Good news! Alvaro has arrived for a week long visit. This means nothing but lasagna, pizza, crepes, and as many other carb-heavy foods that we can try to cook in my to-be purchased toaster oven. Also, I get to show him my apartment, my University, and my new favorite 50+ year old aerobics teachers in the park (that's for another post). Plus, it'll be nice having some one else around to hang out with me on day-to-day things; you know, buying 3 mangoes for $1 at the mercado, trying to find a basil plant, and purchasing individual tomato sauce packets.
I thought of another Latin America-typical, but not so United States-typical things- ambulent sellers in the streets selling things to people in cars, taxis, and buses stopped at stoplights. I am personally well-aquainted with those ambulent sellers that happen to be of the variety that sell ice cream on the streets of Santiago, Valparaíso, and Viña as part of my Independent Research Project about informal economies and marginalization in Chile back in 2007. However, today I was surprised by a new item being sold in the streets- freshly baked pizza dough wrapped in plastic for facility of purchase on polluted, busy streets. I've been a long-term supporter of being able to buy an ice cream, a manicho bar, or some gum while I'm walking or even while in a taxi (although really, I've only bought something from the backseat of a taxi once, and that was a newspaper), but the pizza dough is taking things to a new extreme! Although admittedly, I do like this extreme.
What are you all buying on the streets these days? ha.
pizza dough? hmmmm....would you ever consider buying it?
ReplyDeletethis actually reminds me of 125th st. in harlem where you also buy a lot of ridiculous stuff. the weirdest thing i've heard of (but haven't seen) from my born-and-raised harlem coworkers? apparently some people will set up on the street with a bucket containing a super-strong mixed alcoholic drink and sell cups of it. these people are a little elusive because they have to be prepared to run from cops at any second!
i wonder if there are any common items sold in both places? in harlem some big items are shea butter, scented oils, pashmina scarves.
pizza dough on the streets is taking delicious to a whole new level.
ReplyDeleteFirst Grade Quote of the Day: "I have something to tell you...I think some kids are using blue violet crayons to correct their math, and you said to use purple..." --Siddarth
PS: Hi Alvi!
ReplyDeleteWe love the pizza dough from Trader Joe's and Barbara Foods. It also makes great cheesy bread sticks to dip in tomato sauce or soup. Liam and Nora also like to make cinnamon twists and dip them in yogurt. I'm inspired to pick up some more next time I'm shopping. The kids miss you and mention you regularly. Liam has grown an inch -- no kidding -- since you left. He is keeping a journal at school and writes out the date and occasionally a description of the cereal he ate for breakfast or of a favorite train. Nora constantly sings songs from school or makes up lyrics. Her latest: "Daffodillia" (over and over and then) "Philadelphia" (over and over).
ReplyDeleteI am trying to figure out if "pizza dough" is dough that you take home and roll out to make your own pizza, or if it is baked into breadsticks or other bread-like items and sold in pre-baked form. Either way, yum!
ReplyDeleteThere's a fellow at the top of Lieser who is still selling strawberries. Makes me think they must be imported as it has been way too wet to grow strawberries here. They do look good, though.
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