Dominican Fashion – The Colgate Maroon-Information

The primary occasion within the Africana, Latin, Asian and Native American (ALANA) Cultural Middle’s Cooking Across the World collection befell Tuesday and featured delicacies from the Dominican Republic. The occasion was coordinated by Colgate Psychological Well being Counselor and first-generation Dominican-American Stacy Araujo. 

First-year Mia Toribio-Lantigua is a global pupil who’s native to the Dominican Republic. She describes Dominican meals as a vibrant, multi-faceted artwork.

“It is rather colourful,” mentioned Toribio-Lantigua. “There are lots of seasonings [in the food], however it’s not spicy. It’s like an explosion of various seasonings. The Dominican Republic may be very colourful, not simply due to the seashores and the character, but in addition as a result of the folks have colourful souls.” 

The meals choice, fastidiously curated by Araujo, was actually each colourful and flavorful. 

The meal prominently featured a Latin American staple: plantains. Plantains are starchy, yellow fruit that belongs to the banana household. Whereas they give the impression of being virtually equivalent to bananas, they style rather more like potatoes except they’re ripened, through which case they purchase a sweeter style as they age. The plantains used for the meal have been chopped into slices, fried, flattened and fried once more. The frying course of remodeled the plantains from unassuming banana-like slices into scrumptious, crispy chips generally known as tostones, which retained the starchier taste of unripened plantains. Different parts of the meal included fried sausages and cheese, which college students may place on high of the tostones to create a bite-sized sandwich. 

The ultimate dish ready for the occasion was mangú, which additionally makes use of plantains, however the plantains are boiled after which mashed, in a course of much like making mashed potatoes. College students assisted in mashing the plantains, which have been mixed with salt, butter and onions. To enhance the array of meals, college students additionally helped put together a sauce composed of equal components mayonnaise and ketchup. 

The dinner as an entire obtained rave critiques from attendees, reminiscent of sophomore Jackson Moran. 

“The meals was superb,” mentioned Moran. “It had a really nice consistency and taste. The sauce on high was my favourite half – compliments to the cooks.” 

The occasion additionally served as an academic expertise, as freshman attendee Maya Khadem remarked. 

“I liked studying a bit about Dominican tradition by means of its meals,” mentioned Khadem. “I had a good time socializing whereas cooking; it was actually nice to do an exercise that I haven’t been in a position to participate in since I’ve been house.”

The Cooking Across the World collection will proceed to offer alternatives for college kids to eat, socialize, study and uncover new cultures. ALANA invitations college students to discover Ethiopian, Indian and Navajo delicacies and tradition all through the rest of the collection, which hosts its subsequent occasion on Oct. 24, that includes Ethiopian dishes.