Guatemala Street Food Helps Provide An Income For Poor Families

A beautiful tostada being sold in Antigua

One of the best ways to get to know Guatemala when walking around small towns, is by dining on Guatemala's street food. Though most street food vendors do not operate with a permit, it is traditionally known that just about anyone can set up a food stand right outside their small home or down a busy street, and sell home made food- from tortillas, tostadas, grilled chicken, steak, sausages, sandwiches, to atoles.

Unlike the states where you can walk into most restaurants and will be able to order a breakfast item for dinner, Guatemala's menus change 3 times a day to offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now let me explain the 3 different types of dining that exist in Guatemala.

First, we have restaurants. Some are American such as IHop, McDonald's, Wendy's, Las Cebollines, etc, which consist of either fast food with an indoor restaurant to luxurious steak houses with excellent service. But these restaurants are only found in highly populated towns like Guatemala City, Antigua, Villa Nueva, San Lucas, Panajachel, Quetzaltenango, & Chimaltenango. Once you're out of those areas then your other options for dining are comedores and street food.

Comedor. A comedor is like a mom and pop diner where the owners actually own or rent a building with a kitchen, a counter to order food, and have tables and chairs for customers. As you drive you can see their signs above their doors saying, "Comedor" or a Fanta, Gallo (the beer), or Coke-a-cola signs will be displayed usually gesturing that there is a comedor at that location. When you stop in, usually there are no menus. The food they offer may be written on a wall somewhere or a board and in some places like Zacapa, you just order whatever it is they are making like pupusa also known as empanadas in Guatemala (a tortilla stuffed with melted cheese, beans, chicharron, or loroco).

Then you have street food, which consists of families standing outside their homes or on street corners grilling away.

Dobladas

Empanadas/Pupusas

On the left are Rellenitos, the middle Panes or sandwiches

For breakfast you can find Atoles to drink of several different flavors like manjar, arroz con leche (rice pudding except hot & liquidy), and corn. In Antigua one early morning, a lady had a huge trash bag filled with already cooked scrambled eggs. On the grill was some vegetables and big loafs of french bread that she used to make a delicious breakfast sandwich. Wish I had taken a photo of that!

Atole de Manjar, a morning beverage with cinnamon

Throughout the day you will notice that breakfast items are no longer sold on the streets. You start to see colorful stands selling sliced up fruit in bags or ladies standing under umbrellas selling tostadas with a guacamole or refried bean spread. All this food is very cheap and surprisingly fills you up quickly. As a tourist, one can walk through a mercado and try some new fruits.

Tourist couple trying out street food in Antigua's Mercado

Fruit stand in Guatemala City

Tourists being silly with some new exotic fruit they purchased to try

Drink some fresh coconut juice & then eat the flesh, she chops it up for you

One of my favorite things to do with my husband, is walk around the town of Ciudad Vieja, where we live, and grab some street food for dinner. Since my husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, we learned that street vendors generally don't begin to grill meat until 7pm- or when it starts to get dark. One time we walked around Ciudad Vieja around 4pm asking each vendor and comedor if they had Carne Asada and they all told us that the time to find it is later on at night. The hot dog stands also known as Cheveres, taco stands (known as Gringas instead of tacos), & women grilling corn on the cob all come out earlier than 'cena' (dinner time).

Street Food at Lake Atitlan

Longonizas, Chorizos, Carne Asada, Chicken, & Tortillas all street food

This woman doesn't have walls in her 'comedor' but she serves a decent plate for street food

Street Food at Panajachel- at a Salvadorean Comedor

But the one thing that I really appreciate about Guatemalan street food, is the families. Young parents trying to make a living by selling what they know they can make. Some ladies only sell tortillas and that's it. Other families were able to earn enough to buy an actual cart.

I can understand someone hesitant to eat street food because there are no sanitary regulations, but that choice is yours. You can see them grilling and cooking. When I've ordered a 'licuado' (a fruit smoothie made of the fruit & milk or water), many vendors use purified water as you can see them take water from the big blue jugs. Others, just have soda to offer.

One night as my husband and I were walking around Ciudad Vieja, we stopped at a hot dog stand. While we waited for our food, out popped these two precious girls who didn't say a word to us but just kept staring at us.

They youngest one would get a little restless because since both their parents were busy working, they had to stay behind the small hot dog cart and behave. Their parents work daily on the same corner selling hot dogs & 'gaseosas' (sodas).

So when I buy street food I am mindful that with the few Quetzales I have, I make a decision to help poor families provide for their children such as the two girls above, who will end up working for their parents as soon as they are tall enough or able enough to help. So I encourage our readers to not be afraid of home made food being sold on the streets but do exercise discernment, because Guatemala street food  helps provide an income for poor families.