Post of the Day--A New Fruit--Toronja

It's funny how humans cling to the familiar. The other day someone gave Wil a fruit that looked to me somewhat like an orange. They have many different varieties of oranges here, so though it was green, I still assumed it was an orange. On the way home, Wil threw the fruit up in the air; sometimes he caught it on the way down, but a couple of times it landed on the ground. He seemed completely unconcerned. Then, when Wil was packing for Miches, I put the fruit near his bag. He saw it there and said, "I'm not carrying that thing with me. I don't even like them." I asked what it was, and he replied, "toronja." I asked if that was a kind of orange and Wil described it as not a lemon and not an orange but something like them. I told him it would have to be a new fruit for the blog. And, here it is:

This one was the size of a small to medium orange. The greenish/yellowish peel was your average citrus peel.

When I sliced through it, it was juicy (this could have something to do with the tenderizing it received from Wil the day before). There was not a strong smell, just mild citrus. But, once I tasted it, I knew what it was--not a lemon or an orange but something like that--a grapefruit! By the way, why do we call a grapefruit a grapefruit, it has nothing to do with grapes?

This grapefruit was a light yellow inside. It was also quite sweet, but with the tangy grapefruit flavor. Later, I was at the supermarket that is closer to our apartment (but not as good as Plaza Lama) and in the fruit aisle, there they were--toronjas. I guess I had just not noticed them before. The ones in the store were large like the grapefruits that I have seen before. Wil has probably avoided them in the store with me since he does not like them!

 We found a pink one on a recent hike near Miches.  It was much more sour than the yellow one.

Post of the Day: Empanada of the Day! Is that Cookie Dough??

Food carts have taken over Portland.  There have been several around downtown and even a few areas on the north and east side for awhile, but in the last year they have taken over.  There are food cart 'pods'.  I didn't know there was such a thing as a food cart pod until I visited Portland in August and September.  There is even a Food Carts Portland Guide for people like me to find the pods.

One such pod (which has been in existence for many years) has fried pies.  ECL said that we had to check them out, especially in light of my empanada lovin' ways.  It is also a great place to go late at night to people watch, drunk people watch.  We were sober watching drunks, but I'm sure it would be just as fun had we been drunks watching the drunks.

We set our sights on Whiffie's Fried Pies! and we were not disappointed. 

They had quite a menu, both savory and sweet.  Yum!!  I chose the Peanut Butter Cream.

The pie was smokin' hot when it was handed to me.  The crust was light and flaky.

The filling was bulging out of the fried pie. It had a taste of peanut butter cream with chocolate chips, but there was something else to it.

The fried pie tasted like raw chocolate chip cookie dough (which I love!) with melted chocolate...how wonderful is that combination? It is rich, creamy, and divine!

Post of the Day--A Trip to Chinatown

Wil was in town on Monday (11/22), so we headed over to Yimmy and Sandy's for lunch.  Yimmy was home for lunch, so we visited a little before he headed back to work at Baskin-Robbins.  Thanks to Yimmy, we had an incredible ice cream cake for dessert!  It was called Brownie A La Mode and it looked just like this:

 

momblognetwork.com

It was more than a little bit of awesomeness!

Wil, Sandy, and I spent the afternoon playing Stop, a game that you only need a pen and a piece of paper to play.   First, you create a chart on your paper that has 9 columns.  There are eight categories, including:  first name, last name, animal, country, fruit, celebrity, thing, and color.  The ninth column is for keeping score.  One person chooses a letter of the alphabet; all responses must begin with that letter.  Play continues until someone yells, "Stop!" signaling that they have completed all 8 categories (or that they are cheaters/tramposos.  This sometimes happens.).  If you are the only one with an answer deemed acceptable, you receive 100 points.  If you and another have the same answer, you receive 50 points.  It's a really fun game, in any language!

The men ready to hit the town, or at least Zona Colonial (the colonial city) for some coffee.  We headed to the other side of town during rush hour for some coffee; it was spontaneity at a crazy time of day.  But, about 40 minutes later on the guagua (public bus), we made it!

We exited the bus near La Duarte, which leads into Chinatown, which leads into Zona Colonial.  We took some time to pose with this cool lion.

The lion statue is under each side of the gates into Chinatown.  The moon was gorgeous that night.

As we walked, we came upon some ruins, I believe they are the Ruinas de San Francisco.  Obviously, my camera and I do not agree about how a night time shot should look, but the moon is nice.
 

Zona Colonial has a very European feeling to it.  It also is the most touristy part of Santo Domingo.  Sandy has a favorite coffee shop there.  In the photo, we have just enjoyed our coffee.

We walked on through the zone.  The streets were lively with laughter and cheer, and twinkling lights!

I did get a photo of the first cathedral in the Americas.  I was happy with this shot.

This is a photo of the gates to Chinatown as we were walking back.

Wil and Sandy found a sculpture to join.

Wil let his new friend borrow his hat.  He didn't seem to mind the hat, though he looks a little serious in the photo--he always does...

Wil gives the soldier a respectful bow.

As I sort of expected, we ended up at Sandy's favorite restaurant in Chinatown.  I believe I have been there 4 or 5 times in the last 5 weeks.  Thankfully, I agree that it is delicious!!

Restaurant Dragon I, catchy name, right?

As I entered, I heard Sandy, "hurry Joelfre, take a picture!"  He was holding himself up on the banisters.  Wil quickly turned around and found a way into the photo as well.  He made it look like he was holding Sandy up, but Sandy is doing it all by himself!

When we entered the restaurant, we found Joel and his cousin eating there.  We sat together and had a fun dinner.

Sandy and I after our evening in Chinatown!  It was fun to hang out with Wil and Sandy together.  We were just missing Yimmy!

Post of the Day--La Familia Highlights

Here are the photos from our visit to see Wil's family last Sunday.  We really did have a good time though we are still concerned for Domingo's recovery.

Wil's youngest brother, Jorffry, holding one of their cousin's children. 

 A little cousin; he is so darn cute!!

Jorffry looking cool!  Though I have not seen him very many times this trip, I feel like he is finally more comfortable talking to me.

Yunedy and Jorffry...brothers...

and friends most of the time!

Yunedy and a friend from the neighborhood, Louis.   Louis and his family are always really sweet to me.  He climbed a mango tree to get me a mango last summer.

This picture was not posed.  I like to sometimes catch people when they are just doing what they are doing.  Their curiosity and friendship is so endearing to me in this photo.

Wil, his cousin, and her son, Bombillo (a real character), looking at an old picture of Wil as a child.

Bombillo with Jeffrey, Louis' little brother.  These two should not be allowed to hang out together--they could really get into some trouble, ha!  They are precocious times way more than two!!!!

Post of the Day--A Wonderful Time of Thanks!

I decided to have a "Thanksgiving" dinner for Sandy and Yimmy. They have been such incredible hosts and I really wanted to thank them. The only bad part was that Wil was not able to be there since he was in Miches working.

As Thanksgiving approached, I became more excited! I started buying the items that I wanted. It was to be a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving with a few diversions. I'm not a big fan of sweet potatoes, but I thought they would be fun with brown sugar and marshmallows. I bought yautia, which in some descriptions online are described as a sweet potato.

The is the yautia after I boiled them.  I was peeling them and happy to see that they looked sort of like a sweet potato.

Though I had boiled them until I could put my fork in them, they still seemed too rooty or starchy to me...

I prepped them anyway, adding the butter and brown sugar.  I did this on Wednesday night.

They look like sweet potatoes!

I only took this photo to show a silly thing.  The only package of brown sugar in the store was 5 pounds.  Do you know how long 5 pounds of brown sugar would last me here??  Maybe forever...

Sandy said that he would come over early and that Yimmy would join us after work and the gym.  I wanted to enjoy the time with Sandy and not make him work, so I tried to have as much prepared beforehand as I could (this fits with my general personality, too--a little bit anal retentive).

Our relish tray.

The table settings.  Even Wil had a place at our table!

The shrimp cocktail.  Sandy and Yimmy really liked it!

Some avocado and sparkling wine...

The appetizer spread!  I decided to make a wine/cranberry juice cocktail--delicious!

The Happy Host!!

Yimmy and me.

Sandy and me...and Wil is there too, in spirit!

I found this picture when I was uploading them to the computer.  I guess Yimmy snuck a photo of his place setting.

Our little table of thanks!

I could not afford, nor did we need to have a turkey with no refrigeration, so I opted for a roasted chicken.  I made a wild rice stuffing that I love.  It turned out really juicy and tasty!!

Our buffet line.  Don't those sweet potatoes look yummy?  Well, they weren't.  The marshmallows were great, though.  I found out that the kind of sweet potato that I wanted is called a batata, not a yautia.  Oh well, I tried.  And Sandy and Yimmy both ate some.  They are very polite :)

As soon as we finished dinner, Sandy washed the dishes.  When I protested, he said that he was so tired and it would wake him up.  Well, we played some STOP! and he was falling asleep.  He fell asleep as I made the coffee.  

Yimmy made him wake up to taste the dessert, but he was pretty tired. We packed up the food so that they could put it in their refrigerator. We are going to take it with us today for Wil. Yes, all three of us are going to Miches for the weekend! I am really looking forward to it!

These were the desserts I purchased.  I bought guayaba (guava) empanadas and what I thought were cherry tarts.  They turned out to be guayaba as well, but a slightly different flavor from the empanadas.  Both of the treats were great!

I'm really glad I decided to have a Thanksgiving dinner.  It turned out really nice  and we all had a great time!   A Happy Thanksgiving, indeed!!!