21 July 2011

Puerto Rican Food and Beverage Tour

Many vacations center around the destinations: the beach, the rainforest, the birding spots, but one of my favorite parts of traveling to a new place is trying the new foods and drinks.  We sampled all that Puerto Rico had to offer and we came away with a lot of winners and only a handful of items that we didn't like very much.  I'll outline a few of the highlights below:  


The beer in Puerto Rico was always cold and delicous.  Now I can't say that it was some special microbrew or anything exotic but it always did the trick and satisfied a thirsty traveler.  In our hotel we had little micro cans of Coors, the national drink of the Puerto Rican olympic partner but mostly we drank Medalla while we were out.  Medalla is a good beer if you're looking for something simple and cold, this is like the light lagers of most Caribbean islands.  


The food was hearty and delicious.  I was always happy with the rice and meats but the beans were where the magic was at.  Those slow cooked beans that seemed like they had simmered for days were the best part of each meal.



The Mayo Ketchup condiment was found at every table.  Strangely I do not like mayo or ketchup but when combined it was like heaven on every meal.  I don't know what happened to me and once I found out that this delicious condiment was a combination of two things I disliked I was mortified.  Plus, who wants to admit that they put this on every meal.  Emily and I ate this condiment readily until one day we were at the grocery store and learned the truth about the pinkish sauce.  Oh Mayo Ketchup, it was nice knowing you but we can't be friends anymore, even if you do add garlic and make things taste better.


One of the biggest highlights of the trip was the drink you see below, yes that's a Painkiller and while on Vieques Emily and I consumed our fill of them.  Do you see that brown grated material on top, that's nutmeg and let me tell you, it's soooo delicious.  I could drink these every day of my life. 


Yuca chips and beer, I think this was our lunch one day on the beach.  It was better than you can imagine.  I've had chips like this before but never were they so crunchy and salty and perfect with an ice cold one.  Just seeing the photo below reminds me of blue ocean waves lapping on the shoreline and the taste of salt in my mouth.


When everything is going peachy you feel like you can try anything and it will be perfect but the Coco Rico was far from perfect, it was down right terrible and after 3 sips I sadly threw it away.  I know, a perfect waste of money but you couldn't pay me to drink this super sweet concoction.  Luckily, this was one of the few misses of the trip.


On our last day in San Juan I may have taken a few years off of my life by consuming the super-meaty tripleta sandwich.  It was divine and horrible all at once.  With each bite I thought my arteries were clogging but oh, I loved the triple meat sandwich with crunchy little shoestring chips ON the sandwich.  Yes, it was an extravagance but worth every morsel.  

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