Fritanga

In Nicaragua, the earliest account of a “borbecu”(BBQ) comes from the English pirate and explorer William Dampier, who in his book A New Voyage Round the World (1697) uses the word when describing his time among the Miskito people of the Atlantic coast.

Fritanga is derived from the Spanish frito, meaning fried. Only in Nicaragua is it applied to a place where food is cooked, although the exact origins of the word are lost in the wood smoke of time. Some local historians believe the tradition of the fritanga as a recognised style of eatery goes back to the 1931 earthquake that devastated Managua, when street-side barbecues sprung up in the aftermath.

The ingredients soon became uniform as the popularity grew of combining carne asada (barbecued meat) with Nicaraguan staples like gallo pinto (rice and beans), salty queso frito (fried cheese), crispy tajadas (plantain chips) or maduros (ripe plantains), with a vinegary cabbage slaw, and chilero, a hot but not burning mix of chopped onion and cabro chilli in vinegar.

In those days, the fritanga is very simple dish, a plantain leaf and piled up the gallo pinto, then the strips of meat, the slaw on top and then the tajadas.

Typical fritanga options include moronga (blood sausage), chorizo (spicy sausage), tortepapa, a battered potato cake filled with cheese, tacos, a deep fried tortilla tube with beef in the middle, and enchiladas, tortillas that are stuffed with rice and beef, folded in half, battered and deep fried. They are then reheated on the barbecue before being served.