With macaws and white-crowned parrots winging between rainforest copses and a steady rain drumbeating on the corrugated roof sheltering our group of a dozen-and-a-half adventurers, our host sliced into a freshly harvested palm with a twenty-four-inch machete. He quickly pared it down to its heart—a snow-white core the diameter of a quarter. With a smaller knife, the heart was sliced into thick chunks and passed around to each member of our group who waited for freshly cut lemon to be drizzled onto the succulent bites.
No sooner did we finish the fresh treats, we were hand-flattening cornmeal into rounds, mounding diced and sautéed heart of palm, onion, and who-knows-what-else, in the center of the meal and folding them over to be deep fried. One guest remarked (and no doubt many others were thinking) “That is the best empanada I have ever tasted!”
Washed down with fresh lemonade, our afternoon snack on the heart of palm tour is the perfect end to a heartwarming tour of a family-run plantation where love for land, country, and each other is felt in every story told and every bite served.
