50+ Lifestyles

Just Saying…

By Q.C. Jones

QC Jones Down in the Caribbean where King Mofongo Rules

Located some 1,014 air miles southeast of Miami-Dade County International Airport lies the island of Puerto Rico.   It’s a grueling 2 plus hours in a cramped jet with a limited cocktail selection, but QC Jones has taken on the task.  Here’s why. After some late night reading, I discovered that Puerto Rico is a U.S. possession. Won fair and square in the Spanish American War of 1898, Puerto Rico is an American possession and being a solid American, I felt it was my patriotic duty to make sure everything was ok.

Before we move along, let me toss out a little history.  Puerto Rico is surrounded by water: the Atlantic Ocean on the north and east, the Caribbean Sea on the south and west.  According to the park ranger giving tours of the old part of San Juan, the Atlantic Ocean currents pretty much run straight from Spain to Puerto Rico.  Christopher Columbus discovered the currents and subsequently discovered Puerto Rico on his second trip to the new world.

Forget the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. When old Chris came to America on his second trip the year following his famous “In 1492, Columbus sailed the oceans blue,” he brought along 17 ships and something like 1,500 Spaniards.  After bouncing around a couple of islands (Jamaica and Cuba), Columbus hit Puerto Rico, along with his able lieutenant Juan Ponce de Leon. Most of us remember Columbus for mistakenly confusing Cuba with Japan, and we remember Mr. de Leon for his fountain of youth adventures in Florida.

The Spanish loved Puerto Rico because the island featured plenty of fresh water, fresh food supplies and a protected harbor. Back in the day, it took a ship something like six or eight weeks to make the trip from Europe to the new world.  After living on water stored in musty wooden barrels and eating your 40th ration of stale hardtack, fresh water and a few green vegetables always came as a welcome treat.

Fully understanding this primal impulse to explore for food, we arrived on the island hungry. All our research on the food of Puerto Rico pointed toward a banana-shaped food called plantain.  Now, a true confession: until this visit, I often confused plantains with bananas, basically believing a plantain was nothing but a banana eaten green. Not the case, read on.

Unlike bananas which get soft with time, plantains stay hard.  Further, plantains aren’t sweet. If you close your eyes, you might imagine a hint of banana flavor, but it’s not the overwhelming flavor. Instead the flavor touches on the flavor of very solid cornbread.

It’s pretty hard to find a restaurant without some form of plantain. Fried plantain chips, served like French fries, are common everywhere. Sandwiches are served up using slices of plantain rather than bread. However, the reigning king of the plantain food chain is Mofongo. It does have a nice ring to it doesn’t it?

Mofongo pronounced as [mo’ fongo] is an Afro-Puerto Rican dish made from mashed fried plantains with salt, water and pork rinds added. The mash is shaped into a bowl which can then be filled with anything from stewed chicken or pork to shrimp and octopus goulash.  Once tried, I developed a bit of what could best be described as pseudo-monfongo dependence. Much to the horror of my cheeseburger loving wife, I found myself craving it several times per day. I began plotting out a strategy for enjoying mofongo once returned to the QCA. Long live king Mofongo!

Leaving sparkling waters and warm tropical breezes behind us, let’s talk Quad-Cities news.  February 18-20 will be the first Daytrotter Downs Music Festival.  This is a big deal. The QCA’s own Daytrotter.com has moved to their showcase building on the corner of Fourth and Brady Streets in Davenport.  For those of you who aren’t familiar let me fill you in on Daytrotter.

Daytrotter.com is a website which hosts music from independent bands from across the country. They have between seven and eight million visitors to their sight per year.  They are noted as the place for new bands to be discovered and develop a fan base.  The site’s founder Sean Moeller has made it his mission to bring music to our fair city. Over the past year, the number of small venue concerts has grown from a few to nearly a hundred showcase concerts per year. Most are small gatherings, with manageable crowds and start times that allow the attendees to make it to work the next day.

Let me encourage you to check out the festivities.  They probably won’t be serving mofongo at the snack bar, but it will still be worth the trip.

Just saying…