Trying Local Foods

Learning about and trying local foods is high on our 'to do' list while we're in Puerto Rico.  Our local grocery store, just a 5-7 minute walk away, carries a modest supply of local produce. We're quickly becoming spoiled with the ability to have fresh mangoes, pineapple, bananas, and avocado almost every day. They are plentiful, inexpensive, and delicious. To our amusement, Karen and I find that we are becoming pineapple snobs. We prefer the smaller Puerto Rican pineapples with their more complex flavor to the larger and sweeter fruit from Costa Rica.

 Pineapple and mango fruit salad - a perennial favorite for all of us

As previously noted, the first weekend we were here, we stopped at a small fruit and vegetable stand near Arecibo where we bought bananas, pana fruta (breadfruit) and something we thought was a lime. We later found that it was a Puerto Rican orange - known as a China - which was also delicious. After looking at a number of recipes (boiled breadfruit, breadfruit with saltfish.....nope!), we decided to French fry our pana. We were surprised to find that the flesh turned color as soon as it hit the air so we submerged it in water (sort of like what you do with potatoes) while we prepared the hot pan.

We tossed the sliced pana in a little olive oil and salt and cooked them (next to the sweet potato fries we were also making) until they were crispy.

Karen and I thought they were good - they tasted sort of like bread and potatoes. The kids ate their 'no thank you' helping and decided that was enough for them.

Last night we made a Puerto Rican dish of black beans cooked with spices served over rice and topped with fried plantains and chunks of mango. Karen and I thought it was delicious. The kids liked it all except the plantains. Tonight we had the leftovers and found that a little added sofrito - a spicy sauce - was just the ticket. Unfortunately, we also found that leftover fried plantain is not a good idea. Or as Karen said, "Unlike revenge which is best served cold, fried plantain is best served hot."