Thursday's Child: Tak'alik Ab'aj, Guatemala

Tak’alik Ab’aj is a pre-Columbian archaeological site situated near the Pacific coast of Guatemala. In the local Kiche Maya language, it means “Place of the Standing Stone”.

Tak’alik Ab’aj was a major centre of culture and trade, first rising in power around the 9th century BCE, and lasting until 200 AD or later. It’s particularly important among Central American archeological sites because it documents the transition between the early Guatemalan Olmec people and the Mayan civilization. 

Several hundred stone monuments have been unearthed on the ten terraces that cover the 1600-acre property. Some feature the Olmec style with enormous heads and potbellied figures, or the man-jaguar. Many others feature Mayan hieroglyphics and the representation of important figures, often depicted in profile.

It’s intriguing that both styles co-exist. The Olmec style statues don’t stop suddenly and give way to a Mayan style. Nor were they destroyed when the Mayan sculptures were erected. This suggests a shifting of cultural influences and a sharing of artistic styles rather than domination due to one group conquering the other.

Tak’alik Ab’aj was part of a trading route that stretched from Mexico in the north to El Salvador in the south. It has been suggested that as traders moved from one area to another, they brought with them cultural inspirations that influenced the artwork of the settlements.

A royal tomb was discovered in 2002, perhaps belonging to the city's last Mayan king.

Excavations are still underway.

Everything Old is New Again

We spent a couple of days with our friends, the Jay family, at their cottage over the Christmas holidays. Unlike last summer, this visit didn't involve an unusually early wake-up call. (Perhaps I was the only one nostalgic for that 5:30 am visit.) But it did involve stone soup made by nine chefs, and our annual trip to the toboggan hill near their place.

In all the years we've been friends, we've never had a photo of all nine of us. But this time, we ran into one of their neighbours while tobogganing, and he offered to take our picture. Our girls, now between 14 and 20, have grown up together despite living most of their lives in different countries. We're grateful that we see as much of them as we do.

I've written before about the traditions we share with the Jays. One more tradition is that we always bring a wedge of Chateau de Bourgogne, a triple cream Brie that, they tell us, is as good as anything they buy in Switzerland. And I always take baking, usually cookies.

I hadn't made these cookies in years. I remember taking them in when I was still working at the bank (over fifteen years ago), and being asked for the recipe. Then inexplicably, the recipe went missing. I searched through my cookbooks, I searched online. Even though I got it from Bon Appetit, it wasn't on their website. For many years, I had nothing but the memory of these cookies.

Over the holidays I found a stash of old magazines in my basement. And near the bottom of the pile was the November 1992 issue that introduced me to this recipe. It was like I was destined to bake them and bring them to the Jays'. I cut back on the butter, but otherwise didn't change this delicious recipe. Fifteen years later, the cookies were as good as I remembered. And I couldn't have been happier sharing them with our friends before they headed back to Switzerland!

Natchez Cookies
(adapted from Bon Appetit, November 1992)

Ingredients:

15 whole graham crackers (about half a package)
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Coat a cookie sheet with parchment paper, leaving a little overlap at the sides. Arrange graham crackers on the pan side by side.

Stir butter and brown sugar together in a saucepan over medium heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Mix in vanilla extract; increase heat and boil for 1 minute. Pour caramel mixture over the graham crackers. Sprinkle pecans on top.

Bake until topping is bubbling and turns deep brown, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Allow cookies to cool in pan. Separate cookies along cracker edges before serving. (This may be easier if you chill them first.)

Thursday's Child: Tak'alik Maya Lodge, Guatemala

One of the highlights of our trip to Guatemala last year was a visit to the Tak'alik Ab'aj ruins, near the Pacific Coast. While there, we spent a night at the Tak'alik Maya Lodge, just adjacent to the ruins. This week I'll tell you about our stay at the lodge, and next week I'll describe the fabulous Mayan ruins.

The first thing I should tell you about the lodge is that it's in the middle of the jungle, in an off-the-beaten-track part of Guatemala. Under the circumstances, a four-star hotel would be out of place, and we were prepared for simplicity. To give you an idea what the lodge is like, we chose to stay in a room with electricity. (The rooms without electricity were more elegant, but since we arrived after dark, we opted for convenience.) We stayed in a small cabin, similar to the cabins at the summer camp I attended as a kid. There were no frills, but who expects frills in the middle of the jungle?

Our cabin was a ten-minute walk from the dining room, and because the path was a bit serpentine, they sent a member of the staff to accompany us to and from dinner. He explained that as long as we stayed on the paved path, none of the snakes would bother us. And apparently there were over a hundred varieties of snakes, but only five of those were poisonous. Phew!

We stayed away from the snakes long enough to enjoy a fabulous dinner. We'd been advised that the electricity to the whole lodge would be shut off between 10 pm and 6 am, so we were prepared for an early night.

And when we woke the next day, and saw the lodge in daylight for the first time, we realized how truly beautiful it was. Set in a working coffee plantation, it was a combination of charming and rustic that suited the location perfectly. If we'd had more time, we might have walked to the nearby waterfall, gone bird-watching, or toured the plantation.

But we were there to see the ruins at Tak'alik Ab'aj. More on them next week!

A lovely peacock, outdazzling even its brethren in London and Turkey.

The Sword in the Stone

I have to admit I’d never cooked with rutabagas – never even eaten them, to my recollection – before I tried this recipe. But when I opened Yotam Ottolenghi’s new cookbook, Plenty More, I kept flipping back to this page. I had to try it.

The recipe is pretty straightforward, but cutting rutabaga isn’t easy. At one point, as I was slicing through the thickest part, my knife actually got stuck. I tried sawing it forward and yanking it backward. Still it wouldn’t move. I felt like the young King Arthur trying to remove his fabled sword from its resting place. But like young Arthur, I persevered, certain it was my destiny to do so. And like him, I was eventually successful.

Though I can’t claim this recipe is the holy grail, I can tell you it was mythically delicious. And its magical powers were such that even my 17 year old – who doesn’t like anything – ate it, and admitted she liked it. Even Merlin hath no greater power.

Stuffed Peppers with Rutabagas and Goat Cheese

(adapted from Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi)

2/3 cup unsalted butter (yikes! But don’t worry, you’ll drain off most of it)

1 large rutabaga, peeled and cut into 3/4" (1 cm) dice

1/2 cup thyme leaves

1 cup finely grated Parmesan

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 small yellow bell peppers

3 small red bell peppers

2 tsp olive oil

6 ounces (180 gram) goat cheese log, broken into 3/4" (1 cm) pieces

salt and black pepper

Melt the butter in a large saute pan or frying pan over medium heat. Add the rutabaga, thyme, 1 1/2 tsp salt, and a grind of pepper. Turn down the heat to low and cook, uncovered, for about 50 minutes, spooning the butter over the rutabaga from time to time, until the rutabaga is completely soft and caramelized. Use a slotted spoon to remove the rutabaga from the butter and add it to a large bowl along with the Parmesan and garlic. Set aside until needed. (The leftover butter can be used for cooking carrots or zucchini, if you like.)

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Cut the peppers in half lengthwise. Remove seeds and white flesh and place, cut side up, on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle the oil over the top, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and place in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until the peppers are slightly charred and the flesh is completely soft. Remove the peppers from the oven and turn down the temperature to 425 degrees F.

Spoon the rutabaga mixture into each pepper and dot the goat cheese on top. Return to the oven for a further 10 to 15 minutes, so the cheese gets some colour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes before serving warm, or serve at room temperature.