I was once told by a friend from Barbados, who had lived in Dominica for a short while of course, that Dominicans like to eat bread, and at almost every meal. It seemed an odd statement because one never notices how weird a behavior is unless it’s pointed out or found to be non existance elsewhere. To me what’s weird is the full course meal Americans consume at dinner, like that’s a whole lunch right before bed!
But more to the point, that friend was absolutely right, back home breakfast equalled bread, lunch – if you weren’t cooking an actually meal – would most likely equal bread and supper is most definitely bread, unless it’s some sort of porridge (yeah I said porridge) like oatmeal, which now that I think about it, is also consumed with a side of bread. On top of that the best home made snacks include bread. We’re talking sandwiches, those cheap wanna be pizzas we make out of slice bread, or bakes which isn’t really bread but I mean fried dough is practically just bread with oil or a salty donut if you will (can’t remember the US equivalent but Google “bakes” and you’ll see what I’m referring too).
Even though for the most part I’ve adopted and adjusted quite well to the American ways of doing things there are still some habits you can’t shake. In this case, my decision to spend a summer putting things on toast, which although different from the freshly made variety we eat back home, is still just bread. And this only stood out to me when my camera roll of my most picture-ready meals comprised of you guessed it, toast! Most of which were just starch on starch which means honestly I owe someone from high school an apology for my disgust at finding out they ate bread with rice and beans, my bad, weirdness is relative so the fault was all mine.
I mean a few years later here I am eating white bean kale toast which didn’t sound appetizing when I came across the receipe but honestly I was wrong, this slaps!
And as someone who would eventually put sweet potato on a muffin I had no business calling out this man’s choices.
Which brings me to this, a Dominican classic (don’t take my word for it though I do be making stuff up), fried plantain and bread. Like sure fried plantain is more of a side dish but we make anything a main dish in Dominica by adding some bread, okay!
And let me tell you, fried plantain – done the right way – is life! Like I don’t think I can marry someone who doesn’t like fried plantains. If I can’t trust your taste buds then I sure can’t trust your decision making skills. Not having tried it is an entirely different story and as Aladdin put it I have no problem “sharing this whole new world with you”.
But diving further into the sweet category, I believe you can’t go wrong with caramelized cherries (I just stewed frozen ones till they thicken up), in the dish below I used hummus because it was a plant based summer but swap that out for brie cheese and you’re sure to do a little dance while eating this one.
Additionally, things don’t always have to be complicated, I spent so much time looking up vegan breakfast ideas only to be reminded that I could have a plain old PB&J sandwich. And feels free to spice it up with some blueberries or banana slices:
But also feel free to not, like why be extra when you can so easily be satisfied. I mean has plain pb&j ever looked so appealing? (I’m sure it has but humor me here!)
And finally a classic, avocado toast, with tomatoes of course. The low key superfruit of summer when it comes to cooking.
Which surpisingly isn’t a classic in Dominica where we refer to it as pear. Weird given that we grow it ourselves yet the first time I had guac was in the US and I immediately thought “eww, who would want to eat mashed up pear”? Then I tried it and realized the power of salt and a few seasonings.
That made it waaaaay better than eating it in raw, bland slices that had a weird texture in my opinion. The moral of the story being “don’t knock it till you try it with salt”.
