero, como dicen, "a falta de pan buenas son tortas" en nuestro caso, no tenemos pan, ni torta, así que usamos tortillas de maiz que compramos ayer en un supermercado mejicano que está cerca de nuestro vecindario.

Para compartir un poco la delicia de este plato he decidido compartir la receta (hecha a mi manera) y mostrar con fotos el procedimiento y el resultado.

Perico Criollo con un Toque Internacional
Para dos hambrientas personas.
Ingredientes:

4 huevos grandes (o 5 pequeños)
2 cucharadas de Aceite de Oliva
1 cebolla grande cortadita
1 Pimentón (o 2 pimentones pequeños) no picantes cortado en cuadritos
1 tomate grande cortadito
1/4 Taza de Perejil o Cilantro cortadito
Ajo en Polvo, Sal y Pimienta al gusto

Instrucciones:

Calentar el aceite en una sartén grande. 

Yo usé aceite de oliva con Ajo, yumm!

Cortar en cuadritos la cebolla y el pimentón 

Puede usarse pimentón rojo y/o verde para dar más color y sabor

y saltearlos por unos minutos en la sartén a fuego bajo.

recuerde bajar el fuego para que no se quemen las cebollas

Añadir  el tomate y cocinar por un par de minutos.

Revolver después de añadir  el tomate.

Agregar el perejil o cilantro. Añadir las especias (sal, pimienta, y ajo en polvo) y mezclar bien con los ingredientes.

Yo usé perejil porque no tenía cilantro 

Dejar cocinar por unos minutos y luego agregar los huevos ligeramente batidos y mezclar con los demás ingredientes.

use la cantidad de huevos que necesite de a cuerdo con el numero de personas a servir

Cocinar la mezcla por unos cinco minutos y luego revolver la mezcla de nuevo.

Así se ve cuando se añaden los huevos y comienza a cocinarse

Dejar cocinar hasta que los huevos estén completamente cocidos.

Así queda cuando ya están bien cocidos los huevos

Servir con Tortillas de Maiz (tortilla suave),

arepa, pan, o lo que prefiera.

Yo puse un poquito de Guacamole para experimentar.

Buen provecho!

Learning Spanish Abroad

Having coffee in a Palermo neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina

My husband and I watch a TV show about moving abroad to Spanish speaking countries, and one of the shows was recorded in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As a Spanish tutor, I was paying close attention to what they were saying, specially during the scenes where they were either speaking Spanish or teaching it. I love how the Argentinians speak, and also love to learn from other teachers and their techniques, so I can pass it on to my students.

It seems to me that no much editing was made to any of the comments made during this show, and I'm pretty sure many people that hears them will take that information as completely true.

Two comments caught my attention, one comment made by the Spanish Student and one by the Spanish tutor. The Student said that they speak different Spanish "dialects" in Latin-america. At this point I decided to do a research about the word "dialect" since, to me, saying that each Spanish speaking country has a different dialect is like saying that each state in the United States speaks in a different language. Do you agree?

So, this is what I came up with:

di·a·lect/ˈdīəˌlekt/ L. dialectus / noun, often attributive

A particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group. " Variety of a language spoken by a group of people and having features of vocabulary, grammar, and/or pronunciation that distinguish it from other varieties of the same language. Dialects usually develop as a result of geographic, social, political, or economic barriers between groups of people who speak the same language. When dialects diverge to the point that they are mutually incomprehensible, they become languages in their own right. This was the case with Latin, various dialects of which evolved into the different Romance languages." 

Floralis Generica,
UN Square, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Dialect and its synonyms, vernacular - lingo, jargon, cant, argot, slang were used to "mean a form of language that is not recognized as standard" 

This definition makes me think on how cold and sterile languages can become when seen from the grammar and linguistics point of view. It's like looking at a flower made of steel. It helped me realize that we, as humans, tend to forget the richness of the culture behind the language by focusing in its technicalities.

The definition helped me understand better how to use it. I could keep writing about other ways the term can be used both as a compliment and as an insult, but it will take a different post to do so, and I want to get to the second comment.

This comment was made by the Spanish tutor was about the pronunciation of the letter "ll" in Spanish. He said that in Argentina they pronounce it like the "sh" sound and in the Latin-american countries it's pronounce like the "lee" sound (Did you noticed he didn't say "other" Latin-american countries?)

Going back to the sound, I have to agree with him only on the Argentinian pronunciation, it's his native "dialect" so he knows what he is talking about. Now, regarding to the rest of us pronouncing the "ll" as a "lee" sound is not accurate. As a matter of fact, that sound is heard in Spain, not in Latin-america. The sound of this particular letter, as well as the sound of the letter "y" varies from one end of Latin-america to the other. Ask any Spanish speaker how to pronounce the word "llave" (key) and listen to how they say it. If you were in Spain you might hear it sounds like "lee-ah- vay". In some regions of Central-america you will hear them saying "yah-vay", and in the Caribbean area (Cuba-Venezuela-Colombia-Panama, etc) the word could sound more like "jah-vay".

Can you hear the difference? Spanish speakers can, and you can choose which one is the easiest for you to learn, but be aware that there are other ways to pronounce the same word, even the same letter, but the differences are so small that we, Spanish speakers, do not detect them until we study and/or pay close attention to them.

I think we can all listen to what everybody have to say, and we have the choice to accept as true or not whatever we heard. In other words, don't believe everything someone else tells you just because they say so. Listen to them, acknowledge their comments, do a research and make an educated decision to accept or reject the information you received. That's the beauty of choice, that's the principle of learning.

Enjoy any learning experiences and let's not get stocked in technicalities, let's not be spoilsports (party poopers), or as we would say in Spanish "aguafiestas".

Dancing Tango in the street of Buenos Aires, Argentina