Villa Panty

This past weekend was my first full weekend spent in La Romana with my host family. Since my host siblings are around my age, I was interested to see what weekend activities look like around here. On Saturday afternoon I went over to the house of my host sister's friend. We hung out for a bit talking with her family, and by the end of the visit we had been invited back for dinner that night.


First I need to address the title of this post, which does in fact translate to something like Panty Village. If I told you I spent Saturday night in panty village, what would you think? As is turns out, Villa Panty is actually a very nice neighborhood with beautiful houses that just happens to have many lingerie stores on its streets. When my host sister drove me by the dozen or so lingerie stores and told me that that's what the neighborhood was called, I thought she was kidding. It was not until I heard my host brother telling his friend that that's where we were going that I understood that people seriously, with a straight face, refer to this place as Villa Panty. And that is where my host sister's friend lives.


So I went with my host siblings, my host sister's boyfriend, and another friend to Villa Panty for dinner. We decided to make "frito," which is the general word for fried everything. First, we walked down to the nearest colmado. Colmados are small convenience stores that are everywhere in the DR. There are three within a block of my house, for example. At this particular colmado we bought green/unripe plantains to make tostones. When we got back to the house the girls taught me how to make them. 


Every time I've eaten tostones I've wondered why there is that poofy part on the outside. I soon found out that after you fry the plantain slices, you take them out and smush them so that the insides come out the sides, and then you fry them again so the whole thing gets cooked. This blew my mind, although in hindsight I don't know why I couldn't figure it out in the first place. We also fried longaniza, a type of sausage. Altogether it was a fun time, there were a bunch of friends and family hanging around the house so I got to interact with many different people even if i couldn't really understand what they were saying. And now I know how to cook at least one Dominican dish!