There’s this really awesome food in Paraguay called mbeju (bay-joo). There really isn’t anything here to compare it to except maybe a really dry cheesy tortilla, but I can guarantee that what you’re picturing now is nothing at all like mbeju. The closest comparison I can think of off hand is if you mix bread crumbs with cheese and fry it.
Karen, my Paraguay mom (I hope she doesn’t mind me saying that…she’s not that much older than me), made this a couple times as well as some of the people from church and from school. She sent me home with a few kilos of a key ingredient that I can’t get here, so I am making small batches in an effort to perfect this culinary delight. It’s essentially simple…equal parts mandioca flour (starch) and corn flour, and half that much of cheese and lard (I never said it was particularly healthy). Fry it up in a skillet like a pancake and serve hot. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
The first lesson I learned is that corn MEAL is not an acceptable substitute for corn FLOUR. I mixed everything together and it definitely was yellow (mbeju is white), but looked to have the same consistency as Karen’s mixture. I tried frying it and learned that corn meal is too coarse to stick together. I couldn’t flip it to cook the other side, so I flipped over as much as I could and let it sit for a minute. My kitchen smelled like popcorn. When I ate it, none of it stayed together, and it tasted like cheesy popcorn, only nasty. I ended up throwing most of it away.
I tried again the next night, this time adding more cheese. Maybe cheese will help it stay together appropriately. No dice. The cheese just burned, and while it stayed together a little better, it was still nasty. But at least that one was more edible.
So far, mbeju has the advantage. But I will be victorious. The photo is my first attempt at this wonderful snack.
Mbeju 2, Jason 0
-j
I'm Jason, and I like to write.
I MISS Mbeju.
Hilarious dude…
Good luck trying! If you can’t figure it out, come back and I’ll teach you!
Plus…it’s cheaper here!