Sizzling in the City

Boy is it hot, seriously hot and tomorrow will be no better. I’m chilling at home with the central air on high in every single room. I’m totally missing out on the 116th St. festival and the Puerto Rican Day Parade but I can’t say that I’m sorry. I hate crowds and chaos and with this heat, I’m getting on my own Boricuaness at home, thank you very much.

This morning I awoke from allergy medicine stupor and turned on the TV. Daisy Martinez was on and she was making Grilled Red Snapper, breadfruit tostones with ajilimojili sauce and Asparagus in Sour Orange vinaigrette.

My boyfriend who is Jamaican and Chinese loves red snapper, tostones and breadfruit. So I decided to make this today for dinner. I promptly jumped out of bed, had my cafe negro and headed off on my walk to my Pathmark. I figured I could get fresh fish there but took my chances finding the breadfruit for the tostones.

I’ve never had breadfruit tostones, only reg. ones so I really wanted to try these. I was also surprised to discover that breadfruit was same thing my mom referred to as panapen. I didn’t realize we had this also but according to Daisy, it’s a staple for most of the Caribbean. I also recently discovered that many people are taken aback by the thought of eating a fish with the head on, for most Caribbean this is par for the course.

Anyhow, suffice it to say – Pathmark had no breadfruit nor sour oranges so I bought plantains and regular oranges for my dish.

I also forgot to mention in my post about Jose Saramago that I also discovered this book: The Five Percenters: Islam, Hip-hop and the Gods of New York by Michael Muhammad Knight.

It looks really interesting, especially since I’ve always heard proud references to the Fiver Percenters from people my older sister’s age and up.

I will definitely have to look into it.

I also wanted to let every one that the International Latino Book Awards, were announced at this years’ Book Expo America. View pics at the digital pressroom

You can download the list here or browse it at lbff.us.

America Libre was selected as the Best Novel-Adventure or Drama-English, via Raul Ramos.

Tomorrow, Long Beach beckons!

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