A WORD ON FOOD: BATIDOS

Liquid Caribbean Kisses

This pretty word is well known all over Latin America and to many in South Florida as well. It’s kind of a fruit milkshake and are as varied as the fruits of the current season.

Guanabana, Mamey, Atemoya, Coconut, Cherimoya, Mango, Pineapple, Banana, Tamarind and many others… all in their gorgeous colors and enticing fragrances are candidates for batidos! And oftentimes in mesmerizing combinations!

As with many foods and drinks that are found is such a large area they can be known by other names. One of the most common alternative words for batidos is licuados. In Mexico you would very likely see it named that way. As the experience of them made their way north they became also known as ‘smoothies’. The benefit of batidos or licuados is that they are more typically reliant more on fruit than on milk.

Put the pulp of any fruit or fruits in combination in an electric blender with a little ice, a splash of milk and hit the button. Moments later, in a frosty glass, delicious, healthy, delectable fruit beverage is waiting for you.

I first learned of batidos at the “El Cacique” restaurant in Key West in the early 1970’s. A brightly hand painted board over the ten or so stools and Formica counter advertised these tropical fruit shakes complete with cheerful pictures of these varied fruits.

It was all so exotic and alluring to me, a 19-year-old transplant from the Mid-West. But now I make them at our restaurant, or I’ll have them out when we are out shopping for goods all around Calle Ocho. It was in the frutería named “Palacio de Los Jugos” that I made my first connection with batidos up on the mainland. Rightfully named translated into English, “The Palace of Juices” is one sweet spot to go and sample them. If you haven't been you will find it a carnival of prepared foods, foods to purchase and take home to cook, spectacular raw and ripening fruits and tubers. If you are from South or Central America or some place in the Caribbean much of it will be familiar to you. But if you are not, it will likely seem engagingly exotic and yet still unquestionably beckoning. The owners hit upon a brilliant formula whether intentional or not to make converts who had no idea what guanabana, tamarind or mamey tasted like could get a ‘gateway’ experience to such fruit via the lusciousness of a well-made batido. Although that is not the only form of juice you will find. If you want it ‘straight up’ you can get them that way too.

We grew up sucking down milkshakes and malted milks much like most of North Americans. My mother worked in a small northern Illinois town when I was a teen. Nearby there was an old-fashioned ice cream parlor that sold fabulous malted milk creations in oversized glass goblets. I swooned over those gut busting mamas. But as my tastes grew broader and I traveled and learned more I also began to become more concerned about my health a bit the batidos gave me access to that ‘food-gasm’ of milkshakes… but with the upside of knowing I was getting some fruit packing good nutrition into my system in the bargain.

I’m Norman Van Aken and that’s my Word on Food ©.

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