Hi,
We’ve noticed something about Dominican cuisine. There doesn’t seem to be any fat in the food.
And, since I’m American, I LIKE the way fat tastes. But, we’re adjusting. And I’m learning to enjoy eating in this way.
It’s taken awhile to figure out what’s to like about Dominican cooking, not that I’ve mastered the oeuvre. I have not. But I can get by in Spanish in a simple Dominican restaurant and I’m not starving in my own kitchen, even though Denise is back in DC for the month of February.
As it is at the moment, if it came out of our kitchen I made it. That’s a radical and not particularly welcome departure from our pattern of the last 20 years(overlooking 6 months of fast food while on the campaign trail in 1996.)
Some Dominican dishes are sort of nondescript, more like really efficient fuel than something one would eat for pleasure. Other foods that appear deceptively simple are a whole different world of flavor once you dig in.
Mostly the food isn’t heavily spiced and the spices available–at least those that I’ve found, aren’t very potent. I don’t think I’ll lose my appetite for spicy food, but I’ve certainly put it away for a while.
But, hey, let’s admit it: there’s a lot to be said for letting a chicken walk around and eat bugs and scraps and whatnot, and it’s not a bad thing to know the fisherman or the farmer. All of those things are unavoidable in Las Galeras, where commercial refrigeration is absent and prepared portions are unheard of.
However, the very best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten can be had in a little hole in the wall on the main drag in the town of Samana. They roll up the metal door and there you are in the dining room, 6 feet from the pop, whine and backfire of the ubiquitous motoconchos and the unrelenting honk of horns and the belching of truly impressive clouds of sooty diesel exhaust. But the fried chicken is absolutely perfect.
We’re the only gringos in the place, and I’m generally one of a few men without the obvious butt of a semi-automatic sticking out of my waisteband. It seems to be where the local businessmen go for lunch.
Did I mention that the fried chicken is outrageously good? It’s cheap, too, which is something that cannot generally be said for restaurant fare in the RD.
There’s not much sugar in the food, either, although I compensate pretty heavily with unrefined sugar in my pretty stout coffee.
We’ve both lost a fair amount of weight without really trying. I feel better than I have in years.
Bill
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Tags: Denise Hanna, Dominican Republic, Labor Union, Las Galeras, Living in the Dominican Republic, Retire, Retirement, Samana
1 Comment on No Fat in the Food
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I actually lost 30 pounds over the 5 months that I spent in Las Galeras, without specifically trying.