Esto y Aquello

Puerto Rico was a wholly wonderful experience!  My two presentations went very well, so that was great.  But, what was especially great for me (and my wife) was that it was MY first experience in a truly Caribbean environment (my wife has had experiences there previously to our marriage).  It was visually very beautiful and striking.  Never having been in a tropical, island region before was wholly new for me.  

I was initially very wary of sunburn and excessive sun exposure.  I slathered my body head to toe each day in 50+ SPF sunscreen, and can happily report that I never burned at all!  It is rather interesting to me that with all that sunscreen on, I actually DID tan a reasonable amount, much more so than I have ever been able to do. 

Food was fun and amazing on several levels.  I ate a lot of delicious food with Puerto Rico-an spices and flair!  Many delightful bean dishes.  I also had a delightful, spicy pot-roast style dish that was truly inspired!  My wife, much more fond of meat dishes than me, had a few meals where there were samples of many meats as an entree.  One of her dishes that I tired a bit of, that was delicious (and surprisingly so for me) was a pulled-pork dish she had (I normally do not really like pork).  It was uniquely spiced and succulent!      

But, perhaps the biggest food surprise was that we had a new (to me) experience at what is called an "Asian Hot Pot" restaurant in Peurto Rico called "Denko Asian Eatery".  At this place, you would each order a soup "base" and proteins and vegetables of your choice and cook the soup at your table.  The food would be delivered by a funny/cute conveyor system that was akin to a modern "train" of sorts that would bring you materials and supplies.  My wife ordered a neutral base whereas mine was spicy.  She ordered shaved beef as her protein and I ordered soy.  But we also had a mountain of fresh vegetables each to add to our respective pots.  It was tremendously fun!  We also had edamame as an appetizer and an asparagus sushi roll as an appetizer.  For me, it was also very fun to order and have a "Lucky Buddah" beer (it was the most interesting sounding beer they had).  Never having one before, I was surprised to find the bottle itself was interesting:

So, overall, food was a joy in Puerto Rico!

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