Guess The Food Entry: Sopa de la Costa Atlantica

Churchill was fond of green sea turtle soup. The soup in the photo is the type of soup which would have been eaten by people in the Old World and undoubtedly Sir Winston himself. The soup pictured is not popular today amongst the Miskito Indians.

Turtle soup in the Old World in early times was not made with turtle meat nor those other turtle parts (e.g. organs, tripe, fat, blood, fins, eggs) which are generally the parts eaten on the Costa Atlantica today. Those parts of the turtle would not have survived the long voyage by sailing ships. Instead, the greenish gelatin-like parts located inside the outer edge of the shell - called calipee - and the more neutral-green gelatin-like parts of the bottom shell - called calapash (or carapace) - were cooked down into a thick, greenish colored soup.

Once sun dried, calapee and calapash can be stored for a very long time without significant loss of flavor. Therefore, this was a very desirable export from the turtle grounds of the Miskito Coast. There are also written historical descriptions of Miskito turtlemen paddling south from their own homelands to arrive at the turtle nesting grounds of Tortuguero, CR in order to slaughter thousands of egglaying greens simply to strip them of their calapee and calapash. This precious cargo would then be paddled back to their villages to await trading ships returning to the Old World. Most of the rest of the turtle (e.g. meat, organs, tripe, fat, eggs) were simply left on the beach to rot because the Indians could not devote precious cargo space in their tiny dugouts to carry products which had no economic value to them.

Today, international trade of Nicaraguan green sea turtles is prohibited. And, green sea turtles are harvested and sold only for local consumption. The locals prefer meat, tripe, fat, blood, and fins. But, they have little interest in the calapee or calapash. As a result, the entire shell and breast plate are usually simply discarded after the animal is slaughtered. This seems like an awful waste to me because the green sea turtle soup is delicious. However, I recommend eating a cup rather than a bowl of this stuff at a sitting because it is heavy stuff.

Only a few of the locals whom I have talked to have actually eaten calipee and calapash soup! In order to make this soup we had before dawn to an Indian family's home who was butchering a turtle to sell in the market that day. Once the animal was stripped of all saleable parts, the butcher chopped out the calipee and calapash with an axe from the shell and gave it to us at no cost. The parts are apparently never carried to sell in the market.

Please forgive me if I don't respond for a long time 'cause I may be back in Prinzapolka (eating turtle soup)! Regards, Mupitara