Please Don’t Judge Me (a.k.a. Mac ‘n Cheese ROCKS!)

Don’t get me wrong – I am nothing if not an adventuresome eater. Indeed, I feel extraordinarily blessed to be able to sample the World’s cuisine – authentically, amid the globe’s curb-side street eats (well o.k. perhaps not that fermented mare’s milk in Mongolia).

Ah but those steaming bowls of Pho in Vietnam, delectable Phad Thai in Thailand, dreamy “Tea Leaf Salad” in Myanmar – droool…

Furthermore, while I adored the many delish foods that I ate for nearly three years in Asia, I must say – the cuisine here in Ecuador is ever so much closer to my native land than the ubiquitous rice and noodles simmering on every street corner in Asia. We’re talkin’ m-a-s-h-e-d potatoes here people, some even made into perfect little puffy “papas” clouds, deep fried and tucked next to a heavenly serving of “pulled” pork. Granted, that pork isn’t exactly neatly sliced Hometown U.S.A. style “chops” so much as – snout ‘n ears, hoofs ‘n tail staring at you whilst the delectable strings of “cerdo” are pulled from the piggy’s innards, but still…

There comes a time (or three) in every expat’s nomadic life, when the lure of their childhood comfort foods simply gets to be too much. So, when I spied this box of good ol’ Kraft, errr… “Sumesa” (indeed, “hace en S.A.) at my neighborhood grocery here in Cuenca, well… What can I say?

Ladies and Gentlemen (please don’t judge me, but…), the time has come for a big ol’ plateful of MAC ‘N CHEESE!

(mouseover the image and watch it flip-flop!)

 
Yessireee, gobs of utterly non-nutritious macaroni, smothered with “salsa de queso” (a.k.a. purely artificial cheese uh, more like bright orange, crumbly sawdust?) Nonetheless…

Two words: YUMMM. MMMERS!

Note: I didn’t enhance the color at all – that’s the amarillo 5 and amarillo 6 artificial colors talking.

Indeed, as I slid the first forkful of artificially colored and artificially flavored noodles onto my salivating tongue, I was suddenly transported back to my childhood. And my U.S. of A mouth was oh so happy to momentarily taste the cheesy goodness of my native land. In short, trust that I savored every neon-orange morsel while sitting on my Ecuadorian balcony listening to the chatter of Spanish in the cobbled streets below.
 

What about you – what’s your expat/travel food guilty pleasure? What could you simply NOT live without were you stranded on a desert island like Tom Hanks?