Food!

by Vickie
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Jim and I got back to Santo Domingo Saturday, April 28^th, at around noon. We are very happy to be back with our first host family, in a clean house, a toilet with a seat, running water, and absolutely delicious food! Did I mention in the last post that Jim lost 15 pounds in the 5 weeks we were gone and I lost 10? We are now happily eating our way back to our former plumpness.

Speaking of food, I’ll tell you a little about the local specialties. Of course there is the daily rice and beans with maybe a little chicken or beef on the side.  But there are lots of really tasty foods, too. One of my favorites is fried platano. The platano is very sweet and when lightly sautéed in a little olive oil, it is like eating dessert. 

We just finished eating a tasty soup called “chambre” which just means vegetable soup. It’s a mixture of pumpkin, cabbage, carrots, white beans, and other  vegetables (like tayota) that we don’t have in Kentucky.  We eat lots of viveres—(vee-ver-es) which include all root foods and bananas – I guess generally any white, starchy food is a vivere. When mixed with herbs and topped with a little fried salami or cheese and sautéed onion, it can be quite delightful.  At the very least it fills you up pretty quickly.

One of my favorite treats has been a sort of sweet cornbread – but more like a cake in texture and sweetness.  It is cooked on top of the stove in a huge cake pan with a big hole in the middle. This is absolutely wonderful with a cup of steaming coffee in the mornings.  They do use the oven here – to store pots and pans in. Everything is cooked on top of a gas stove.  We are definitely purchasing a cake pan. The Peace Corps provides  a small 2 burner cook stove like the ones we use for camping.

But the absolute best thing about eating here in the Dominican Republic is the fruit. Fruit trees are everywhere: cherry trees, mango trees (and there are probably 20 varieties of mango – some for every season),  papaya, avocado (and you’ve never tasted an avocado like the ones here – AND they are huge), guayábana (sweet and tart at the same time – amazing), tamarindo (tart and refreshing). Esperanza just made us a papaya, pineapple mix with crushed ice. Heaven! We also get batidos – something like a milkshake – the best is lechosa-ca. That’s papaya mixed with Carnation and ice. Carnation is big here, but so is leche de vaca. That means cow’s milk straight from the cow. Of course, they have to boil it – but you should taste it in oatmeal with a ton of sugar and cinnamon.  Another early purchase will be a blender.

Everything here has a ton of sugar added and so I’ve stopped asking for café amargo – bitter coffee – because sweet coffee truly is so good and people look at you really funny if you drink bitter coffee. Everyone here uses a greca, which is what Jim and I have been using since we learned about it from our friend Karen. Wisely, we brought ours from home, so with a greca, blender, and cake pan, I think I can be pretty happy here.

I do miss some foods though. Granola for breakfast is unheard of. French fries, crackers,  cheese sandwiches,  fried viveres, Ramon noodle soup – those are pretty common – but granola or any kind of cereal really – except Corn Flakes (pronounced  CorFlakies) – not done.  No one eats peanuts or peanut butter, chocolate (even though the DR is a major exporter of cacao to countries like the US and Switzerland (Cadbury and Nestle are big buyers). 

Wine and beer are rare. People here actually drink El Presidents light – I guess it’s probably akin to Miller Light or Bush light – pretty awful. Jim has taken a liking to rum – which is cheap and plentiful – but I’d just as soon drink my Listerine – pronounced Leestereenie.)

What they do eat for dessert here is abichuela con dulce – that’s black beans with sugar and milk. I do not like abichuelas con dulce and I’m positive that I never will.  So, in light of this, one of my favorite things to do here is to go to a big box store like Walmart orTarget – here they are La Sirena and Jumbo – and walk up and down the food aisle imagining all the things I will be able to eat once Jim and I get our own place to live. 

Meanwhile, every day I can look forward to sweet coffee, fried platanos and a fruit drink or two!