Cook's corner
>> Friday, November 4, 2011
Ahoy!
A few words from Andy the cook.
Dinner was a leg of pork I bought at the Mercado in the DR. Cap mentioned when she saw it that they’re famous for their smoked pork chops in these parts, but my trusty guide Ricardo neglected to mention that when we were in town. Dar. The pork leg was actually delicious, but once I trimmed off the fat there wasn’t as much of it as I expected. Of course the fat was the reason it tasted so good. It can seem strange after our genetically altered defatted Stateside pork to get a piece of meat that still looks and tastes like an animal. It can be a little disquieting, watching a guy in at-shirt and cowboy hat dismember a pig with a machete in a little booth in between the pineapples and a pile of squid the size of dachshunds. I made sure to cook it for four hours, but I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it at all. Maybe Brooke will edit me.
With the pork we had a chayote squash and boiled peeled potatoes and a papaya the size of a football, meltingly tender and delicious. I saved some for mid-rats along with some bread I baked and our gastronomic mainstay, sunflower butter.
Tomorrow we’ll have mangoes and passion fruit and our last two sapotes. Sapotes look like russet potatoes from the outside but when you cut them open they’re the color of pumpkins. There’s a black seed in the middle and the flesh tastes of almond paste, bananas, and coconut and god knows what else. Eating them can be a thrilling experience. We’re getting, as the kids would say, some really “sick” fruit. I just wish it didn’t all get ripe at the same time. In fact one of the reasons we don’t get this stuff back home is it doesn’t last, or travel well. We had some green bananas that had just a whiff of nutmeg aroma. I don’t suppose I’ll ever see them again, unless I come back. When the fruit is gone we’ll be back to our frozen and canned fruits and vegetables till we get to Saint Eustatias.
I can hardly wait to sample their bananas.
--Andy
A few words from Andy the cook.
Dinner was a leg of pork I bought at the Mercado in the DR. Cap mentioned when she saw it that they’re famous for their smoked pork chops in these parts, but my trusty guide Ricardo neglected to mention that when we were in town. Dar. The pork leg was actually delicious, but once I trimmed off the fat there wasn’t as much of it as I expected. Of course the fat was the reason it tasted so good. It can seem strange after our genetically altered defatted Stateside pork to get a piece of meat that still looks and tastes like an animal. It can be a little disquieting, watching a guy in at-shirt and cowboy hat dismember a pig with a machete in a little booth in between the pineapples and a pile of squid the size of dachshunds. I made sure to cook it for four hours, but I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it at all. Maybe Brooke will edit me.
With the pork we had a chayote squash and boiled peeled potatoes and a papaya the size of a football, meltingly tender and delicious. I saved some for mid-rats along with some bread I baked and our gastronomic mainstay, sunflower butter.
Tomorrow we’ll have mangoes and passion fruit and our last two sapotes. Sapotes look like russet potatoes from the outside but when you cut them open they’re the color of pumpkins. There’s a black seed in the middle and the flesh tastes of almond paste, bananas, and coconut and god knows what else. Eating them can be a thrilling experience. We’re getting, as the kids would say, some really “sick” fruit. I just wish it didn’t all get ripe at the same time. In fact one of the reasons we don’t get this stuff back home is it doesn’t last, or travel well. We had some green bananas that had just a whiff of nutmeg aroma. I don’t suppose I’ll ever see them again, unless I come back. When the fruit is gone we’ll be back to our frozen and canned fruits and vegetables till we get to Saint Eustatias.
I can hardly wait to sample their bananas.
--Andy
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