food - in the wild, in the supermarket

i am sitting here on our deck this morning and i spotted this little pineapple growing directly across the walkway from us. i have never seen a pineapple growing in its natural setting, so i felt like it was worth capturing on the blog. i would imagine that wilson will put a "do not touch sign" and a bag over it (like the bananas) soon. happy that i spotted it before that happened.

speaking of bananas, before coming here, i had never seen bananas growing in their natural setting either. in the supermarket or at the fruit stand guy, the bananas are on their stock and hanging. if you want bananas, you have to take a knife and cut off what you want. generally speaking, the bananas last only about 1-2 days as they are so ripe.

when i was in boston, i should have gone to bread & circus (or whole foods as they call it now) just to get a chuckle out of the pristine presentation of food. here at our local supermarket in cabarete, janet's, it sure is not pristine. the vegetables have dirt on them - sometimes a lot of dirt. you have to pick through the bunch to actually find a tomato, say, that is not overripe. i had never seen an overripe onion at the supermarket in the states or a "soft" potato for that matter. well at janet's, i often experience that. sometimes i find it scary to pick through the onions because i expect a nasty spider or something to be in there. i stick to the top layer in the onion bunch.

we can get some "normalcy" by going to the playero supermarket in sosua where some items are packaged and the vegetables and fruit are not so ripe. there even still it ain't bread & circus. the meat counter is a do it yourself affair for some meats. it's a bit like a buffet where you pick out your chicken yourself and then have the guy behind the counter weigh it. i have to ignore the thought of how many people have touched the tongs or perhaps even the chicken itself because why should they bother with tongs? never mind the deli counter staff wearing gloves.

speaking of foods, v has made some banana pancakes. so i am off to enjoy those now!