My Favorite Launch

Cheese and Yellow Plantains

Until the age of 13, I weighed 75 pounds. I used to eat the same meal twice a day or even three times a day. It didn’t matter. I loved cheese with yellow plantains too much to eat something else. My mom would send me to the bodega every morning (the Dominican Republic has two school shifts: morning and afternoon. I was in the afternoon shift) to buy 30 pesos of “queso Geo” and two yellow plantains. She would say: “Penelope, get big and nice plantains.”

I’m 25 years old, and the more dishes I try, the more I love my favorite dish, and I don’t still eat vegetables. For some reason, when Mami makes my favorite dish, it tastes better. I learned throughout the years what makes food taste good is the people you eat with. My mom and I updated the recipe. We changed the “queso Geo” for mozzarella cheese and complemented it with a slide of avocado. It never tasted better.