So, I've decided to do two posts, one about the flavors of the Dominican, and one about the trip. Because one about both would take too long. This past July 17 people (including mi familia) went to the Dominican Republic on a mission trip. I'll tell you about the actual trip later but here's some flavorful highlights.
This my friends, this is a Malta Morena. It's pretty much un-fermented beer. It's really sweet, tastes kind of like molasses, but has no alcohol. It's really good in a bitter kind of way, it's not for the week of heart. That's for sure. I love it. It's actually a pretty good representation of some of the culture. A lot of Dominicans are very prideful of being Dominican, but also very show offy. Malta Morena is know as "children's beer," in other words its really strong, (but noon alcoholic) so someone who drinks it like nothing is considered strong. (or old, because the old folks are used to it). I have to drink it in small sips its so strong, guys will have competitions seeing who can chug one first. Competition is big down there.
This is a PASSION FRUIT POPSICLE, that's right, PASSION FRUIT. It was soooooooooo amazing.
For those of you have never had a passion fruit, its quite the delicious oddity. It's usually almost perfectly round, like an orange, but when you open it, it's full of little seeds covered in pulp (the fruit part). Honestly they look like frog eggs. It's EXTREMELY sour, but for some reason, when you add just a pinch of sugar, it's the most delicious and rich fruit you will ever taste. It's like the sourness disappears, leaving a tangy sweetness in its place. In the Dominican, passion fruit is a super popular juice and flavor for things like popsicles and candy. It's so odd, but so delicious once you get to know it. Sounds like we could learn a lesson, let's see.....Ah yes, don't judge a fruit by it's weirdness.
While we were there we did a VBS for kids in a poor area. The poverty there was not as bad as in some places, but most of children had never had simple things like their own school supplies. However because of the culture, and especially in the area we were in, the poeple always try and look heir best despite the lack of resources, especially when americanos come over. So of course each girl had her hair done and each boy had his best shoes on. And if I may so so, they had GREAT taste in shoes. See those converse? Yes, most likely... 99% likely... they are off brand, but still, I thought that was pretty awesome.
While working, we stayed at a center It was a boarding school. My grandmother (who is 70 something) went there as a child and she said there was a big tree. This is that same tree, only now its gigantic and over 70 years old. One thing I love about dominicans, is that they really have an appreciation for beauty and nature, at least out in the country they do (the city is full of business people). So the boarding school expanded around the tree. It's something they want to preserve, something that represents the stability of the school.
I'm sure you've all heard of orange soda, grape soda, strawberry, lime etc. all the usual ones. And sure jolly rancher will come out with the candy flavored sodas, but those are just a candy trying to sell more product. This is red rock, a brand of soda that sells two very special sodas. One called merengue and one that's green apple. Yes, green apple. A common flavor there apparently. And super delicious. I wish I had take a picture of Merengue. It was by far the best. It was like a peach orange color but the flavor was something unique. It had a hint of pineapple I believe, but I'll never know for sure. Merengue is originally a dance specific to the dominican republic, very fun, with a lot of variety, yet all known as merengue. I think it's a good name for the soda. It could be described as 100's of things, but simply, it's just merengue. You'll have to try for yourself to really understand.
Two dominicans just enjoying their usual jar of baby food. Wait, WHAT? That's what I thought. They bought a bunch of jars of fruit flavored baby food and ate them one night. It was odd, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
Our group, americanos and domincanos, eating and living it up. The food at the center was sooooooo good. One night I said that it was so good I was going to cry. Unfortunaltey I forgot about my blog. sorry, so no specific food pictures.At the center they also served us coffee and tea in the morning. The tea they made us was unlike any tea I've ever had. It was all natural. You may be thinking, aren't all teas natural Emily? Why, yes, yes they are. What I mean is that it wasn't from tea bags. They got a bunch of different roots and leaves that were typical to the area, boiled them together and BAM. One of the best teas I've ever tasted. Each morning I drank 2 to 3 cups. I think that's one of the things I miss the most from that place.
Like I was saying before, there was natural beauty everywhere.
This is Yaroa, it was kind of like, well kind of like nothing you've ever had. It might remind you of hamburger, if you're dominican, it might remind you of pastelon de platano. But to the people of santiago, it's simply Yaroa. A man that lives in Santiago made it up and it's extremely popular there now, but only in the city of Santiago. It was so good. It was fun to see how creative people can be and how proud they can be of their city, culture and people.
At the hotel we went to the last two days of the trip with the youth group, they had a "fruit punch" which I am very sad to say was more like syrup punch. So to fix it up I squeezed a passion fruit and dumped all the pulp covered seeds in there. It was quite good but the seeds kept going up the straw.
After the youth group left, my family went to meet with my aunt, her daughter, and her 2 nieces and 1 very awesome nephew, (from her husbands side, my uncle, so I don't know if they are technically related to us or not, but it doesn't matter, they are so awesome, I call em' all cousins anyways). And that hotel was much better, well really only in the food department. Anyways, they had tea in our rooms. That's right, not just coffee, TEA. The hotel and I were off to a great start.
