What is Life like here? Part 2 - The Food

First, if I don't eat beans and rice again for about a month, I will be perfectly happy.  Because of the income level here, beans and rice are a staple of everyday life.  It was interesting that in the grocery store, there was an entire side of the aisle dedicated to rice and beans.  They don't sell them in little packages either.  The smallest I could buy was a 5 lb bag, and you could buy up to a 25 lb bag.  As far as beans, there were not quite the big beans, since rice is eaten more than beans.  I was surprised that there is a variety of beans eaten, rather than just one as in some Hispanic countries.  We were served black, red and pinto during our time here.  Here in the DR the main meal of the day is lunch.  One evening we wanted to go out to eat for an authentic Dominican dinner, only to find that there are no restaurants that serve a "Dominican" meal for dinner.  Here are some dishes that we did eat alot of:

1.  Tostones - this is green plantains that are sliced in little slices and then fried.  After they are fried, they are removed and pressed to make them flatten and then refried again.  These are not sweet, since the plantain is green.  Here is a picture of what they look like:

A typical Dominican meal "La Bandera" consist of meat (either chicken, beef, pork or goat), white rice, some kind of beans and a salad - at this restaurant the gentlemen knows Teresa so he always boils the salad for her or else we couldn't eat it

2.   Mofongo - this dish can be served several ways, but I will tell you about the way we had it served - it was served in what I would describe as a bowl similar to a french onion soup bowl.  It had mashed plantains in it, along with pork cracklings, onion and garlic.  It is then put into the bowl and baked with a layer of cheese over it.  Not my favorite, but my husband liked it.

3.  Water - although this is technically not a food, I will mention it here.  It may seem very strange to some that even the locals do not drink their water, and you may ask why?  If you think about the US, we have water treatment plans for every city.  One of the water supplies for Houston is Lake Conroe.  If you were asked to drink straight out of the lake, you would refuse due to it not being treated and it is so polluted.  But once it is treated you would be willing to drink it.  You have to remember that this is a third world country, without all the fancy technology we have in the states and other countries.  Sanitation and plumbing isn't quite the same.  Yesterday we were in a rural area of Moca and we noticed a new salami plant being built and we asked why would it  be built out here in the rural area.  The reply was so that they could allow their runoff run into the river.  This is a real problem here.   The sister mentioned that when she was rafting the river in the Jarabacoa area she noticed how beautiful everything was, and then they started rafting closer to town.  That is when her thoughts about the beauty changed.  She noticed that the outhouses and such were emptying into the river.  She said she will never raft that river again, do you blame her?  So everyone here buys bottled water or has a 5 gallon bottle delivered to their house for about 20 pesos, which is like 50 cents.  Even our bottled water I put 10 drops of the grapefruit seed extract in the bottle. 

4.  Chinola juice - this is the passion fruit that is squeezed into a juice.  I really liked it.

5.  Fruit - fruit is eaten with most every meal.  The one thing that you can buy here for a reasonable price is fruit.  Why, because it is not imported but grown here on the island.   We did take the precaution of soaking all of our fruit in distilled water and grapefruit seed extract for about 10 minutes prior to eating.  Because the crops here are watered by the runoffs of the rivers and such, you never know what has been put on your fruit before you get it.  Better to be safe than sorry, and I am happy to report none of us have been "sorry", if you know what I mean.

Here are some pictures of a road side farmer's market: