The Midwest does Santiago!

Melinda Keefe wins the prize for being the first person to say they want to come and visit us in the DR and actually making the trip!  Don’t worry though, we just got here so still have plenty of time for other visitors.  Melinda, from Iowa, and myself from Minnesota took on Santiago last week and had an authentic Dominican vacation.  No resorts for us, straight up city and exploring the life of the locals.  Turns out I am a local now!  I knew enough places to take Melinda to from my short time here and I was able to translate a lot and even barter for a better price at some shops.   It is not out of the ordinary for Americans to get ripped off (it’s already happened to me) but this past week I went around with confidence to haggle and tried to speak enough Spanish so no one would question that I lived here and wasn’t a tourist.  Tourists are few and far between in my city and I think I did pretty well at fitting in for only being here a month if I do say so myself.

OK so let’s begin!  Melinda arrived on Friday and we walked to one of the many salons for pedicures that only cost us $7.50!  We were stuck inside for dinner as my curtains were being installed that evening so we ordered from Las Campagnas (a local bakery and café) for dinner.  We made sure to order Melinda a quipe, being her first authentic Dominican food.  And yes we got delivery!  So many restaurants deliver here.

Saturday was the only day we really were touristy.  We went to Puerto Plata.  It was fun driving through the mountains and through all of the country towns.  The country has a lot of poverty with small run down homes.  People were always outside gathered together showing a sense of community there.  There were tons of Plantains being sold and even a couple young boys running through the rain naked! Upon arrival to Puerto Plata, the beach we found was kind of a bust.  It was filled with seaweed and the sun wasn’t even shining.  Although it’s hot here with or without the sun when you’re from the Midwest.  We decided to ditch the beach and head to Ocean World for it’s man-made beach, dolphin shows and a nice pool.  This was well worth the trip!  We went snorkeling, swimming, saw tigers and sharks, watched the dolphins and more.  It’s a nice stop if you’re ever in Puerto Plata.  Also the beaches on the resorts I’m sure are and seaweed free and nicer than the public beach I described.

tunnel in the mountain

The lovely countryside

At the Beach

 

At the pool

Snorkeling at Ocean World, Puerto Plata

How can I forget what we did next?  We rode a cable car to the top of the mountain!  I am terrified of heights and have no idea why I agreed to this.  I definitely shed a few tears and hung to the handles for dear life.  The guy assured me the cable car had been running for 33 years and never broke.  That was not comforting at all because 33 years is a long time and sounds like the perfect time to break. Could you imagine falling off the track and down the mountain or being stuck in that thing?!  Wow.  However the views of the land and ocean were breath taking and the same giant statue of Christ that is in Brazil was also at the top of the mountain in Santiago, DR.  Mind you, I am still not saying the statue or the views were with this little extravaganza but Jesus and Melinda enjoyed it.

We crammed over 20 people in there!

Seriously don't look down...although much was covered in fog...

Small piece of the view ( I wasn't in a picture taking mood)


Notice the mountain in the background, yep we went to the  top! 

This statue of Christ awaited us at the top of the mountain...you'd think holding his hand would have calmed my fear!

On Sunday we went to church and it was testimony meeting.  One guy that Jesus and I have been getting to know met Melinda prior to the service and when he bore his testimony, he translated it into English and looked right at her.  What a nice friend.  The remainder of the day we rested, made omelets and salami and hit the pool at my apartment.

On Monday Melinda and I checked out downtown Santiago.  We walked around several stores in the city.  We found a mall kind of place with lots of little shops and stands inside.  For those of you from Minneapolis, it reminds me of Mercado Central or the Global World Market on Lake Street.  This is where we haggled on prices and Melinda bought some Amber jewelry as Amber is in abundance here. We found out from our friend Jose, that lives here, that we did well on our bargaining and didn’t get ripped off for what we bought.  We also bought some matching colorful pants that I would have never bought in the states and stopped for ice cream at Bon which is the popular ice cream place here and oh so good. 

Tuesday Morning we went to the monument in Santiago.  This is probably the one actual touristy spot within my city.  We went as high up as was allowed and had a great view overlooking the city.

 

In the afternoon we did some more shopping to get ourselves Flan pans, and a tostonera for Melinda, all of which we put to use that evening. We also wanted to get some traditional Dominican candy for Melinda’s dad and someone directed us to a shop called Alta Gracia.  The only problem was no one else knew where this store was so it was a little tricky finding the place.  Turns out it is a small shop out of someone’s home and that’s why most people we asked didn’t know where it was.  It was interesting walking into the back of someone’s house with grandma washing fruit in a bucket on the floor and another lady showing us all the homemade dulces (Dominican candy) in her freezer.  Because everything was frozen or fresh, we weren’t able to ship it to Melinda’s dad but we got some goodness for ourselves.  The dulces are jars full of fruit and a sweet milk mixture.  We also grabbed some quarto leches…yes quarto not tres and it was all so delicious! 

Dulces

Making tostones

On Wednesday we grabbed an empanada from a local bakery and some macaroons from another.  I had a list of foods Melinda needed to try so we were busy snacking until we completed the list.  Then Wednesday afternoon Melinda was back on her way to the states.

What a great trip!  I got to do some things I hadn’t done yet and was so happy to see my friend who I hadn’t seen in a while.  Joaquin and Jesus were also troopers getting dragged along to various places but they liked it too.  Thank you Melinda and thank you for sharing your photos on facebook to show others what a fun place Santiago can be!

Flan and tostones 101

Let me begin by stating as fun as this was to make tutorials for my interested readers, I still do not like cooking and this will not become a cooking blog. However it was fun to try and I still enjoy reading your cooking endeavors!

Flan 101:

Flan is a dessert staple throughout Latin America with the Dominican Republic being one of the many countries to enjoy this treat. Jesus’s aunt Julia was in town and decided to show me how to make it! Today was my first attempt making flan alone.  Here's aunt Julia!

Ingredients: 5 eggs, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 1 can evaporated milk and I teaspoon vanilla.  You will also need about three big scoops of sugar for the caramel.

First thing you will need is this hand dandy flanera!  It’s a special flan pan that has a bunt shape on top for the flan with a pot for water on the bottom.  It’s like a double boiler.  I am sure you can be creative with this if you do not have a flanera.  It also needs a lid!

Step one: Add water to of the bottom of the flanera up to the line or just fill the bottom of a double boiler about half way.

Step two: mix eggs, two milks and vanilla together with electric mixer. If you do not have an electric mixer you can hand mix but will want to run it through a strainer later. Set bowl aside.

Step three:  heat up a frying pan and add the sugar.  Mix sugar constantly until all lumps disappear and it turns a clear brown color which is caramel.

Step four: Pour the caramel into the bunt part of the flanera.  This will be the flan’s topping.

Step five: Run the mixture you set aside through a strainer and into the bunt part of the pan right on top of the caramel.

                                               

Step six: cook on the stove with lid on for 25 minutes or 50 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Cook until you can poke it with a fork and it comes out clean.  I did the on the stove method and cooked it over 40 minutes and the fork was still not perfectly clean!  My aunt and I cooked it closer to 25 minutes and it was fine so practice makes perfect or she’s magic or maybe it finishes setting in the fridge...I have no idea, I just wanted to be sure the egg was cooked.

  Notice my fork is still not clean as it should be but I ran out of time and had to leave the house.

Step seven: Remove bunt pan from water basin and loosen edges with a knife including the center ring.  Let flan sit on counter about 15 minutes.

Step eight: Loosen the edges with a knife one more time and then turn flan over onto a plate so the caramel is now on top.

 

Step nine: Let sit in fridge overnight however I let it sit until I wanted to eat it which was only a few hours.

The verdict: It looked great and tasted great but it still had parts that were too soft.  I am thinking the problem may have been having the heat too low on the stove because I didn't want it to boil or burn.  I am guessing by using the double boiler I could have turned up the heat and it still wouldn't have burned the top pan like I was afraid of.  I guess I will try that next time to see if that makes the fork come out clean!

Tostones 101:

Tostones are fried plantains and another Dominican staple.  Even the Dominican baseball team is known for its’ platano power! These are the green plantains not the yellow and soft sweet ones made with brown sugar.  Those are called maduros. 

Step one: Peel the plantain.  This can be tricky.  One way to do it is to score the edges or corners and then peel with a knife the piece between the scoring.  See photo!  Or just take your knife to the plantain and do whatever it takes to get the thick green peel off while trying to keep the inside as smooth as possible.  Easier said than done!

Melinda was my cooking assistant for her Dominican vacation!

Step two: There are different ways to achieve the end result but I am going to explain the less greasy microwave method. Slice the plantain in half and microwave it for one to two minutes until it starts to get soft.  You should be able to smoosh it in the tostonera no problem as shown in step four.

Step three: Slice the plantain into small pieces that will become your tostones.  

Step four: Place plantain in your tostonera and smoosh it!  The photo has a tostonera made from wood but you can also get a metal one.  

If you do not have a tostonera, smoosh the plantain with the bottom of a glass so you get a round disc.  For some reason my tostones often don't turn out perfectly and they like to stick to the tostonera and turn into pieces rather than a nice disk.  Maybe I should try cooking spray or get more practice.  The first two photos shows what they should look like and the third photo shows some with problems.

  

 

Step five: Fry your little discs (tostones) in a substantial about of oil turning only once until they are softer and a yellow golden color!

 

Step six: Sprinkle on some salt and enjoy!  Personally I prefer to eat tostones with fried slices of salami and a ketchup/mayo mix for a dipping sauce.