Coffee and Plantains

With an abundance of caution, we have postponed our planned trip to Monterey. This is a disappointment, both for us, my father and brother, but with the rising specter of the Corona virus prudence dictated that this trip should be delayed. We were going to go to Monterey this week, flying through San Jose, which could have been problematic all on its own. Fundamentally though, it seemed that undertaking this trip now, would needlessly endanger my family and us. The partially muzzled government warning to senior citizens like us about air travel, tipped the balance for this decision. Our next planned opportunity for a California visit is at the beginning June. We’ll be driving on that trip.

I guess that I’ll be milking the photos from our last trip to the Virgin Islands for a little while longer. On our last day there, we cooked plantains. The ones that we bought there were still pretty green, but on this last day, it was a now or never time. Peeling these green “bananas” was difficult, but we managed. We nuked them a little and then fried them in a lot of oil. After salting, they had the same consistency as do home fries, but with a definite banana-like flavoring.

We enjoyed this tasty morsel on our Air B&B’s back deck, where we breakfasted most mornings. This secluded place was arguably the best part of our lodgings. It overlooked an overgrown yard that was surrounded by trees. We saw quite a few tropical birds while sitting there and sipping our coffee.

I cooked plantains again, after we had returned to Saint Louis, but even though these were riper than the first ones were, they didn’t turnout quite as well the other ones did. I suspect that the problem was that I chose a can with too many ridges on its bottom, to squish the plantains. I’m not discouraged though. Anne found a NYT’s recipe for a more elaborate plantain based dish. Called Pastelón, it is a casserole dish of Puerto Rican origin. It sounds sort of like lasagna, with the plantains substituting for the pasta.

Continuing with the idea of an abundance of caution, we plan on dining in more now, than eating out. Spicing up the menu with dishes like this ought to go a long way towards relieving any menu monotony. Besides a lifestyle change like this could lead to far-reaching and permanent ramifications.

Unsurprisingly, this epidemic has in-addition to hosting viruses has also been a boon for hosting internet memes. Most of these memes involve the adaptation of something akin to Lady Macbeth’s fixation with washing her hands, “Out, damn spot! Out.” Examples include mottos like, “Wash your hands like you just sliced up jalapeños and now you have to change your contacts.” or “Wash your hands like you just lubed your bike chain, while wearing white jeans.” My favorite is derived from Neil Diamond’s popular song, Sweet Caroline:

Diamond: Hands,
CDC: Yes, wash them for at least 20 seconds.
Diamond: touching hands,
CDC: No! Please don’t touch hands!
Diamond: reaching out…
CDC: Avoid that, too!
Diamond: touching me…
CDC: Oh, Hell!
Diamond: Touching You!
CDC: We’re all doomed