Today

I will watch for ways to feel good. (thank you, Abraham!)


I woke, full knowing that I had made my usual chia seed pudding for breakfast, but almost desperately wanting what I had made for supper last night instead.


But before we do TODAY, let's talk a bit about yesterday. I can remember  the delight it was to pick out my bag of mushrooms from the box of them at Sana Farm Stand. It is always a pleasure to go there, as the people there seem to be infused with the goodness and grace and joy of the food that is there for us fortunates to procure. Baby bok choy was just one of the greens they had, a perfect taste coordinate with the mushrooms.

Keeping it simple; first, the just barely chopped mushrooms in a pan with a bit of avocado oil.
While the mushrooms just begin to cook, chop the ends off the bok choy.

Place on top of the already heated up mushrooms

When the mushrooms underneath are just beginning to caramelize (that's a fancy way to say- they are sticking, Michele!), add just a dash of tamari and enough water to just cover the bottom of the pan.

Cover, and cook until greens are just wilted. This baby bok choy was so fresh and young, it didn't take long for it to become tender and delicious.

Simply delicious! Last night I had it with a small amount of quinoa, but for breakfast today I had it as is.


FYI, I cooked this morning with this playing:
https://youtu.be/o47eVI92Kzs


And, I MUST thank my new friend Jose, who patiently drove this crazy old lady to Sana and all over town yesterday, gathering supplies.

Jose Rafael Montero Fernandez photo

A Visual Feast & No Clue

Important to remember that Life is about more than food....


The past few mornings, I have woken up BEFORE 8 AM, very unusual for me, and motivated to get out of bed and walk, doubly unusual. My long walk to town several days ago (no, I haven't written about that YET) pushed me beyond my usual physicality, quite successfully. I've been waiting for the stoved up shoe to drop and what has happened instead is this waking up and needing to walk. A slightly different listening to the body exercise than KNOWING I need a donut. Just sayin....

I decided beforehand that I was going to keep this short, about 30 minutes. I knew I wanted to explore a fork in the road I had not been before, and was expecting it to be up a hill, the hill, I can see off the end of the porch.

Looking up the hill from the end of the porch.

Indeed! The bare ground spot behind the tree in the middle is in fact in the backyard here.

Interesting to see the ocean in the distance on BOTH sides of the road!

Some bicyclists went by. Do they talk about the old lady with a cane, stumping the Hills of Rincon?

No matter, I'm in it for my health!

When I got home, I was more than ready to eat, so I put a pot of quinoa on, figuring that would be quick and filling with some coconut cream and some papaya on the side.

The only problem being- it wasn't a papaya!

A papaya has lots and lots of little round seeds, which this did not. It had a center single seed. Except for the shape of it- I could almost believe it's a mango, except I've never had a mango separate from its center seed for me this way before. And, although it was ripe, it was much tarter than a ripe mango. Hmmmmmm....? Did this stop me from eating it? Of course not!

My bowl of quinoa with a generous glob of coconut cream, topped with chunks of no clue fruit.

A tasty reward for my walk in the hills!

Mango-licious!

Trust me when I tell you this- until you have had a grown down the street ripe mango, you just haven't had a mango!

I'm not going to pretend that getting this into edible condition was easy....

After cutting it in half , skinning it and cutting it into pieces while avoiding the large center seed was a challenge,

"there must be an easier way than this" was something I thought frequently throughout this process.

Every time I licked my very juicy fingers, I became even more motivated to finish the job!

Yes, I ate the whole bowl full! And loved every delicious bite of it!

Methinks that Serpent in Eden did not use an apple  to tempt Eve, but a mango, peeled and cut up into slices, each piece dripping sweet, sweet goodness. Such temptation would be hard to resist! Fortunately for me, Paradise is not lost, but is, instead, recently gained.

Soursop!

  

 Eating a soursop was, for me,  a primeval experience, one the YouTube guy with a spoon really can't prepare you for.

I'm adding the links here, for reference. Though they don't really tell the whole story, YouTubes have been really helpful to me to figure out what to do with these foods that are totally unfamiliar to me.

https://youtu.be/ZXYdmPmJm9A

https://youtu.be/Mn4FlTzRdF0

 The unripe ones look like dragons, green with spikes all over them. A properly ripe one has turned brown/black, almost charred looking and looks like fruity road kill.

The young woman on the video is quite right, an unripe soursop tastes like a not great pineapple. See the difference when opened up below:

Unripe; slices nicely, but does indeed taste like an unimpressive pineapple, with a similar texture.

The skin is hard, sort of like avocado skin, but with muck inside . But, oh, what muck! Hard to describe the visual and textural experience. An introverted Furby whose hair clumps are slimey, not furry, filled with eyes. But delicious. I don't know how the guy with the spoon managed it. What worked for me was grabbing the slimy clumps and mouthing them til I could spit out the seeds, being careful to avoid the skin, which was capable of breaking into small pieces the way a charred baked potato skin might.

I am saving you from the selfie of me eating it, beyond the hand shot. Let's just say that if the movie Tom Jones is ever revised, that erotic eating scene needs to be shot in Puerto Rico, with soursop and passion fruit as the foods.

Half was a stretch to finish, it was a big one. It's supposed to be one of the healthiest foods on the planet. It certainly is one of the strangest that this gringa has ever encountered.

   The first time I ever tasted soursop was in a glass of juice at Café 413, in Rincon. Less messy and very tasty! But this down and dirty foodie keeps hoping that a now elderly TJ gets himself a plane  ticket to PR. I'll be waiting for him in Rincon!

A Little Passion

Fruit, that is....a little food porn from Puerto Rico today!

Passionfruit, or parcha, is something I first had as a juice. In a glass. Looking like juice in a glass...So, I was surprised to see what a whole passionfruit looks like.

Kind of a WTF! moment when I cut it open!

Fortunately, I was somewhat prepared by two things: 1. the internet (which was not very complementary about the taste, but did show someone spooning the insides out and eating them and 2. my regular breakfast of pond scum- that tasty concoction of coconut milk and chia seeds, eaten cold, mostly for breakfast, replacing hot oatmeal in this warm climate. I've gotten used to the texture of gelatinous seeds in liquid, or I might not have been quite so adventurous as to proceed further.

Yup, you just put that old spoon in there, scoop it out, and scarf it up! There are lots of seeds, but they are very edible (my mother's voice in my head saying "good roughage"). I've been told that they range from very tart to very sweet, depending on ripeness, and I would have to agree with that, with my small experience. They also come in different colors. The flavor is very like grapefruit, which also has that sweet/tart range.

I do know that they are totally addictive. The folks at Sana Farm Stand, where I got them suggested that I stock up, because they sell out quickly. Now I know I should have brought home a wheelbarrow full of them! They are SO GOOD!

And because there's more passion here than parcha, let's let Luis Fonsi and Yankee Daddy show you some of the other kind......slowly.....

https://youtu.be/kJQP7kiw5Fk

Breadfruit & KISZ

There's a breadfruit tree just outside the porch. While most of them are too high up to easily reach,there was one within grabbing distance, and I have been watching it in hopes of getting it while ripe,but before it fell on the ground. There are several Youtubes about harvesting and eating them.

             Proof that there is a difference between the internet and Real Life!

According to the internet, the streaks of white latex like material on the outside skin meant ripeness. What the internet didn't tell me was that cutting it from the tree at the stem would send a gush of said latex out the top of the stem like a geyser, getting all over my arm and hair. I almost fell down because I was laughing so hard. Sticky! OMG, so sticky!

Now that it was down from the tree, I found that the supposed ripeness did not translate to being able to skin and core it like it showed in the YouTube video. I did manage to cut it in half and put one half in a pot with water to boil. When it had cooked for a while, I was able to skin and core it and mash it  for supper last night, mostly thinking there has to be a better way. The flavor is lovely, much like potato, but slightly sweeter. I decided as I was eating my bowl of not great mash, that today would be a day for breadfruit homefries. 

The now peel-able and core-able remainder of the breadfruit half I cooked last night was

cut into chunks and sprinkled with paprika (like my mother used to do with her potatoes), and put in a medium heated pan with some-not too much-avocado oil.

These cooked while I did the rest...

the Keep It Simple Zucchini Side.....

I used half a good sized zucchini, grated (which is really easy, believe it or not!) and cut chunks of red pepper to add to the mix.

This somewhat soggy mix was put in the avocado oiled, heated other pan, smashed down a bit and left to crisp up and soften on medium heat.

Both of these cooking together at the same time worked out well. I stirred the breadfruit chunks occasionally, and made sure nothing was burning, but for the most part, it was benign neglect, with more success than my usual hard boiled eggs method. The breadfruit made excellent homefries, getting crisp on the outside, while nicely soft on the inside. The zucchini was a nice change from gets-to-be-boring steamed slices, and the red pepper is a great flavor enhancer for this rather bland vegetable.

This was both a nice combination and very yummy!

If you eat eggs, a couple of fried or poached eggs would be a good addition to this very plant-based, PR grown meal. Just need a cup of coffee to finish.....

I like mine cold and light with coconut milk, no sugar. How bout you?

Aubergine

I have a strange, wonderful,  minimal set up here in Rincon. No vehicle, so I either rent a car or catch a ride with a local taxi service once every week or 10 days. I live WAY UP on a hill, so even if I get adventurous about going for a walk down the hill, there's the UPhill journey to contend with as well. In the heat...

I am finding the heat most excellent for the pains that have ailed me for way too long. Sweating, and occasionally being uncomfortable and slightly lethargic, is still a good trade off for the debilitating MS and arthritis pain that was making me suicidal in Maine. No one should have to live that way. But hey, instead of 6 feet under, I moved to Paradise!


Switching to a vegan diet while still in Maine made that pain bearable. Not great, but bearable. But it's been pretty clear since the trip last April that this is where I need to be.

I frequently shop at Sana Farm Stand, a local organic seller right here in Rincon, next to the post office. That's where the eggplant was procured.https://www.facebook.com/PRODUCTOSSANAPR/

I cut the eggplant lengthwise into flat strips, and with very little oil, more seared than sauteed them. Texture was almost like a portobello this way. I cut into bite size pieces when cool.

I must admit that the avocado came from the Dominican Republic, not Puerto Rico. I'm told there will be plenty of ripe ones here in July, but this is what the local Econo had. I figure if people can come on boats and walk around Rincon, then I can use their avocados, not too far off from the neighborhood of origin. I cut up the avocado, using pieces, not mashed.

I separately mashed garlic with a little criolli seasoning, and  added lime juice, a whole lime's worth,

 and a splash of rum ( it's local, right?) with a bit of salt and a tiny bit of olive oil

 and stirred the dressing in thoroughly and let it sit for a bit. My intention was to set this up to be a cold meal in my very warm new home. I wasn't disappointed.

I added slices of tomatoes (yes, local!) and put it on a bed of lettuce and alfalfa sprouts. I ate it with toasted tortilla shells. Like a chunky whack-a-doo guacamole. Strange, but satisfying, the eggplant making it a full meal. If I'd had cilantro- I didn't- I'd have garnished it with that. Next time. My own has just started to grow....