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Spanish/Caribbean Food


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We had an Italian topic, I only thought it fair to have a Spanish/Caribbean food one :tongue0020: . Only because I'm biased! LOL.

 

Who has ever had this type of food? Raise yo' handz!

I absolutely LOVE it when my mother cooks. It never turns out bad, and it's amaaaazinnng. Real treat! I asked her the other day, "When did you start cooking?" She said, "Eleven." I was like " :mellow: WHAT!"

 

Anywho, my favorite dish is the stereotypical rice and beans :rolleyes: with fried plantains. It's a staple in our household. Always has been. It's versatile and relatively cheap to make, and rice is usually on most of our dishes. ^_^

 

Our rice and beans usually have meat in it, BUT they can just as easily be made without meat, as I made them here (for a Spanish project two years ago):

 

Rice and beans (or...Arroz con habichuelas [also, "frijoles"--depending on which country you're from]

 

Fried plantains (or...Platinos--can be made starchy or sweet ["tostones" or "maduros" respectively])

 

Has anyone tried this type of food? If so, what's your favorite dish? If not, what would you like to know?

:D

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Oh my goodness Lena, you are amazing for posting this :D I have tried plantains, and they are alright. I'm not really one for cooked fruit, but you know. I love latin/carribean food, but I admit that I haved tried as much of it as I want to! Last semester I went with our language lab to get REAL mexican food, and it was delicious :D my boyfriend was in heaven, and he was like (with his mouth full) "this reminds me of home!" NOM NOM NOM. There were taquitos, rice, beans, and other things, and this really good milk thing which I forget the name of but it was milk with cinnamon in it and possibly something else. VERY refreshing and super yummy!

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  • 1 month later...

Oh my goodness Lena, you are amazing for posting this :D I have tried plantains, and they are alright. I'm not really one for cooked fruit, but you know. I love latin/carribean food, but I admit that I haved tried as much of it as I want to! Last semester I went with our language lab to get REAL mexican food, and it was delicious :D There were taquitos, rice, beans, and other things, and this really good milk thing which I forget the name of but it was milk with cinnamon in it and possibly something else. VERY refreshing and super yummy!

 

Since I can think more clearly, I figured I wanted to bring some threads back and reply to others. Still not 100% yet, not for a while, but good enough to focus on my forum! :D

 

Ok, to reply to your post, Karen. That milk with cinnamon in it could quite possibly be "mazamorra" which is a milk drink. The base is milk, and there are several other ingredients in there as well. Corn is one of the main ingredients of the drink. Sometimes certain Latin people will put cinnamon in it. Others put a type of brown cane sugar to garnish and make it sweeter. I tried this about five months ago in the Colombian bakery in my town. It was very refreshing and cooling.

 

Was it this?

Because corn is so prevalent in Latin America, it's found in so many dishes. Occasionally, mazamorra can be a redish purple (made with purple maize [corn])

----

For my mother's birthday today, I walked to the Colombian bakery and bought three pastries. Relatively cheap, and very sweet, they are a guity pleasure. I had an English and Spanish conversation with the woman at the counter, who is Venezuelan, and the "abuelita" (older woman, who looked like she could be my grandma :D ) about the ingredients of the food and name for certain items in Colombian Spanish.

 

Each Spanish-speaking country has different names for the same dishes (varying ingredients sometimes) because of regional dialects. The word for "pastry" in Castillian (Spain) Spanish is "pastel" (which can also mean "cake"). In Venezuela, as this woman told me, it is "pastel". In Colombia, it is called "pañuelo".

 

I bought two turnovers: one apple, and one "arequipe" ("Dulce de Leche". "Arequipe" is the Colombian word for it).

Read about Arequipe here: "Arequipe" .

 

I shared a "Miloja" with my mom:

It didn't quite look like that, but basically was layered, flaky pastry dough filled with Dulce de Leche with confectioner's sugar dusted on top. Each family makes it slightly differently.

 

And I bought a drink called "Chicha Morada", which is a sweet and mildly flavoured drink. Sometimes it can be fermented just as beer is (same process), but its main ingredient is purple corn. Other fruit can be added to it, such as pineapple, grapes, and apples, and yuca (cassava). Azucar, or sugar, is also added to it.

Incidentally--or ironically, rather--I offered my mother to taste some of this drink. I told her what it was and she made this face: :mellow: . I asked her what was wrong and she said in Puerto Rican Spanish, people say "Chicha morada" to refer to red bugs. :0_0: .

I assure you all this drink does not contain bugs in it! :lol:

 

Picture:

Read more about it here: About Chicha Morada (Wiki)

 

Haven't had any of this in five months. Too much sugar for me :lostit: ! It was a special day, though. :P

I hope ya'll don't get too hungry :lol: .

Edited by Lena
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^ Will! How can you not like rice and beans? :puh:

I've grown up on it for 20 years, and I'm still crazy about it haha. Well, mom doesn't make it all the time anymore. :sob:

So, it's a treat when I get to have it! :excited:

Speaking of which, maybe I'll make rice and beans for myself tonight! Woooo hoooo.

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I want me some Spanish/Caribbean....and I'm not talking 'bout food... :P

 

=o! No comment. :D

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Hahahahaha.

 

Will, you aren't truly Domincan :P

 

I really really want to try Pasteles. I don't know if they have the same name in Spanish, but my friend from brasil calls them that.

 

Another thought: Consider the health factor of Spanish/Caribbean food. We're learning all about this stuff in my medical spanish class, such as the risk of diabetes, heart attacks, etc, because of the food.

 

Thoughts?

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  • 1 month later...

Food is one of the things that makes me proud of being Latina, the food is just mouthwatering...even other nationalities/races just can't resist our cooking skills! ;) I personally love everything: chimichangas, menudo, flautitas, posole, tamales...

 

Some of my top favorites are:

 

Popusas. A Salvadorean dish; it's a stuffed corn-tortilla usually served with curtido or spicy coleslaw. It's also filled with cheese, beans, chicken or pork!

 

Ropa vieja. It's a Cuban/Puerto Rican/Dominican Republic dish, but it's mostly known as a Cuban dish. It's mostly shredded meat in sauce, however in this pic it's served with black beans, yellow rice and juca plant.

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oh my gosh thank you for posting about popusas! I pass by a salvadorean restaurant every day on my way to work and im always like WHAT ARE THEY??? and now I know :D

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oh my gosh thank you for posting about popusas! I pass by a salvadorean restaurant every day on my way to work and im always like WHAT ARE THEY??? and now I know :D

 

They're seriously mouthwatering! Other Latin American countries have their own version of popusa, but El Salvador is the mother of all. They also have dessert called platano frito (or fried banana.) It's fried male banana (or platano macho) served with beans or sour cream! I much prefer sour cream, but it taste even more delicious with vanilla ice cream. Yum. :excited:

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  • 2 weeks later...

They're seriously mouthwatering! Other Latin American countries have their own version of popusa, but El Salvador is the mother of all. They also have dessert called platano frito (or fried banana.) It's fried male banana (or platano macho) served with beans or sour cream! I much prefer sour cream, but it taste even more delicious with vanilla ice cream. Yum. :excited:

 

whats the difference between a male banana and a female banana? or just male vs. other bananas?

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whats the difference between a male banana and a female banana? or just male vs. other bananas?

 

Sorry for the late reply, Karen. :P

 

The difference between male bananas and the rest is its size. They're are longer and have thicker skin than others. And normally a fully ripped male banana usually has pretty dark skin, but it doesn't mean it's rotting. Also when you peal its skin off, the color is also distinguished as it has a very light pink color to it.

 

To me the taste is sweeter too when eaten raw, but I much prefer it cooked. It's delicious.

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