Luis Camilo 0:17
Hey everybody, this is Luis and welcome to my meal moments where we talk about all things food and the memories and experiences they bring to our lives. Today I am joined by my lovely wife Amarilys, and she's going to be sharing her favorite meal moment with us today. So Amarilys, why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself and your relationship with food.
Amarilys Camilo 0:42
So I traveled a lot when I was younger, because my father was military. So I was exposed to a lot of different types of cuisines, mainly in Central America. But even though it was in Central America, each country had their unique cuisine. So I feel like it was a avenue that my father opened up for me to be able to taste and experience different cuisines.
Luis Camilo 1:18
That's awesome. Are there particular like countries that kind of like stick out to you?
Amarilys Camilo 1:22
My favorite? Well, the ones that I really remember are living in Guatemala and Costa Rica. I also lived in Panama, but I was I was there for five years of my first five years, so I don't really remember much of that cuisine.
Luis Camilo 1:41
Got it. Okay. Now, if you have like top three weirdest dishes, which top three would you pick? Weird is yeah, like, ones that if you were to try to share with someone here in, you know, in America, they would be like, take that away from me right now. Like, what are your kind of top three?
Amarilys Camilo 2:02
So I remember, in Guatemala, my uncle and aunt came to visit from Puerto Rico, my dad's brother. And they took us well, we took them to the GL, which is a historical landmark in Guatemala, where there's pyramids and stuff like that. So in a town around there, I vaguely really remember but I do remember eating this stuff. We ate this thing called the bisque Wintley. And it's, I don't remember what kind of animal it is in English. I think it's a
Luis Camilo 2:46
tap for taper. Yeah.
Amarilys Camilo 2:50
A taper and it's basically a huge wrap. Like, literally a huge wrap. And then I do remember eating. I've ate snake. And I've a
Luis Camilo 3:09
turtle. Yeah. I'm sure people would be like, Oh my gosh, why am I eating turtle?
Amarilys Camilo 3:13
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's basically eating
Luis Camilo 3:18
their pet pets. Exactly. Magic. All right. So here on my meal moment. The whole idea behind or the premise behind the show is that we have formative moments that happen over meals. And each guest that we have on is going to share about a moment in their lives and the associated meal that kind of highlights that particular moment. Or ultimately, maybe just the association that they have with that particular meal in that moment. So I guess now's the time for you to go ahead and kind of jump into that. Just tell us about a meal that stands out to you, and how it's connected to a formative moment, or a special moment in your life.
Amarilys Camilo 4:10
So I'm specifically for me, my favorite meal, quote unquote, is Cheetos. I like love to Cheetos, like, I can eat them breakfast, lunch and dinner. They're amazing. But one memory that comes up is me living in Guatemala. And we used to go to a church where there was a lot of poverty. And we weren't, we weren't supposed to go to church, but because my parents worked for the embassy and military group or whatever. We weren't actually supposed to be in that section of Guatemala.
Luis Camilo 4:58
What was the reason behind that? It's just because it was like, potential
Amarilys Camilo 5:02
potential potential abduction, because we were American. Okay, um, but, um, the memory of actually like, learning to make them I know, I was very young. But there was a specific lady called Madi, and she passed away a few years ago, my mom had told me, she passed away a few years ago, but I remember her, like, taking me under her wing and just loving on me. Like if I was her granddaughter, and this lady would take me to her house, and she'd make these two Cheetos, and I wouldn't help but I would watch her make them. And then she would come to church, and after church, she would sell them. And this is how she would make money. Got it. Okay. Um, so it's just a fond memory. And it just became one of my favorite meals. And I praise God, that I was actually able to find a Guatemalan restaurant here in, in our area, and I was actually able to share that dish with my kids.
Luis Camilo 6:25
Explain that explain, like, the first time that you got to share that dish with with with your kids.
Amarilys Camilo 6:30
Um, I want to say it was maybe like three years ago. I want yeah, about three years ago, two years ago. Maybe, maybe right after the pandemic started, I don't know. Or maybe before the pandemic, maybe before the pandemic started.
Luis Camilo 6:47
It might have been right, yeah, right before maybe.
Amarilys Camilo 6:49
Um, so I had found this Guatemalan restaurant years ago when I started college. And it's been my spot this many years after I've been out of high school for 20 years. But so yeah, I bought two Cheetos, and I brought them to the house and I was able to share it with my kids. And they both liked it. But specifically, my youngest one, like fell in like, had the same experience as me like once Yeah, I can eat it. Yeah, he can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. Like he loves it just as much as I love it.
Luis Camilo 7:33
Yeah, definitely. I can definitely attest to that. He's, if you can have two Cheetos all the time. He would. Yeah. Um, so I guess so we'd like to. At this moment, I'd like to kind of pivot give us a breakdown of like Cheetos, like, what is it? Like what is it? How do you make it? Have you ever made them if you have like, Have you ever made them outside of that moment? And just kind of give us give us kind of a breakdown of Cheetos?
Amarilys Camilo 8:02
So I like to describe to Cheetos as kinda like a.ml but different so it's mostly the corn masa or dough I guess. I don't know. Masada masa. And they have they make it either have chicken or pork and it's kind of like a stewed meat. Yeah.
Luis Camilo 8:32
And your preference chicken or pork? My
Amarilys Camilo 8:36
chickens. I love chicken. Yeah. And then it has a like a red sauce made of different spices and tomato and peppers from Guatemala. And there's a specific one. I don't know what it's called my mom's the one that bought it last time. And it has to be this specific pepper in order to get that taste that you get in a Cheeto? Yeah. And we didn't make it. I believe it was last year. Me and my sister and my mom. We were craving Cheetos and we bought all this stuff and we made them and I know you taste it in you said that.
Luis Camilo 9:20
relisted I can tell you right now. So first off, shout out to ring gone Guatemala taco. Yeah, because that's the name of the restaurant that actually is around our area that has them. But I gotta tell you these ladies they went in. They went in it was good for our
Amarilys Camilo 9:34
first time making them you know, obviously here in the States. It I liked it a lot. Yeah, definitely. It came out really good.
Luis Camilo 9:44
So I guess my my next question would be do you because you have such fond memories with this particular food item? Do you think it's something that you are Can I kind of share outside of the bounds of the family? Do you think like, it's something that like, hey, I want to, because I know sometimes it's one of those things where it's like, you know, it's kind of like a home thing, or do you think it's something where you'd be like, You know what? I share this, I gotta I gotta, you know, like Natasha, you say preach the food gospel. Do you think this is one of the one of those items that you want to preach the food gospel with? Um, or is it too hard to make?
Amarilys Camilo 10:22
I don't think it's hard to make. It does take a lot of time. So I might just preach the food gospel by taking people to
Luis Camilo 10:35
record they got to shadow so not not a sponsor. All right, that's awesome. So I guess the the last thing that I would I would have on the list here is outside of outside of Cheetos, and kind of the Guatemalan experience, etc. Is there anything else specifically Guatemalan that you're like, man, Cheetos are definitely number one. I have this amazing memory and I've been able to share with my with my kids, but is there anything else from that particular cuisine? That just is also kind of like, you know, top tier in your, in your, in your mind?
Amarilys Camilo 11:16
So um, towards the bottom Marlin authority as are the best don't get me wrong. I love Mexican 30 Like authentic Mexican 30. But a Guatemalan Dorothea. I don't know what it's, it is, but like, I love it. And the other day actually went to Rincon water multigo Shout out again, three, um, I went there to grab some Cheetos because I was really craving them. And I actually ordered a different thing. And it's kind of like a boy Yogi sow like a stewed chicken. And it's called pep Bian. And that's really, really good. Yeah. They serve it with tortillas, and they serve it with their white rice. But their white rice isn't just a regular white rice. It has. I don't know, it's just a different taste. They have different things that they add to the rice that makes it taste. Like just amazing.
Luis Camilo 12:22
Yeah, no, that makes sense. Okay, awesome. All right, guys. Well, that's kind of the end of the segment the end of the of the show. But before we sign off, I always want to make sure I let my guests say kind of one last thing. If there's one last thing that you wanted to kind of just share with, with the listeners. It could be about anything could be about food bill about life, just kind of a sign off just making sure that you eat something you wanted to share with with the listeners that are listening to today.
Amarilys Camilo 12:50
Don't Don't limit your palate. Hmm. Like,
Luis Camilo 12:56
speak on that. Come on. Yeah,
Amarilys Camilo 12:57
like, try things. Don't just not try things just because it's new, or it's weird, or it's different.
Luis Camilo 13:06
Yeah, no, that's great. That's a great sign up. All right, awesome. Well, I want to just say thank you all for listening to my Neil moment. And honestly, this is the first of many, just kind of scheduled cat podcasts. And I just look forward to being able to share not only just the love of food, because I think there's a lot of podcasts and shows like that. But I think this is going to be a little different in that it's going to be associated with memories and formative moments and, and special times in our lives. And I look forward to being able to share those with the guests. So thank you so much and obviously and also share it with you guys as viewers. So thank you so much for listening, and I look forward to the next bye bye
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