Every day life should be appreciated more. Those endless trips to the gas station to fill up the tank? Be grateful you have a car. Those overwhelming traffic jams? Be grateful you have your legs. Those horrible dentist/doctors appointments for check-ups? Be grateful you have your health.
I wanted to show you an every day occurrence, a simple one that most of us do on a weekly basis: the produce section of my grocery store. Living in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, you become aware of the amazing produce we have, not found in most places. Enjoy the trip down the produce aisle, check out the prices I’ve converted from Dominican Pesos to US Dollars. The currency rate I used was US$1 = RD$37.
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| Zapote is US$ 0.80 cents a pound. Great in Milkshakes! |
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| Chayote is US$ 0.24 cents a pound. This is typical “diet” food in DR. I don’t appreciate it much! |
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| Beets remind me now of Jen from A Girl and Her Carrot. Beets are US$ 0.48 cents a pound. |
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| Colorful Peppers, great in stir fries! Red and Yellow Peppers are US$ 1.50 a pound. |
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| Green Plantains to make Tostones with are US$ 0.26 cents a pound while Ripe Yellow Plantains, which I love to make casseroles with are US$ 0.62 cents a pound! |
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| Dried Coconuts are US$ 0.72 cents each! |
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| Small and large mangoes are both great eaten fresh or in desserts! Prices range from US$ 0.53 to US$ 0.80 cents a pound! |
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| Take a Fresh Watermelon, cut it in half and soak with vodka. Happy Summer! These are US$ 0.53 cents a pound! |
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| How I wish I could ship some fresh Passion Fruit to Jessie, from Jessie Kaufman Photography in NYC?! These passionate lovelies are US$ 1.07 a pound! Great in jams, smoothies, curds and creams! |
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| Quail Eggs! Did not get to see the price. My Dad likes to eat these boiled and drizzled with honey. |
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| Need a great juice recipe? Juice Celery, Cucumbers and Pineapples. I swear by it. These sweet babies are only US$ 1.29 EACH! I remember on MV these being US$5 each! |
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| Dear Root Vegetables: I Love You. The sign says “Dear Customer, Please do not break the Yuca.” It is popular habit to hit the yuca against the basket/stand where it is and see if the inside is good. Thus, they ask us not to. Yes, that is dirt all over them. Yuca is US$ 0.45 cents a pound. Great peeled, boiled and served with sauteed white onions dressed with vinegar! Serve with a fried egg on the side and you have breakfast! |
Homework: What does YOUR produce aisle look like? Is there a special fruit or vegetable you love? Something you can only find in your hometown? Email me a picture at marnely at gmail dot com and I will post and them up in an upcoming post! Excited to see everyone’s produce aisle!
I just love all of the produce that you have available there! I actually like chayote sauteed in a little garlic and oil. Yum! I just don’t like the sticky feeling when I peel it.
Oh my gosh! This looks absolutely ah-mazing! I’m really jealous, we don’t have grocery stores like that here in Belgium!!! And I love yuca so much! It’s one of my fav things! I would eat it every day if it was easier to find here. <3
Amazing! Love the photos.
quail eggs! that is so crazy! they look huge! I can’t believe there are so many fruits and veggies I had no idea about!
Wow!Amazing! Looks like home!!! Colombia has great fruits and vegetables! I love zapote.
This was so interesting to see! You are so lucky to have so much fruit and veggies available to you! Do you find that most of the produce in your grocery store is grown in the Dominican Republic?
This was such a fun tour of the vegetable market!I loved seeing all the different fruits and veggies!
What a fantastic post! The pile of peppers had me drooling big time. Thanks for the shout out too! You rock sister!!
Hogs and quiches!!!
Heather
What gorgeous photos! I’m envious of all these things that I can’t easily get. I love going to asian and latin markets to try things that are new to me, but some of this stuff I can’t get at all. I seriously wish I could grab that passion fruit off the screen!
LOVE markets like this. I can almost smell all the fragrant fruits just by looking at your pics!
Fun post! I love visiting other places and checking out the markets. I’m headed to Oaxaca Mexico for a wedding this weekend, and can’t wait to hit the markets. I hear mole and chocolate are big specialties there. I’m also intrigued by your celery, cucumber pineapple juice. Yum!
Lol totally surprised by the link love. Thanks! And wish you could ship the passionfruit to ME =p!! What lovely bounty.
Love all the amazing fruits and veggies in The Dominican Republic (my family is from Santiago). It’s where I get my love of root veggies.
great post i love visiting grocery stores around the world
The quail eggs are gorgeous!
I tried to take a photo of pomegranates in the grocery store one time as part of a writing exercise. They practically escorted me out of the store. Guess they’re sensitive about that around here.
forgot to mention, love your mango link!!
sweetlife
great produce section..I love chayote..try it pickled gives it a whole new flavor..love the stack of quail eggs!!
sweetlife
So many beautiful fruits and veggies!
I love grocery stores!!! One of my favorite finds is a Buddha’s hand. They are really amazing looking and I have only seen them once in our local market. I also love getting lychees! I love their texture, color and even spitting out the seed
Thanks for a great post!
oh my, we don’t have yuca, zapate, passion fruit or chayote at our grocery markets!!! seriously, the produce seems so much fresher outside of the US.
thanks for the blog link to the sandia juice, querida~*
Amazing! What a huge produce section.
And it all looks exotic and delicious!
wowww what a lovely market..I wish I have something as big here..Love this post girl..keep them coming!!!!
I will get you a pic tomorrow, I wish I was going to the farmers market, I would love to share that:-) Love the pics, I want one of each please. I am definitely interested in trying the yucca recipe. AND that zapote sounds yummy! Thank you for sharing!
Hugs,
Terra