Honduran cuisine has been a kind of fixation for me since a visit to the country many years ago, when I enjoyed Garifuna-style seafood soup; top-flight pupusas; and baleadas, which are similar to quesadillas, but typically made with a local variety of red beans and crema (the latter best enjoyed when purchased from a stall just outside of the loading zone of the Roatan airport). Only once have I since tried Honduran food, from a disappointing venture in central New Jersey.
We tried for all of these benchmark dishes at Mi Bella Honduras, a strip-mall joint on Pac. Highway South. Upon entry, one gets the impression the intended atmosphere is a sort of tropical sports bar, the walls decked with fishnets and mermaids and shells; there is also a counter selling Honduran pantry items, tourist trinkets and marijuana-themed bandanas (why not?)
The menu (pictured) is fairly extensive. After lodging our order, I was becalmed by the audible slapping of hecho a mano baleadas and pupusas being welded together. The pupusas proved to be of high quality, served, as standard, with a mellow cabbage curtido, as well as a very nice houemade encurtido de cebolla. The baleadas sencillas were also quickly devoured, though I am not sure they can match the memory of those from RTB. We also tried machuca garifuna, a rustic soup of mixed seafood and coconut milk poured over mashed green plantain, which dish was hearty if unexpectedly bland; some lashings of chile sauce helped it come together. The taste of Salva Vida beer made me reminisce over the happy holiday fading into the past.
If in the vicinity I would definitely return to Mi Bella. The happy hour deal on baleadas seems to be a good bet for a first-timer.
