dominican republic, part ii.

this is when i eat the chicken.
we took the longest walk to go to la casita de juana. we attempted it once before, but the streets are not lit, and we didn't want to venture into foreign neighborhoods after dark. it was a little scary. even the bars were seemingly not open.

so, we left the beach early and embarked on our food adventure, easily finding it the second time around. we ordered the dish we had read about: fried yuca with anise seeds. i am not a fan of licorice but this was a chewy, tasty treat. the anise tasted a lot like caraway, which i love.
keith ate some sort of fish soup. i have no idea what kind of fish. the woman in charge, presumably juana, told us about the fish, but it was unfamiliar, something local to the region.
i knew there might be a moment in this vacation where i might have to put my vegetarian ways aside. dominican food is not very conducive to vegetarian eating; it's pretty privileged. i am trying to be a better traveler and eat more local foods, and that means trying things that are outside my food realm.

we asked juana for the best item on the menu. she told us it would be the dominican chicken. that was the prevailing answer everywhere we went, and so i decided that this was my moment. i hadn't eaten chicken since i was 14, but i decided to go for it. there was nothing vegetarian on the menu anyhow, besides the yuca.

it was served on the bone with rice and pinto beans (which i am convinced were also not vegetarian, as i think there was pork in them). i ate it. and liked it. keith thinks that dominican chicken is a lot like filipino food. maybe there is something similar in places colonized by the spanish?
i over-thought the experience later and almost got sick as i thought about eating flesh. but i think it was worth it to eat the local food. really. i do.