Chuck, smoothies have become the meal of choice over here. Tonight it's plain yogurt, a little cream, frozen bananas, frozen peaches and frozen pineapple, with honey and apple juice to thin it out to the consistency of a pretty thick shake.
Awesome. I've got to get back to where my blender is and get to work. I'm all set on the honey and yogurt and frozen fruit. I also found a place that sells soy milk. I'm not too big on regular milk. And I'm good on the Ron Abuelo, too.
I was in the produce market in Penonomé the other day. It's a humble affair but a great place to buy fruits and vegetables. If you don't buy anything too strange (like a big-ass guanabaná) you need to limit your spending to $10 or you will literally not be able to carry out what you buy. There is an insanely productive pair of valleys out west in Chiriquí where most of the country's produce is grown, but most of the produce in Penonomé seems to be local, straight from the home garden of the dude sitting in front of you. There are some things that are plainly not local like pibá, but most of it is, which I love.
Anyway, nobody had any pineapples. I know perfectly well that they should have pineapples and, unlike, say, melons, they're not really seasonal here meaning you can get them all year long. Nevertheless I know that there's a guy who stations himself down the road from the market with hundreds of pineapples in the back of his truck so I'm not worried. I get in the car and carry on, and as I approach the pineapple guy's spot, sure enough, there he is. He's talking with someone and as I pull up to to him with the window down he does not seem terribly possessed to engage me. I'm dangling a dollar bill out the window and usually he would select a big pineapple and hand it over and I'd be on my way. Not that day. Finally I get his attention and say, Hey, I'd like a pineapple. I don't have any he says. What?! I say, You have a whole truck full of them! Yeah, but they're small, none is dollar sized. I don't care, I answer, just give me two, yeah? He thinks about this for a moment and says, Mmm, three. OK, I say, three, you know, cool. He starts yanking the stalks off of some of them and before I know it he has a bag full that he's handing to me. Four! he says.
