Our friend and co-worker, Osvaldo, was born and raised in Rio San Juan. A few years ago, he and Kayla (a missionary here before us) met, fell in love, and got engaged. They are waiting on a visa so Osvaldo can live in the US. To say that Oswaldo is in for the culture shock of a lifetime is an understatement.
Yesterday, Osvaldo and I went to Puerto Plata for some work, and stopped at a "tourist" restaurant for lunch. I sat down and realized that he may not have ever eaten in a restaurant like this, let alone seen a menu like this. Dominicans eat rice and beans, chicken and fish. Every day, day in and day out, except Christmas, when someone kills a pig or two.
Osvaldo speaks English, but the menu didn't make sense. I commenced to describe all the items. "Thai chicken salad, chicken ceasar wrap, beef medallions in red sauce, coconut chicken curry..." the list goes on. The choices were new to Osvaldo, and I let him know that they did have rice and beans. He declined and decided to be adventurous.
"What is this?" he asked.
"Chicken pot pie... its chicken and vegetables in a bread crust - kind of like a big empanada."
"OK. I'll have that," he says.
The food arrives and we start to eat, and I can tell he is uncomfortable with this new food item.
"Do you like it?" I asked.
"Yes. It is very strange, but I think it will be better in a moment."
He then proceeded to drown his chicken pot pie in ketchup and continued eating happily.
"It's good - but much better with ketchup!"
I can't wait to take him to Chili's one day.
2 comments:
That's funny. Well written too. I didn't know that about Osvaldo. If you let me know how you guys are doing, I would really appreciate it!
Sometimes I feel like I am better off not knowing things like this. Haha, or, on the other hand, it's good to know since I am not the world's greatest cook, all I need to have is an industrial size bottle of ketchup in the fridge! Miss and love you guys....looking forward to less than a month from now.
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