Dominican Food Over Everything!

Dominicans are made of 50 percent platanos (plantains) and 50 percent Malta. I mean, not literally of course, but platanos and Malta are a huge part of the Dominican diet. A typical Dominican will eat platanos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! For breakfast, we cut the plantains and boil them with a pinch of salt for about 20 minutes. Plantains are like rice to us. In other words, platano compliments everything. An ideal breakfast is platano with salami and fried cheese- Not american cheese but a white cheese that is specifically for frying. Platano can also be mashed just like mashed potato ( my favorite way of eating platanos ). Mashed plantain is called mangu. It's made in the same way as boiled platano except you mash it after its cooked. Another popular way to make plantains is fried, known as toston. We cut the plantain to remove the peel and then cut it horizontally into about 6-7, 1 inch pieces of plantains,depending on how long the plantain is. Then we fry the platano for about a minute and a half and smash them with a utensil used to smash the tostones. Then we let them fry for a little longer and they are ready to eat! Tostones is considered a side, an addition to a dish. For dinner, the perfect dish is mofongo. After the plantain is cut, we fry it and then smash it. With either pieces of pork inside or shrimps on the side. The finished product looks like a small neat mountain of platano.

The perfect beverage with a Dominican meal is a Malta Morena ( a Dominican soft drink). "Malta" comes from the american term malt beverage which is made of primarily malted grains. The term morena is a warm way of saying dark skinned girl in spanish. ( My grandmother calls me morena) Malta Morena is sold in a glass bottle that makes it look like an alcoholic beverage but it is actually non-alcoholic.  A popular way to drink malta is with condensed milk, which makes it sweet.

When cooking and eating these meals I always feel like I'm back in Dominican republic, with my family and it  makes my heart warm! Dominican food over everything!! *Thumbs Up*