the FOOD entry

I have been getting requests from people (Geoff…mom), to write a blog entry about Dominican food. I am going to split it up by meal, and give examples of what I get to eat.

At some point there will be pictures to accompany this entry.

Breakfast:

Corn Flakes and Milk: Milk is just like milk in Europe, whole. And often served room temperature, but luckily I always get it cold.

Ham and Cheese Sandwich: Ham and cheese on roll type bread with a mayonnaise-ketchup spread, warmed on the grill.

Egg Sandwich: I have only gotten this once. It was scrambled eggs on “toast”.

Huevos Fritos: Fried eggs.

Breakfast usually includes one of the former and a glass of juice or chocolaty milk. And some fruit (usually pineapple).

Lunch: the main meal of the day, and the most delicious.

Moro: Rice and beans. Beans can be regular old habichuelas (red beans) or gandules (a kind of pea), sometimes they are whitish kidney beans in a carroty yellow broth, which is good too.

Meat: Usually either chicken or beef. Mixed with spices essentially cooked the Dominican way, which is literally how its described. Sometimes there are meatballs, those are good too.

Salad: iceburg lettuce, avocado, tomato. Very fresh, the avocados here are a) HUGE and b) delicious. Always.

Fritos: Fried plantains. DELICIOUS. Kind of like French fries, but better.

Platanos Maduros: Sweet cooked sliced over ripened plantains or bananas.

Lunch usually includes all of those things, sometimes there is also some pasta or soup instead of the meat. Essentially it is just a lot of good food. Usually at lunch we just drink water bc its during the heat of the day.

Dinner: I get the weirdest things for dinner sometimes. Very Dominican.

Mashed Potatoes and Salami: Literally mashed potatoes with salami on top.

Mangu and Salami, Mangu and Huevos Fritos: Mashed Plantains (Mangu) with Salami on top, or with fried eggs ontop. Sometimes its just Mangu with pickled onions ontop.

Mashed Yuca or just Yuca with Fried Eggs or Salami on top: Yuca, a very popular Dominican root vegetable, sometimes served mashed or just cut up. Kind of stringy, can be delicious, can also be horrible. If you ask a Dominican about Yuca they will list off all the many ways it can be eaten and all of its merits, trust me I have done it.

Fried Cheese: White soft cheese, fried. Yummy, sometimes served on mangu or mashed potato/yuka.

Dinner is one of those things, usually. If it isn’t the most delicious I have developed a good one gulp of juice one bite of food strategy that seems to work. Last night I got some smelly sardine type of fish ontop of yuka. I couldn’t eat it, which was awkward…so much for cultural food adjustment. Sorry dried whole bony fishies, I just cant eat you.

Fruit

I could probably write pages about all the delicious fruit that I get to eat here…so fresh and good. There are many a fruit merchant selling whole or cut up fruit on the street corners. They will cut it up for you on the spot, and the ones I have been too are very clean. Types of fruit include: Mango, Guineo (banana), Piña (pineapple), China (orange), Lechoza (papaya), Zapote (I really have no idea), Watermelon and Cantaloupe. Yummmmmm.

Other

Empanadas: Sold at a variety of random places, little shops etc. The place across from CIEE/FLACSO makes them for 30 pesos (less than $1 US) and you can get chicken, veggies and cheese, and they even have hot sauce for you! Hooray. They are amazingly delicious.

Platanitos: Plantain chips. Like potato chips. But better.

Chips: Lots of different flavors like: Limón (lime), Carne Asada (steak), Queso Blanco (white cheese) etc. I have not actually tried any of the different new flavors except for Limón.

Pierna: Pork sandwich, sold by street vendors. Like a hamburger type food, which some really good sauce, and veggies, very delicious.

Hamburgers and Hotdogs: Pretty Standard. Always smothered in ketchup and mayo. However for some reason when I walk to class at 10am everyone is eating hotdogs covered in Ketchup, Mayonnaise and Sauerkraut…at 10 in the morning… I still don’t understand.