The Rest of the Weekend

Saturday was spent running around, exploring the city. Amy and I caught a concho to Calle del Sol (street of the sun?), basically downtown. There are lots of shops and restaurants and street vendors. We explored some of the clothing and shoe stores for a while and then took another concho to Centro Leon, a kind of cultural center where they have art exhibitions and historical presentations. We were there to attend a presentation called "The Evolution of Merengue." Before the show started we ordered some food from the cafeteria there. An appetizer of three different dips and a side of tres leches (three milks) cake. It is this amazing yellow cake that you soak in a milk mixture and top with a whipped cream kind of topping. It was raining outside, so they had the presentation in a little room inside. We were looking forward to watching all of the dancing, but it ended up being more of a lecture with a little bit of dancing spaced throughout. It was fun to watch, but we decided we were glad we didn't pay for it.

After the presenation, Beth, Andrew, Amy, and I went to Isis' house again for dinner. It was so much fun and the food was so delicious. She's teaching us all kinds of tricks to Dominican cooking. She was making rice and half-way in she put a plastic bag on top with a little water on it and cooked it covered for another 10 minutes. It made the rice really light and fluffy. She also showed us how to make stuffed eggplant and slice yellow plantains for frying. Her mother has been visiting her the past week so we got to meet her, as well. She's from New York, like most Dominicans living in the US, and only gets to visit Isis once a year.

Today Amy and I are having more cooking adventures. We made our first batch of mangu and it was extremely successful. Mangu is like mashed potatoes, but with green plantains. We mixed in some garlic and cilantro, topped it with sauteed onions and vinegar, and put some fried salami on the side. A true Dominican breakfast. Amy is also trying to fix her jelly. Isis suggested just blending it up with more water to fix the consistency. We'll see. A lot of air got mixed with during the blending process, so we hope that doesn't ruin it. I am also in the process of making pera-pina juice. The name makes it sound like pear and pineapple juice, but it's actually just pineapple peels and rice. Everyone says it's soooo good, so we'll see. If it turns out, this will be a really cheap juice to make. Actually, it looks like it's done boiling, so I have to go take care of that. Thanks for all of your prayers and comments, everyone! Have a good week in the Lord!