Mayan Sol: Desperately Seeking the Unusual

Mayan Sol: Desperately Seeking the Unusual

On assignment from the Reader to cover a place I had read about in a 2003 Chowhound post by ReneG and a little more recently in a passing mention by Mike G, I was looking for stuff I couldn’t find as easily elsewhere (like, maybe, something from Guatemala). This is a common impulse among many of us in this community, I think: when we go to a Nigerian joint, we want authentic Nigerian; ditto Uzbeki, Samoan, Laotian, etc. If you’re at a place that promises something unusual, we’re there.

So when I saw that several dishes featured “Guatemalan sausages,” I went for ‘em.



The Wife, having taught in Guatamala, knows the food, and she didn’t think these sausages looked much like the real thing, but her understanding of the “real thing” vis a vis wieners guatemaltecos is based on dining adventures experienced when Nixon was still president. So maybe the street food of Antigua has changed in the past 40 years, but are these sausages anything like the norm in Guatemala today, and are they really serving them to los indigenos with catsup and mustard? Seems unlikely. It’s called “mixta,” though I’m not entirely sure what’s being mixed up…two very dissimilar culinary traditions?

Most of the entrees seemed somewhat pedestrian, but after dinner we had torrejas, described as “Sweet bread dipped in Guatemalan juice.”



This was an eggy challah-like dough wad, seemingly fried to an almost egg foo young consistency, served very hot in a sweet sauce that may have had hints of hibiscus. Not bad…in fact, unusual.

Mayan Sol
3830 W Lawrence Ave
773.539.4398

...are these sausages anything like the norm in Guatemala today, and are they really serving them to los indigenos...

Bleah... more like los indigestinos

David Hammond wrote:are they really serving them to los indigenos with catsup and mustard?

Or without a natural casing like they are in that picture?

stevez wrote:

David Hammond wrote:are they really serving them to los indigenos with catsup and mustard?

Or without a natural casing like they are in that picture?

According to The Wife, in their native habitat, these sausages are much smaller (though bigger than cocktail wieners -- and perhaps with unnatural casing) and served on smaller Guatemalan tortillas with just guacamole and raw onion. They are, so she says, hot-dog-like in consistency, so made from a meat slurry rather than more roughly ground meat.

David Hammond wrote:So when I saw that several dishes featured “Guatemalan sausages,” I went for ‘em.



The Wife, having taught in Guatamala, knows the food, and she didn’t think these sausages looked much like the real thing, but her understanding of the “real thing” vis a vis wieners guatemaltecos is based on dining adventures experienced when Nixon was still president. So maybe the street food of Antigua has changed in the past 40 years, but are these sausages anything like the norm in Guatemala today, and are they really serving them to los indigenos with catsup and mustard? Seems unlikely. It’s called “mixta,” though I’m not entirely sure what’s being mixed up…two very dissimilar culinary traditions?

That looks not unlike the mixta I was served at Monja Blanca although mine didn't have ketchup and mustard.