Rice, of all kinds

So the most asked questions of friends and family has been: How´s the food?

My response: Excellent (except for raw milk of course). I´ve always thought that I had the appetite of a pregnant woman cause I eat such weird combinations of food. However, I have since found people who eat weirder combinations that me. The Dominicans.

Major staple: rice. Now this could sound boring, since I´ve had white rice every since I´ve been here. But the possibilities are endless. Think of all the things Americans eat with carbs. Now substitute carbs with rice, and you´re in the DR. Mostly they eat rice with beans and some form of meat, like chicken, tuna, beef or some other form of fish that tastes like concentrated fishy flavor, maybe like what cat treats taste like (i nearly lost it on that one). However, they can get really creative and to be honest I´ve loved just about every combination. Some recent favorites include: rice with avocado, rice with banana, rice with what i think was okra (not really sure and since my Spanish classes never covered vegetable vocabulary, it´s not really worth asking) and my personal favorite, rice with beets.

Yes, rice with beets. I eat beets almost every day. Americans underestimate the beet. If I were to write an ode to a vegetable, it would be the beet. One, they´re colorful. Two, they´re juicy. Three, they´re sweet but not too sweet. Four, they go really well with rice. =) Betcha never thought you´d hear that!

I also eat rice every morning, that is, rice crispies (fyi- here they call all cereal ¨corn flakes¨). It all started when I was sick and they gave me rice crispies without milk (which, surprisingly, is as hard to eat as peanut butter). When I felt better, they gave me rice crispies with milk (from the carton of course, it´s ultra pasteurized and I think its like whole milk, so I use as little as possible). And since it´s easy and I love it, I now eat rice crispies at least once a day, if not for dinner too.

So that´s rice up to 3 times a day.