The "Make Mine A Mofongo" Story

The Mi Casita Restaurant in San Juan.

It was an ordinary day.  Examining the Mofongo that my wife Carol and our friend Just Sue have sitting in front of them.  Our first evening in San Juan, Puerto Rico and we decided to walk the neighborhood around our hotel to see what we could find that might be authentic Peurto Rican food.  Found this little restaurant called Mi Casita on a strip mall across the street from the Intercontinental Hotel where we are staying for ten days.  

Menu showing the varieties of Mofongo.
Click to enlarge.

Carol and Just Sue made their selection of Mofongo from the eight types that are offered on the restaurant's menu.  Guess I should give you an idea of what Mofongo really is:  Mofongo is an Afro-Puerto Rican fried plantain-based dish that is typically made with fried green plantains mashed together with a wooden mortar and pestle with broth, garlic, olive oil, and pork cracklings or bits of bacon.  It can be filled with vegetables, chicken, crab, shrimp, or beef and is often served with fried meat and chicken broth soup.  The meal has it roots in the west African Fufu which is made from various starchy vegetables and was introduced to the Caribbean by Africans in the Spanish New World colonies such as Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.  

Carol's Mofongo with pork.

The varieties offered on the menu at the Mi Casita were Mofongo: with fried pork meat, stuffed with beefsteak, stuffed with chicken, stuffed with red snapper, stuffed with shrimps, stuffed with octopus, stuffed with conch or stuffed with lobster.  Carol selected the Mofongo with fried pork meat while Just Sue selected the Mofongo stuffed with beefsteak.  As you can see from the photos, the meal comes with a mound of Mofongo that more than likely was stuffed with these meats, but also had some of the meat surrounding the mound of plantains.  

Just Sue's Mofongo with beef.

Carol reported that it tasted like Stove-Top Stuffing while Sue wasn't sure exactly what to compare it to.  As for Just Sue's husband Jerry, he chose the Octopus Salad and I was a bit more conservative with my Lasagna which I must admit was some of the best I have ever eaten.  The wait-staff was fantastic and stopped often to check on us and talk about the many varieties of Puerto Rican food they serve in their restaurant.  We did make two more stops at the restaurant, but no one chose the Mofongo again.  To me it looked like a pile of mush and didn't look very appetizing.  Lucky for me that I didn't order it on the first evening.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.The "Make

The "Legend of the Coqui" Story

The really neat Coqui Frog.

It was an ordinary day.  Leaving our resort to find a place to eat our evening meal and are being bombarded with the sound of the Coqui Frog.  It is a species of the Eleutherodactylus genus, meaning "free toes" in Greek.  The small frog, which I have never seen on any of the islands I have visited in the Caribbean, are commonly known as the Coqui which is descriptive of the unique sound made by only two species of frogs.  Some call them the tree frog, since they inhabit the trees and when you pass a tree at night you are treated to the chirping sound they make.  Pass through a wooded area that is inhabited with hundreds of these frogs and it is deafening, even without my hearing aides turned on!  There are 16 species of Coqui frogs native to Puerto Rico including one that was just discovered in 2005.  Since I have never seen one I only know what they look like from photographs I have seen.  They are extremely small and their colors include brown, green and yellow and have small pads at the tips of their toes.  They are different from other frogs in that they lay eggs and after a period of between 17 to 26 days they emerge fully developed.

The silver and gold pendants showing the Coqui Frog.

 The exception to that rule is the Golden Coqui, which is now presumed extinct, which gives birth to live frogs.  The eggs are hatched inside of the mother and the live young are dispersed through the mother's genital opening.  While in the town of Old San Juan, Carol and I visited a jewelry store so she could purchase a small pendant with the shape of the Coqui frog.  Extremely small, made of sterling silver, and looks great around her neck.  Neat souvenir from our visit to the island of Puerto Rico.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Faces of Strangers: #37" Story

William

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting on my beach chair watching the beach boy, who had just buried an umbrella between my chair and my wife's chair, help a young child begin to build a sand castle ... and, he was enjoying every minute of it.  Seems that William does just about everything needed at the Intercontinental Resort in Puerto Rico to make the guests at the resort have a memorable vacation and have a great time.  Wasn't more than fifteen minutes before that he brought us the umbrella we had requested and with the use of a battery operated drill made a hole in the sand, buried the umbrella pole and dug an additional hole with a shovel to bury a wooden block which helped keep the umbrella from lifting out of the hole in a strong wind.  William talked with Carol and me while he was putting the umbrella in the ground and gave us a little background on his life in the Caribbean.  He was born and raised on Puerto Rico and has been working at the Intercontinental for the past few years, not only helping the beach goers with their needs, but handing out beach towels at the resort and helping with just about anything to make the guests feel at home.  Carol and I have been traveling for over 15 years now and we appreciate the help that the staff of the different resorts give to us that make our stay a pleasant encounter.  The personable William was one of those employees that make your stay a real treat.  And, he always had a smile on his face.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum: The Country Store" Story

The Country Store at Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum.

It was an ordinary day.  Standing in front of the cash register admiring all the detail on what looks to be a brass American Cash Register Manufacturing Company antique from the early 1900s.  It sits in the Country Store on the grounds of the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum in Lancaster, PA.  The Museum is the largest museum dedicated to telling the history of the Pennsylvania Germans or Pennsylvania Dutch.  The land where the museum is located was a site where a hotel was built in 1856 called the Landis Valley House.  A community grew up around the hotel and was a known as Landis Valley.  Brothers George and Henry Landis grew up in the community and began collecting local antiques that told the story of the valley and surrounding area.  

Inside the front door showing the old wooden flooring,
large windows and chairs for visitors to relax.

In 1925 they established a museum using the collection of antiques they had collected for years.  The store that I am visiting today has just about everything and anything you could have possibly wanted in that time period.  It is hard to fathom the immense collection that the brothers must have accumulated during their lifetime and used to open the museum and fill the many structures for visitors to see what life was like in the 18th and 19th centuries .  The store also served as the local U.S. Post Office with a message board and Post Office Boxes at the rear of the store.  

The Landis Valley Post Office is in the rear of the store.

I'm sure it was placed at the rear to force those using it to have to walk past all the goods that were for sale in the store.  The old oak floors from another era in time are shiny, but worn and weathered.  The wooden cabinets that line both sides of the store are well lit and carry everything from tobacco products to knitting needles.  The majority of today's story will be a visual tour of what a store in the late 1800s or early 1900s might have looked like to the patrons of the store.  Enjoy your tour and see if you can find something that might have interested you if you were a visitor to the store over 100 years ago.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The early 1900's brass American Cash Register.

Shoes of the era for sale.

Bolts of fabric fill a few shelves in the store 

I would love to own this old cabinet that holds spools of thread.

These shelves house everything from clocks, bells, player piano reels, and starch to dishes, old 3D photo viewers and miniature metal cars. 

This shelf holds metal horns, cake molds, irons, lanterns and you can even see a few mouse and rat traps ion the bottom shelf. 

Prices for goods in the early 1900s.

Spice bins.

Baking supplies, cans of vegetables and chewing gum line these shelves.

More spices and baking supplies.  Are you getting the idea as to how important this store might have been to Landis Valley and the surrounding communities. 

Glass jars, mugs and dishes fill these shelves.

Vests, collars, neckties and hats make this a true department store. 

This looks to be the medicinal part of the store.

The tobacco part of the general store.

And what store wouldn't be complete without the cigar store Indian.

The "Prohibition and Lancaster" Story

Serving trays bearing the name of a good friend.

It was an ordinary day.  Looking on eBay for a few bobble-heads that I thought I may want to bid on when I came across some beer bottles from a brewery in Lancaster known as the Rieker Brewery.  Got me to thinking of years ago when the alleyway behind my home faced the homes on the the north side of the alley and one of my best friends and neighbors on that side of the alley was Dave Rieker.  Our sons played little league and high school baseball together and we were both members of a table-top dice game baseball league when we played a game known as APBA.  

Lithograph of the Rieker Star Brewery in Lancaster, PA.

I can remember visiting him in his house and seeing a few momentos from the Rieker Star Brewery that was at one time located in the city of Lancaster in an area known then as well as now as "Cabbage Hill."  The brewery was built on land that had been given to build the town of Lancaster by none other than William Penn.  A local neighborhood where the blue-collar workers of the city lived and played.  On the southern edge of the neighborhood stood the Frank A. Rieker Star Brewery.  

An aerial view of the Rieker Brewery.  The brewery stands
in the rear with what became the Blue Star Inn in the
front center.  The Inn still remains today. 

The brewery turned out over 50,000 barrels of beer a year which was primarily sold to the "Cabbage Hill" neighbor- hood.  It was sold in glass bottles with either a screw on top or a hinged porcelain gasket cap that were known as growlers.  The Rieker Star Brewery was started in 1876 and operated under that name until 1907 when it became the Rieker Estate (Star Brewery) from 1907 to 1912 when it was renamed again the F.A. Rieker Brewing Company until 1920 when National Prohibition shut it down.  In front of the brewery was built the victorian F.A. Rieker Western Market Salon & Hotel.  

A recent photo I took of the Blue Star Inn on East King St.
in Lancaster.  The star logo can be seen at the right top.

It had Italian tile floors, intricate pressed metal ceilings, expensive wood working and custom boilers which were elaborate metal heading units that sat in the rooms.  When prohibition began, the Rieker family gave control of the brewery to the mobsters who ran illegal hoses through the city sewers to the taps in the saloon.  Although prohibition ended in 1933, the brewery never was the same as it had been at one time and was finally demolished in 1941 while the Market Saloon & Hotel became known a the Historic Blue Star Inn.  

Crystal Park now stands where the original brewery once stood.

I recently made a trip to what is now known as Crystal Park.  It is a playground for the local neighbor- hood and covers the ground that at one time was home to the brewery.  I walked to the south of the park and found a building which I assume was the Blue Star Inn at one time.  It still sits along West King Street, but is currently for sale.  It still sports a large star sticking out from the second floor which I assume was blue in color when lit.  In 2007 Crystal Park turned 50 years old.  During the years from 1881 to 1886, Lancaster, Pennsylvania was known for the beer it turned out with Mr. Frank A. Rieker the most successful brewer in the city.  

The playground serves the youth of the "Cabbage Hill" area.

Lancaster's daily newspaper proclaimed in 1868 that Lancaster occupies the same position that Munich does in Germany in regards to the brewing industry.  Lancaster's beer fame had spread over the whole Union.  When prohibition ended in 1933, Lancaster county breweries resumed legitimate operations but eventually bowed to the much larger and automated breweries.  Wacker Brewery was Lancaster's last operating brewery which closed in 1956 with all remaining unpackaged beer being dumped into the sewer.  It was 39 years before Lancaster had it's own brewery when Lancaster Malt Brewing opened in 1995 in the historic McGovern Tobacco Warehouse in the east side of Lancaster City.  I must admit I learned quite a bit about brewing beer in Lancaster from my on-line search, but still never found the bobble-head I was looking to purchase.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "The Glorius Cathredral On Cristo Street" Story

It was an ordinary day.  That was until I walked into one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen.  And to top that off, it is the second oldest church in the Western Hemisphere and the oldest church on U.S. soil.  Goes all the way back to when Christopher Columbus landed in Puerto Rico in 1493 and christened it San Juan Bautista.  

Catedral de San Juan Bautista on Calle del Cristo is the seat of the Archdiocese of Puerto Rico and dates back to 1521.  The building that I am standing in is not the original church, since that thatched-roof church was destroyed in the hurricane of 1529.  This church dates to 1540, but has been altered several times over the years as well as being subjected to looting by troops under the Earl of Cumberland who raided the city in 1598.  As I walked throughout the cathedral I marveled at the beautiful stained glass windows and the myriad of chapel altars.  Mass was being offered in one chapel and the music echoed off the stone and marble walls.  

I found the location of the remains of the conquis- tador Ponce de Leon who was the first governor of Puerto Rico and famous for chasing after the Fountain of Youth and also found the glass box that holds the wax-covered mummified remains of St. Pio, a Roman martyr killed for his faith and placed in the church.  Must say it was rather spooky standing in front of the box seeing what at one time was a living person.  The Gothic-inspired architecture of the Cathedral makes it Puerto Rico's grandest religious building.  The massive doors leading into the church were one of the highlights of my photo session in this remarkable church.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Remains of Ponce de Leon are in this marble tomb.

The towers of a few of the chapels can be seen above the roof.

One of the many chapels off of the main church.

The main altar. 

The beautiful arches and architecture above the altar.

A service in being offered in another chapel of the church.

The wax-covered mummified remains of St. Pio.

To the right as you enter the Cathedral is this altar.

A beautiful statue of Jesus on the other side of the entrance.

The magnificent entrance into the Cathedral.

  

The "Forgotten Memories" Story

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland.

It was an ordinary day.  Going through my treasure trove of photographs I have taken over this past summer and have never used for a story or my scrapbook.  Decided to share some with you before I delete them from my iPhoto program on my computer.  I am in need of deleting the 6,000 plus images to help make the program run a little better.  So, here are some of my photos that I thought you may enjoy.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - remember to click on photos to enlarge them.

Sunrise at Stone Harbor, NJ.

July 4th at the Lititz, PA Moravian Church.

A visitor to our back deck in the middle of the summer.

Our cat Creamsicle wearing a Donald Trump wig made from his own brushed hair. (My wife's idea!)

Nighttime backyard visitors.

A Daddy Longlegs at Mount Gretna, PA.

Carol's beautiful garden filled with night blooming day lilies surrounding our pond.

A little girl, Kennedy, who makes visits to our home.

Early morning heading to the beach at Stone Harbor, NJ.

Neat guy looking at visitors to the Cape May Zoo in New Jersey.

When was the last time you saw a Praying Mantis?  This guy was looking at me on the rear deck of the house we were staying in Stone Harbor, NJ. 

Neat design seen in glass bricks.

I have taken this photo many times in the last 30 years of the dilapidated pier in the marshlands as you enter Stone Harbor, NJ.

Another sunrise shot along the Atlantic Ocean.

You know how much I enjoy taking photos of flowers and this one is a beauty.

Sunset over the marshlands at Stone Harbor, NJ.

Sunrise at Stone Harbor, NJ.

Railroad car in Manheim, PA.