Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Chapter 16 - FOOD AND PREPARATION

We have one small problem.  It is such a tiny problem that if they aren’t on the move, you don’t see them….ANTS!!!!  One must be very careful not to leave crumbs or anything sweet on the sink sideboards.  This small single sink is steel with a sideboard on each side.  The sideboards have grooves for drainage into the sink and are slightly slanted.  Mel does the dishes after the meal, and sets them on the sideboards to dry.  Each time I try to do a meal preparation, I have to do the ant dance around the countertop. One evening, she accidentally left a tiny piece of meat from the plate on the sideboard, and when I went to the sink in an hour or so, there were no less than 50 ants working on that tiny piece of meat.  It was a crumb of hamburger, and that is small, but it did collect the ants.
The food here is in great variety, especially fresh food.  There are no frozen vegetables that I have found as yet, but fresh are best.  I do miss the tiny green peas, but other things have replaced them.  I started my food prep by using the Tico philosophy that everything is centred by rice and beans.  Then I had some beans in a kettle on the stove for too long and they foamed and soured.  I haven’t done beans since.  I will get over it. 
I can still make a good curry and I have invited Rita and her husband Victor to come to eat dinner with us this coming Saturday evening.  I brought my cooking spices with me from Canada.  I put them all in different plastic bags and tucked them into my pots and pans.  That suitcase was very heavy, with the steel pots and cutlery.  I even placed my knife sharpener and daily whipper in with that grouping.  When I opened that bag, I found an inspection certificate from one airport or another (I think it was Texas) but nothing was missing.  There were inspection certificates in a few other cases as well.
The most important food is water.  The water here at the orchard is muy bueno….That is Spanish for so good it’s a miracle.  It isn’t very cold from the tap, but I like drinking at that temperature.  It almost sparkles.  It is fresh mountain water, with very little else in it.  Rita says they use little chlorine.  I haven’t found the gathering receptacle yet, but I have to rely on their good graces.  This country is very first rate at Green and Clean.  Their street sweepers are everywhere.  I only wish they had the network for recycling.  I hate to see paper products and what few tins we have, go into the garbage.
Also, the milk is delicious.  I haven’t enjoyed milk for years.  I was spoiled as a child with our own Jersey milk, and haven’t acquired a taste for milk since.  The milk here is great.  I use 2%, which I used to think was like chalk water, but this milk has flavour and body and I eat cereal most mornings, just to eat the bananas sliced on top.
Tonight we are going to have a vegetable dinner.  Green beans, jicama, a bit of plantain and some sliced tomatoes.  What a healthy way to live; fresh fragrant air, cool mountain water and fresh vegetables and fruit.  I can’t wait for mangoes.

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