Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Comida y agua

As I said on an earlier post, I wouldn't suggest coming to the Dominican Republic just for the food. To be fair, I'm not eating like a local - I'm nervous about eating street food and I'm a vegetarian. From past trips, I've learned that guidebooks can steer me away from mediocre restaurants and towards excellence, but in this case that plan only gets me so far. The guidebook names Santo Domingo the culinary capital of the country, and then most of the recommended restaurants are Italian or Mexican. These meals have been adequate: tasty, but I could have made better at home.

In addition, vegetables are not a prized part of the menu. You usually find a few pieces of tomato or carrot scattered around the plate, and that's about it. I panicked for several minutes in the grocery store because the produce section only had potatoes, onions, and plantains. I had just started to believe that the country survived solely on starch when my mother found a separate room in the grocery store where they apparently segregate the vegetables.

The bright spots of the cuisine have been anything with rum or plantains. Today we had ripe baked plantains with a sweet cream sauce. It was delicious, which was great, because along with white rice and some tomato slices, it was the only part of the meal I could eat.

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Until now I've never cooked in a country where I couldn't trust the water. I have increased respect for the cooks doing this all the time. It takes a lot of brain power. Remember to buy and carry home water for the day. Figure out how to safely clean the veggies. (I've been using soap and tap water, followed by a bottled water rinse, but I think I should be using a bleach water soak.) Guess when a plate is clean: after washing in tap water, do I have to let it air dry, or can I wipe it dry? When I grow weary of puzzling over water, I have a solution. I've introduce my mother to mojitos and that takes care of everything...

3 comments:

de-I said...

Or you can take a deep breath and play Gastrointestinal Roulette. Even after we had our food poisoning event in Vietnam, there was only so much obsessing about water and food safety we were going to do. After all the restaurants you are eating at all are using that water to cook with right?

It is very hard being a vegetarian in much of the world of noted especially if eating out. All of Latin America is very meat oriented in its cuisine.

Love the picture and hope you are having a good time otherwise.

Gill - UK said...

You both look as if you are enjoying yourselves.
How is your hand Bernice?

alexis said...

I second everything my father said. At some point you find your balance, otherwise the fear may prevent you from enjoying the rest of your trip. This coming from someone who got Deli Belly in India, I totally agree - you have no idea what the restaurants are doing.