Ir de Compras

¨Going shopping.

I´m living in an apartment, so I´ve had to go shopping for food and other necessities. Since I don´t have a car and have to walk everywhere, I´m having to make my purchases in small quantities, so that they are light enough to carry the 12 or so blocks back to the apartment. Now...going shopping in a new market is always a bit bewildering for me, since I have to figure out where everything is. Figuring out the names of things in the Spanish language is yet another challenge. Add to this mix the fact that almost nothing for sale looks like it does in the US -- and I have another adventure.

If you´ve ever been to a dollar store and looked at the food items and the household cleaners, etc. maybe you have noticed that nothing in a dollar store looks exactly like it does in a regular market. Either the brands are different, the packaging is weird, or the sizes are wrong -- in the absence of the familiar it becomes hard to find something I think I want. That´s the way it is in the supermarket in the DR. Nothing looks quite the way I expect it to.

There are at least two enormous markets within walking distance of the apartment. Both are something like a supermarket plus a Walmart plus a furniture store and a Macy´s all rolled into one. Oddly, for a city in the tropics, there is little local produce available for sale in the market. There is fruit available for sale in the city, but it´s mostly from fruit vendors in the streets. I have yet to see a mango for sale in one of the large markets, and only once have I seen pineapple for sale. Both seem to be available in abundance on the streets.

The other oddity (for me) is that the meat is cut differently. This morning in one market there was a ´California steak,´and a ´butterfly steak´for sale. Porterhouse, flank steak, round steak were no where to be found. The few times I´ve attempted to cook beef it has ended up approximately the taste and texture of the Rockport Sportwalkers I´ve been wearing most days. I´m guessing that long, slow cooking techniques are more common here, so tougher cuts are esteemed more. I also have the notion that the meat is not aged. At all. As in: cow yesterday, food today.

There is also the issue of vocabulary, of course. More than once I have had to begin a question to the sales personnel in the store with the phrase No sé la palabra en Español... I don´t know the word in Spanish. A sensible enough strategy, except that I don´t always understand the response -- an answer in Spanish to the effect of ¨Second aisle on the left -- no, sorry the right --just past the second escalator between domestics and laundry detergent¨ mumbled rapid-fire while walking away from the questioner (me) does not always lead me to find the desired item.

I´m not starving, in case any reader should happen to worry. In fact, I haven´t missed too many meals lately, although some of them have been comprised of foodstuffs I almost never eat at home: oatmeal, and PB and J to name two. Occasionally I do eat in a restaurant, which are abundant here. I´m ashamed to admit that once I even ate at the local McDonald´s, which is actually pretty upscale here. Having paid $425RDP -- over $7USD for a Big Mac combo --I decided I won´t be repeating that again.

The best and cheapest food is found in the simple family-run restaurants. Comida criolla is local fare and consists of something called La Bandera -- the flag. It´s a platter consisting of beans, white rice, and chicken with a side of salad (iceberg lettuce with faintly pink but mostly green tomatoes dressed with salad oil and white vinegar). Other local favorites include pica pollo, which is fried chicken with french fries -- a cardiologist´s nightmare. I have discovered that almost anything on the menu that´s identified as criolla or al estilo criollo is quite good. ¨Creole style¨ means in a sauce of tomato, onion, garlic, pepper, and herbs -- flavorful but not hot. Since I have committed to memory the Spanish for liver, kidney, and tripe, I think I´m safe from ordering something disgusting in creole sauce.

BTW, to my disappointment, Dominicans seem not to be big dessert eaters -- other than the occasional flan, most restaurants don´t seem to bother with sweets. There are local ice cream places that are quite good and not too expensive, but by the time I´ve had supper and cleaned up I´m in no mood to walk six blocks one way for an ice cream cone. The good news in that is that I won´t be losing my trim and boyish physique for overindulging in rich desserts.