Sancocho Night with Francisca

On monday night, I had a quintessential Dominican experience.  Eddy's aunt Francisca invited us over for sancocho.  Sancocho is a very popular Dominican meal.  It is similar to stew and has a little bit of everything in it.  Usually sancocho is reserved for special occasions, probably because it takes a long time to make and also costs more to make because it has so many ingredients.  Eddy says that now I can be sure that Francisca loves me because she doesn't make sancocho for just anyone.  Everybody makes sancocho a little bit differently.  For this occasion, she made it with yuca, plantains, potatoes, carrots, chicken, beef, corn, and of course some mystery ingredients that I didn't ask about.  Now, when I say that it has chicken and beef, I mean big chunks of chicken and beef, bones and all.  And when I say that it had corn, I mean on the cob. 

So let's picture this for a second, I am there to eat sancocho with Eddy and his parents, and Francisca hands me a huge bowl, (full of these giant pieces of vegetables and meat) and a spoon...  How do you eat stew with corn on the cob in it with a spoon?  How do you eat stew with a chicken leg in it with a spoon?  and of course, I'm the guest, so I'm expected to eat first. I'm sure my face was priceless.  But, now I have started the process of  learning how to eat sancocho. With your bowl you have a big plate, first you put a huge helping of white rice on your plate and then some of your sancocho and then, of course, a few pieces of advocado.  The problem is that I am trying to eat with good table manners, which is impossible.  Every time I try to take a part of a gigantic piece of yuka or carrot with my spoon, I try to do it as carefully as possible so that my food doesn't go flying everywhere and as soon as I get halfway through it my spoon quickly cuts through the rest and crashes into the plate making a loud noise, which embarrasses me everytime, but everyone else finds hilarious. 

Francisca, being a the wonderful Dominican host that she is, doesn't even have a place set for herself.  She is busy running around and preparing things and bringing more and more food to the table.  At one point she came back with bananas, which I was expected to dip in my broth, I think.  The thing about Dominican moms (and aunts) is that they always tell you that you have not eaten enough and force you to eat more.  And when I pretend like I don't understand, they always tell Eddy to serve me more and tell me to eat it.  Also, sancocho is served very hot, which can be a little uncomfortable because I don't think it's ever less than 90 degrees here, and by the time you finish, all you want is a glass of cold water.  But apparently there is a rule that you can't drink cold water after eating sancocho for several minutes, and when you are finally allowed to, you may only drink small amounts at a time.  So there Eddy and I are with our little glasses as Francisca serves us 1/4 of a cup at a time of cold water.  At this point Eddy's parents leave and tell us to stay and talk to Francisca because "Francisca loves talking to Carolina" which is amazing to me because we can not understand each other at all.  But I do love talking to her too, so we stay and talk for a while and then, at the end of the evening, she gives me a sandwich-sized ziplock bag as a present.  Or as she called it, a 'fundito', which translates to 'little bag'. 

I thought my heart might burst with love for this woman.