Foraging for food

After picking up the car from our buddy Chepito, it was time to hit Super Desquento Morales. Now as posted before, Vieques is a small Caribbean island and everything is brought from the main island so....when you see it you buy it because it won't be there for long.Morales is by no means fancy so goin' there is great fun, and this where the challenge comes in.

Since our place comes with all the fixins' for breakfast and is re-stocked daily, breakfast is looked after, but what can we make for lunch and dinner in our suite? This is both a financial as well as a practical concern, and we will admit, a somewhat lazy decision.

Eating out can be expensive at the best of times so imagine on a small island. As well we enjoy a cocktail (or two, we are on holidays after all) once home from the beach.We admit to also having been known to accompany our meals with the odd bottle of wine, so driving on those narrow dark streets after dinner and trying to avoid the local wild horses, not to mention the partying locals around Easter, is totally out of the question.So most nights we stay in and cook. And it's a blast!!

What will we find at Morales this year and how can we work it....since we have no oven and only a two burner?
Well what good Puerto Rican family does not have oil for deep frying?
We are not big on fried foods, oh alright the odd french fry now and then, but we try to keep the fried stuff in moderation..but as they say "when in Rome"....

Chicken is always available so we picked up some Canola oil as well. Eggs are supplied at the hotel as well as bread. So using a little ingenuity we made bread crumbs with the use of the coffee bean grinder, also supplied by the hotel. Scramble some eggs, dip your chickie in the wet, then dip it in the dry and fry.The beauty of this is that we had never fried anything in our lives, let alone chicken. The dangers of hot oil as well as the ventilation issue in our apartment were of course the primary concern. But having watched enough Food Network T.V. knew we could do it......and, as for the ventilation issue, our place has no windows and the prevailing trade winds just blow it all away.Voila fried chicken for our first few lunches.

Now it can't be all about frying so...In the cold room at Morales the veg are not so bad, nothing fancy but one can always pick up eggplant, red peppers, cubanells, zucchini, onions, upon arrival.

As mentioned the hotel provides fresh bread on a daily basis. For your morning toast you are provided with a grill pan, perfect for not only toast but awesome for grilling all those veggies.....also a great tuna salad on greens with avocado, accompanied by the homemade bread, (not to mention the "Heinie") simple and sooo good and all available at the local Mercado.
The joys of foraging, discovering and eating what is available is one of our great pleasures wherever we are, at home or away.....yummm