It’s a simply mangotastic feeling at this time of year!  The mango trees are full and laden with heavy ripe mangos.  The supermarkets and corner colmado’s are bursting to the seams with this exotic King of Fruits and driving anywhere outside of the city and into the countryside you’ll discover buckets of them by the side of the road for sale. Mango Mania comes twice a year to the Dominican Republic and I’ve been collecting my old jam jars and boiling them till they shine like Swartzkoff Crystal ready for a delightful dollop of homemade chutney!

Oh the poker boys are in for a treat this week when they come round to the house! My husband, Captain Crunch, plays poker once a week with a group of chaps who take it in turns to go round to each others house, and when everyone piles round to Casa Mango Mamma I always make a steaming hot tongue twizzler of a curry (poker tactics for Captain Crunch you see - he’s had to put up with the ring of fire for many years and is an old timer at it!). Added to the fact I managed to unearth a hefty tin of Hot Madras curry powder in Playero supermarket in Sosua the other Saturday – Oh thank the Curry Gods and thanks to Playero for imported goods to the DR! And I can't wait to make my monkey chunky Mango Chutters - Bring it on!!

I also dug out a couple of recipes that I’m going to share with you and cannot take credit for.  They come from an old book written by a German man who used to live in the DR called, Heinz Meder, and his book is called “Tales of a Caribbean Isle - The Dominican Republic”.  I don’t think this book is actually in print anymore, however long haul people living on the north coast will remember Heinz and his wit, talent and passion and compassion for the DR which he made his home for many years.  It’s a simply beautiful little book with hand sketched illustrations and an absolute treasure to read.

Mango Mousse:
By Heinz Meder

Ingredients:
4 or 5 Ripe Mango’s, peeled and pitted
Juice of 2 limes
Quarter cup of fine sugar
1 Envelope of unflavored gelatin, dissolved in 2 table spoons of hot water
2 Egg whites, beaten
Quarter teaspoon of salt
Three quarters cup heavy cream
 

Method:
In a food processor, puree the mangos.  Add the lime juice, sugar and gelatin and briefly process to combine.
In a large bowl, combine the egg whites with the salt and beat until really stiff.
Gently fold the mango puree into the egg whites and do the same with the whipped cream.  Pour gently into one large or 8 individual serving bowls and refrigerate until the mousse is firm, about 3 hours.  Garnish with fresh mint leaves.
Serves 8

Danke Heinz! I have made this at home and it is zehr gut so give it a try yourselves, I also had to squeeze in this recipe of Heinz’s for Coconut Shrimp which as you can imagine, if eaten before the Mango Mousse you’re in for a delightful dinner ce soir!

Coconut Shrimps
By Heinz Meder

Ingredients:
1 and a Half Teaspoons sweet paprika
1 and a Half Teaspoons black pepper
2 Teaspoons of salt
1 Teaspoon garlic powder
1 and a Half Teaspoons dried oregano, crumbled
1 and a Half Teaspoons dried thyme, crumbled
1 Teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 12-ounce bottle of beer – Presidente of course!
1 and a Half cups of flour
1 Tablespoon baking soda
40-50 Medium, sized shrimp, peeled and de-veined but leave the tails on.
2 Cups shredded unsweetened coconut
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Combine all the spices in a small bowl. 
Whisk in a large bowl the beer, flour and baking soda to the consistency of a pancake batter.  Stir in the spice mixture.
Spread the coconut out on a plate.  Dip each shrimp into the batter, shake off any excess, and then roll in the coconut to cover.  Press the shrimp in the palm of your hand to make the coconut flakes stick.
In a deep fryer or large saucepan, heat the oil to 350 degrees F.
Drop the shrimp a few at a time into the hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 1 minute.  Drain on paper towels and serve on a bed of fresh lettuce.  Top with hot red pepper sauce if you like.
Serves 10 as an appetizer or 5 as an entrée.

I love this recipe for coconut shrimp and if you are a spicy chica like myself then you can always add a few chili flakes into the batter as well!

And just from my previous blog, here is a picture of an apple/butter tart pie I baked for the kids from Canada doing their chairty/aid/help work on the mountainside! This pie measured 2 foot by 1 and a half foot and was decorated with The Curly One's assistance as we used his prized Teddy Bear cutter to hide the places where the pastry had to be put in pieces for the top crust!

Here is Teddy Bear Pie! 

And nothing to do with anything really but a picture of some more really nice flowers from my flower garden here in the Dominican Republic!

What no blog for 2 weeks?? What has been going on I hear you all ask? To tell the absolute truth – my best friend arrived from England for a 2 week vacation (it was also my 40th birthday!) and so the whole house has been in uproar with some serious Caribbean capers and high jinks in full play! Easter holidays were 8 days this year as well from school, so it was great for The Curly One to have a week off and be spoilt rotten by his English aunty!  We also had a surprise guest from Canada up to Easter so we were bursting at the seams, but we all managed to fit in somehow and sleep after many Presidente’s – strange that!!

The BBQ took quite a hammering, the pool boy has been working over time and now finally on Monday morning after all guests have left I can fly my fingers over the keyboard and fill you in on what I’ve been up to.

Check out this pic below of my lovely Easter flower garden!
So here I am, sipping my English tea (thanks Anna!) and sighing with a little melancholy as the house regains its normal quietness and I try and get over my sudden home sickness which always happens when my friend leaves and I am left wondering “should I really be living here in the Dominican Republic?” when all long standing friends and of course family are thousands of miles away across the Atlantic! It will pass after a couple of days as it always does but even after 11 years those home sickness pangs still pop up and surprise me.

The weather has been fantastic though over the last few weeks, wonderful brilliant blue skies and breezy balmy nights.  Bars have been revisited that I have not been to in probably over 2 years, Dominican friends have been re found, a trip on the ocean was taken on the awesome Freestyle Catamarans, roulette was spun at night in Jack Tar Casino and taste buds were in over drive heaven from Thomas at Papillion’s Restaurant in Cofresi.  We also catered for 30 kids who are here in the Dominican Republic on a 2 week charity venture from Canada staying on the mountain tourist road one evening (in the most incredible setting that I will tell you about later) and do some serious Al Fresco cooking for them while my little boy had the time of his life running campo style through the meadows and hillsides!

Below is a very hung over picture of setting up the "Peavey Power Pack of Mischief" the morning after my birthday party!! 

And how could I forget the time and energy my fantastic friends devoted in throwing me a “surprise” 40th Birthday party last Saturday evening! Complete with posters of child hood shots, phallic birthday cake (yes!!) and a stunning surprise mega present that all my friends had chipped in for! I was given a Peavey 150 watt powered mixer transportable sound/pa system! In other words a blasting sonic sound system that you can transport as its folds away in a hard carrying case and you can do an impromptu band get together on the beach, karaoke night, sing along by the camp fire, plug in your Ipod at parties and dance all till dawn,…the list goes on and on!! As we are all a rather social bunch over here in the Dom Rep the “Peavey Power Pack of Mischief” will be traveling a lot I surmise in the near future!  Yes you do need somewhere to plug it in, but you know how resourceful we are in the DR and there is always a power supply in the unlikeliest of places that can be utilized! What power from a palm tree? “You ain’t seen nothing yet” as the famous BTO once sang!

The fair has come to town! Great excitement among the munchkin sized people who see it every morning on their way to Pre K.  Yes indeed the Fun Fair has arrived in Puerto Plata and taken root in the empty space, opposite Burger King and beside the Base Ball Stadium! We thought we would give it a whirl and take The Curly One who could barely contain his squealing delight as we drove down the hill to the fair!

Now as much as I love living here, Dominicans are not famed for their engineering skills so it was with great parental trepidation and much observing the baby rides before we went to the rusty red booth to buy a ticket for the tea cup ride! Only being a foot away from the ground and the tea cups being so tiny, it was given “the nod” so The Curly One ran ahead and claimed one for himself. After the other little cups were full of other little ones the ride was cranked up! A bit of a whirring sound ensued and after one full circle round, a bit of speed was obtained, not in Star Trek warp speed fashion but enough to have the other 3 or 4 year olds cling on to the turnie thing in the middle and let out belly fulls of laughter or judging by some of their little faces that could have been terror! There is something about a Fun Fair that evokes strong child hood memories, whether it is the smell of Candy Floss (yes we have that in the Dominican Republic) or the flashing lights, or seeing an old fashioned carousel (that was the next ride and it had to be a blue horse or else!) after visiting the Fun Fair in Puerto Plata, it appears that fair ground ride owners all seem to posses a universal slightly dodgy appearance! But the noise, the smells, the oil burning, the sweet toffee sugary scent in the air – it’s just pure nostalgia and I love it.

Whilst watching our little boy on the carousel, I felt a slight pull on my t.shirt and looked down to the source of the pulling and saw two little brothers.  They must have been only about 4 or 5 years of age and both pointed at the carousel and wanted to go on it.  “Por favor Donja” “Please lady”, I asked where their mum was and they pointed to a woman standing just to the right of us.  She apologized and called her boys back and shrugged her shoulders doing that Dominican wrinkly nose thing.  I gave her 2 extra tickets we had and their little eyes nearly popped out of their heads. I shared a smile with their mum as they waited for the ride to stop and run up themselves to choose their own horses. Yellow ones this time.

If you get time, take a walk to the fun fair, we went around 5.30ish before it got crowded and stayed for around an hour.  If you get time, go and buy a few extra tickets too from the rusty red booth.  If you get time share a smile with another mum which will last a lifetime.

Oh the joys of living next to a building site! Whilst those of you around the world may shudder at the mere thought – in reality it does have its moments! There is a house being constructed in the plot just up from our own (there is still a long narrow plot in between that I am hoping because of its particular narrowness – no one will buy!)and all weekend there have been deliveries of cement blocks, sand, piping, so trucks and diggers of all descriptions have been leaving their supplies and by a fraction of a millimeter just missing the overhead hanging telephone cable, which when we moved into our house only took  three months to be installed by one of the two phone companies on the island!  So you can imagine it is with great trepidation that I and my 3 yr old son (The Curly One) were watching from upstairs in the spare bedroom the antics of the building site next door.  A great guessing game for him (Bob the Builder style!) and a great guessing game for me (will the builders knock out the nerve centre of Mango Mammas Blog?).  I have to confess with only one nail biting incident where the phone cable got caught on the trucks “lift up bit” and it pulled taut in a twangy snapping style,  they were overall pretty fast and efficient. 

It took only 2 days for the foundations to be dug in – a whole swarm of spade clutching guys descended one morning and dug their hearts out in absolute baking heat (temps recently in the DR have heated up – summer is here!!), and now all the heavy construction is about to start!  I guess gone are my peaceful afternoons where The Curly One and I chatter and play in the back garden – for the time being at least.  Generally house construction is an incredibly short process in the Dominican Republic (if you have the funds that is) and to build a house from start to completion can take as little as 3 months and voila…there you have your brand spanking 3 bedroomed detached with swimming pool and ready planted garden-Genius!

We considered constructing our own house here after many years of living in rented properties on the north coast, but it’s one of those once in a life time projects where you HAVE to be on site for.  My husband’s Spanish is pretty diabolical to say the least and from a basic communication point I could feel disaster looming as I scanned the internet for house designs, building plans and the dream of a Shabby Chic beach wooden bleached house disappeared overnight as reality sunk in. Don’t get me wrong he’s a great at home DIY person where bobbing down to the local Ferreteria (hard ware store) can be accomplished on a Saturday morning with plenty of hand pointing and mime acting that Marcel Marceau would be proud of (just for a bag of nails) but we are talking about major construction here and I thought his arms would just wear out with all the use and daily waving about! Instead we scanned new builds – lots of them. 

Did I say lots of them? There has been a building explosion all over the Dominican Republic, even traveling down to Punta Cana twice a year I hardly recognize the place, and whilst living on the north coast my eagle beagle eye will normally spot any new construction, it still amazes me when driving down the main north coastal road, just how much building really is going on.  Mainly for residential use Cabarete the surfing Mecca of the Dominican Republic is a changed place.  Gorgeous beach fronted properties (all carrying a hefty price tag) are going up in rapid pace. Luxury condominiums on the beach, with pool and Jacuzzi and 3 en suite bathrooms (can these people not get enough water- do they save all their washing for when they come on holiday??)seem to be the order of the day, and exactly that, you have to order them.. In certain areas of Cabarete now there are waiting lists for these luxury beach fronted appointed apartments of up to 2 years! However not one to miss the chance to boast – we can see the ocean from our house too in Puerto Plata – ok you have to stand on the roof with an extension ladder – but it’s there!! Actually the beach is about a 5 minute drive away so I’m quite happy with that!

So very early this morning the builders arrived next door, round about 6.30am which is normal waking time in our household on a school morning anyway. I lay in bed for a nano second collecting my thoughts before Thomas the Tank Engine was pounded on my awakening brain, and compared the early morning sounds of people arriving to work.  It’s the same in any country really – what ever the language.  Stories are swapped from the weekend antics, guffaws of laughter bounce out and carry, coffee is passed around and then the clinking of tools and spade are picked up as the working day commences. (Hey good job I didn’t wake with a hang over this morning or this narrative would have an entirely different slant to it!) 

And upon leaving the house with The Curly One and one of the many dogs in tow that needed to go to the Doggy Parlor for a shear, once husband and tribe were settled in his car I waved goodbye in a bleary eyed motherly way from the front gate clutching extra strong Dominican caffeine and glugging it back in an embarrassing unmotherly way, was about to turn my back when the car wouldn’t start.  I was tempted to hide behind one of the many pillars that grace our car port and finish my coffee, but (and this is such a shallow thought) was I dressed appropriately to help push car in the middle of the street in front of the builders???? How could I even think that? How could I let the sisterhood down with such a lame pathetic thought? Is a dressing gown of 15 years complete with jam and threadbare non matching belty tie not good enough? Anyhow as I was mentally debating this thought, the builders from next door had already downed tools and had started to push the car uphill to jump start it.  So slinking behind the pillar I watched (partly relieved that I didn’t have to make such a fashion conscious decision at 7.15am this morning) and thanked the heavens for the builders being there! I am ashamed yes I am!!!!!  I am now going to self flagellate for half an hour – catch you later in the week…..

We had a BBQ last night. Living in the DR with pretty much warm weather all year all the BBQ takes quite a bashing.  Why go inside and dirty the stove and pots and pans when you can fire up the BBQ, enjoy a couple of glasses of vino Al Fresco and cook dinner at the same time.  The BBQ was donated by a kind friend of ours and it does have a couple of problems, like no gas control knobs – so it’s always a bit hit and miss when you crank the thing up! Keep kids and animals out of the way when the ignition ceremony takes place! Once said and done, it cooks perfectly though and is well worth the initial explosion. 

Gas or coal? My best friend over here uses coal and buys her “carbon” from a little man on his donkey in a huge sack. The donkey is not in the sack the coal is! Its way cheaper than buying the supermarket charcoal and has a nice smokey smell to it.  However they don’t have kids and can take a luxurious amount of time over their BBQ’ing whereas I need to rotate my porkers and chicken before 8.00pm so “The Curly One” can get to bed.

Often when meeting new “gringo’s” on the north coast I hear them bemoan the fact that they can find nothing to eat in the DR, there are no take aways, no fast food places, instead there are supermarkets and colmado’s (mini local markets) stuffed full of sun ripened veggies, meat counters full of free range meat and if you don’t like the local bread then there are plenty of German bakeries who have fantastic fresh loaves who also deliver to most of the big supermarkets.  It’s really just a case of knowing what you’re looking for and where to get it in the Dominican Republic. Also changing your mind set helps.  Cook and use what grows here and leave your McDonalds and Indian Restaurants behind you, welcome to the Caribbean the land of organic, fresh delicious food.  There’s no short cuts to cooking in the DR – it is peel, wash and cook, no ready salad bags I’m afraid but isn’t that why you moved here in the first place to get away from all that?? Anyhow to help you out a bit here is a BBQ hit list, go to the supermarket and have a “butchers” (sorry very bad British joke) for this stuff!

Chulettas – Chops you can buy these Fresh/Fresco or Smoked/Ahumado. Cerdo/Pork is massive here and the fresh pork chops are usually excellent.

Pollo – Chicken pronounce it “poyo”.  Pechuga/Breast can come off the bone sin hueso or on the bone/con hueso.

Costillos – Ribs.  The pork ribs are great.  You can buy fresh or smoked, we go for the smoked ones drowned in local Baldom BBQ Sauce.  You can find the BBQ Sauce in any supermarket and it is a third of the price of imported brands.

Res – Beef.  Look for a piece of red meat that has Grillado which means grill.  I have to confess that beef here is excellent however grilling or sticking it on the BBQ can sometimes turn it into shoe leather.  The best bit of beef to buy is a filete or fillet. It is more expensive but you can cut it into nice size pieces for BBQ’ing and freeze the rest, filete de res will always cook nice what ever you do with it. Same as filete de cerdo/pork fillet you can’t go wrong.

Pescado – Fish is available everywhere in the DR.  Look for local fish called Mero or Dorado, it’s a white fish, squeeze some lime juice on top and sprinkle salt and then just grill to perfection – takes minutes!
Hot Dogs are universal! Try a few brands out first to see what you like best!

If you’re on the north coast of the Dominican Republic the best supermarkets for meat are Jose Luis in Puerto Plata or Playero in Sosua and the same goes for best bread especially Playero Supermarket.  Salad greens can be found in Jose Luis, Tropical in Puerto Plata or Playero in Sosua. Don’t be shy about walking into a local colmado either – if you don’t know the Spanish then just point at what you want and have a laugh!

Meanwhile let me get outside and scrape off last nights carnivorous remains from my own BBQ and go clean up the garden.  It’s sugar cane burning time and there are huge pieces of what look like floaty black paper everywhere.  This stuff sticks to your clothes, curtains, smudges and won’t come off!!I suppose it is the equilvalant of Dominican snow! Speak to you all manana!
   

Living in the Dominican Republic is like using the words of Forrest Gump “A box of Chocolates,” meaning all the delicious favorite things from life can be found here and sweetly devoured whilst there will always remain a few chewy caramel chunks of life that stick to your teeth!
Having however lived here for eleven years I am now finding that I don’t need to pick as much caramel out of my teeth anymore (I have dentures – joking!) I now know which chocolates to eat quickly and which ones to put away for a rainy day!

I love living in the Dominican Republic and have made this fascinating Caribbean Island my choice of home, away from all things cold and blustery, away from all things familiar and familiarized and am generally very content to stick my feet into what ever the gentle Trade Winds of Life blow my way.

So how does a young girl (well once I was) from the congenial provinces of Stockport in the industrialized north of England happen to be living in the tropical trappings of paradise?  I contracted a rather virile strain of “Itchy Feet Syndrome” in my late twenties and sought to seek convalescence on said sunny island with plenty of beautiful beaches so my idle mind could soak up the sun of inspiration and my itchy feet could dance the night away to the pulsating rhythm of Merengue and my parched and sore throat could be soothed with the magical healing powers of rum. 

Well that was all a long time ago now as I am rapidly and scarily approaching my fortieth birthday, my feet are no longer itchy, I still sometimes get the occasional parched and sore throat but on the whole I can congratulate myself upon an astounding recovery of life! Ha!

With Mango Mama's Blog I can share my scrapbook of life and take you all by the hand through the deliciously tropical life I enjoy here in the DR  with my family, friends and animals and by keyboard, paw and print give you all an insight into what life is really all about in the Dom Rep.

My Old Home Town of Stockport-England

My New Home Town of Puerto Plata-Dominican Republic