comida typical

Before the long weekend, DMR and I were invited to dinner at the home of his former colleague Ms. R. Ms. R lives out in Bay Ridge and on the R train ride over, it occurred to me that I hadn't been to this part of Brooklyn (sans driving through it) in over 2 years! My boss, let's call him "Great Morning!" at the former workplace named for a vegetable moved to Bay Ridge shortly after I started. GM! would disappear for hours at a time on a daily basis and my coworkers and I just knew was home playing with his new dog. That job required me to traverse Manhattan and Kings County and on several occasions I thought about going into to Bay Ridge on the change I might bump into GM! and totally bust him. I digress.

Ms. R's husband cooked a typical Puerto Rican meal for us - red beans and rice, chicken and tostones. The chicken legs were super tender, with the meat easily falling off the bone. I had two drumsticks, DMR had three! Chunks of pork were cooked down with the beans, lending a savory smokiness. My favorite part of the meal were tostones. I've had plenty of platanos maduros in my day, but tostones were new to me. I love the way they're prepared. Green plantains are cut up and placed in a fryer for a bit. They're then taken out of the fryer and smashed to form a thinner disc and fried again. The result is an ultimate chip with a fantastically crisp exterior.

DMR and I did our best to clear our plates but we came up short as we had both been presented with a heaping mound of rice upon sitting down at the table. I was full for the next 24 hours.