Restaurant Review: Brasas (Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico)

Right across from the main plaza (town square) in Cabo Rojo, stands Brasas (meaning "Flames") Stakehouse and Pasta, occupying an early 20th century family-style house.  


The restaurant has a cozy casual environment.  One of first things customers notice is the decor, related to the American west, specifically cowboys. There is even a 19th century shotgun on display! On the right side they have a bar.

Now, to the food.


My husband and I went there for lunch. Brasas serves appetizers and we chose sausage in wine and fried cheese balls. The sausages were quite tasty, not greasy, good quality. The cheese balls were pretty much like... fried cheddar cheese balls lol.


They have daily lunch specials ranging from $6.00 to $10.00. These include churrasco (skirt steak), Puerto Rican style beef-steak with sauteed onions, chicken wings, 1/2 rack of pork ribs; fried pork cuts (carne frita); each served with either plantains, rice and beans (a local favorite) or French fries.


There is also an a-la-carte menu including filet mignon, as well as a choice of other cuts of steaks, pasta and salad. Dessert choices included Oreo cheesecake, house lemon pie, and plain cheesecake.


 The dish presentations are nice (not plain, but not out of this world either, which goes perfectly with the restaurant's ambiance).  I had the BBQ ribs with fried green plantains (tostones). The ribs were amazingly soft with the meat easily coming off the bones and practically no fat! That was so yummy! (I was like OMG I want to take the bones home for my doggies, they shouldn't be thrown away!)   My husband's selection was good too. He ate the fried pork with rice. He had a glass of peach iced tea with his lunch and it tasted great.


Dessert... My husband selected the lemon pie and he became immediately smitten! This  is not the typical two layer lemon meringue pie.  Nothing like that! It is creamy, velvety; a perfect, heavenly texture. To me, it had a hint of bitter taste in it, but it is just a matter of individual preference.

In summary, we had appetizers, a great lunch for two, dessert,  plus non alcoholic drinks for $33.00 tax included. 

Teenagers and their Paradigms

Last month in Puerto Rico we were saddened and shocked by the news of pre-teens and early teenagers being picked up by the police and the Department of Families at 1:00 a.m. in a pub in San Juan. They were all dancing, and some even were under the influence of alcohol without adult supervision. During the removal from the place, and while the parents were being contacted, the children became a mob that broke a police car window and vandalized the establishment. Aparently they felt their rights had been violated in some way. Now the parents face child neglect charges (for allowing children as young as 11 years old to be outside and partying without supervision at 1:00 a.m.) while the teenagers that vandalized the private and public property are being charged as minors.

On the other side of the World, a fifteen year old girl in London is receiving lots of criticism since she started a series of youtube tutorials on how to look like a doll. This young lady is fascinated with Japanise anime characters and devotes a lot of time applying make up to resemble them. The girl has been told almost everything, from being immature to being weird to being crazy.  Even during an interview with BBC the interviewer told her mom shed be "horrorized" if her daughter acted like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M46sQ_oboZc&feature=g-all-s&context=G24ec8c4FAAAAAAAABAA

Dear journalist: Forgive me, but that was a really stupid comment. You need to come here and experience Real Horror. Here are some interesting facts:

•  Children as young as 16 are being hired as drug runners and gunmen. The drug dealers hire young people to do this because the youth code is more lenient than the adult code. That is  horrifying, in case you didn't know.
•  In 2010 6.4 per cent of teenagers in Puerto Rico reported some kind of molestation from people who should have been protecting and taking care of them.(http://wkaq580.univision.com/noticias/article/2010-04-08/adolescentes-en-puerto-rico-reconocieron)That is horrifying. 
• Forty five percent of teenagers in Puerto Rico are obese.  http://www.wuvntv.com/noticia/2012/02/01/333652-41-ciento-adolescentes-puertorriquenos-sufre-sobrepeso-obesidad.html That is horryfing.

While other teenagers have been filming themselves naked and posting the videos for everyone to see, Venus has decided she wants to follow her own paradigma.

In my humble opinon, she is cute, intelligent, and admirable, just as many other teenagers who are really wanting to make a positive difference.

Coca Cola’s Helping Make Americans Rounder and Rounder and Rounder

Watching director of Marketing for Coca-Cola for the United States of America on CNBC World, Joseph Tripodi, I learned that the key to the drink’s marketing success is associating it to good moments in life. The quasi-documentary TV program, titled Coca-Cola, The Real Story Behind the Real Thing, it is important to relate the product not to just one moment, but several. Advertising usually involves family, sports, the sea, the sun and the idea of what can be considered freedom, happiness and fulfillment. The ads present this every time. In fact, I particularly like one of the ads. It targets young people (ages 12-18) and present many of them “when they are on their own”, doing what they like in their own space, and drinking coke. The TV ad ends with each of the teenagers falling on their backs on their beds, smiling with extasis.

According to Tripodi, their Marketing strategies are so good that in South Africa, for example, and many other developing countries, Coca Cola is well accepted, and marketed as the soda of soccer. Distributors drive their trucks on muddy roads and hand-deliver the cases to the supplier, who’s barely able to carry them on a wheelbarrow to be sold on his front-yard store.

The company continuously renovates in terms of product brands and marketing and, to keep up with the current times, they created the ‘freestyle machine’, a-state-of-the-art piece of equipment designed with the help of Ferrari engineering. The machine has virtually all soda flavors, flavored water, juices, and can dispense them in a jiffy. But the best part is the technology. All the information of customer consumer trends are sent electronically to their base of operations. That means that Coca Cola marketers always know where and which products are preferred around the USA. Recently, Coca Cola has been focusing on variety. They bought several brands and now supply Fanta, Minute Maid, Sprite, Bacardi Mixers, Dannon yogurt, Dasani Spring Water Del Valle fruit drinks, and many others. The list is really long.

So, what is really Coca Cola, or Coke? Nothing but artificial flavor concentrate, a secret ingredient (as cheesy as it sounds), carbonated water and sweetener mixed to perfection.

I wonder how could someone like Tripodi sit for a major TV chain and smile while he describes the attributes of his star product and system of delivery. While they do fabricate healthy product options, the Company’s emphasis continues to be the soda pop market.

He seems to ignore that obesity is in part a direct effect of his American dream. Coca Cola may be a just little part of the problem: they are not the only company selling junk, filled with empty calories, extra sodium and sugars we don’t need. But it is also true that, as the company got richer, Americans’ waists became bigger. In fact, Tripodi’s a bit overweight and, if I’m not mistaken, I saw his cheeks and parts of his forehead were bright red. I’m sure if he quits Coke any auto immune condition will be under control.

For Tripodi’s information, The World Health Organization offers the following data:

Key facts

• ·         Worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980.
• ·         In 2008, 1.5 billion adults, 20 and older, were overweight. Of these over 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese.
• ·         65% of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight.
• ·         Nearly 43 million children under the age of five were overweight in 2010.
• ·         Obesity is preventable.

Obesity is also deadly. At least 2.8 million adults die each year due to obesity and its related conditions. This is called morbid obesity. Obesity plays an important role in causing or worsening heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, infertility, digestive problems, high blood pressure, circulatory problems, thyroid disease and others. The extra body weight carried by an obese person may permanently damage the joints and bones.

According to the WHO “Overweight and obesity are linked to more deaths worldwide than underweight. For example, 65% of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kill more people than underweight (this includes all high-income and most middle-income countries)”1[i].

The good part is that obesity is not that hard to fight. First, there should be absolute changes in diet.

Definitely avoid:

• ·         Refined sweeteners, like the ones in Coca Cola- we are talking here of sucrose, saccharose, sucrose, corn syrup, etc. They are all great tasting and, believe me, even addictive but contribute too many empty calories. Calories are needed to produce energy, but empty calories contribute absolutely no nutrients, just the flavor. In fact, taste is everything for Tripodi. During the interview, he said that Coca Cola is by far better tasting than its closest competitor, Pepsi cola. He admitted having a bottle of Pepsi in his hand, but just the smell kept him for giving it a try. As I said, empty calories in refined sweeteners are just that: taste with no nutrients. Instead, use natural honey, which “contains 22 amino acids and a variety of minerals essential for its metabolism and hence is helpful in preventing obesity.[ii]” Another healthier options are sugar substitutes not containing
• ·         Refined carbohydrates –There are many types of carbohydrates, but they’re not all created equal. Avoid especially doughnuts, cake, cookies, made with refined wheat and added sweeteners, artificial colors. Prefer whole grains always. They not only contain more nutrients, but also contribute fiber. For healthy adults, the USDA recommends 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories consumed.
• ·         Processed foods (such as sausages, sandwich meats, hot dogs). Their high fat content, sodium and additives that make us sick.

I, indeed, recognize and understand that the Coca Cola company does a lot of community 

work, but it would be much better if they really meant what they do.

I dare you to LOVE yourself enough to refuse anything that will make your body sick or weak. I dare you to choose water, vitamin water or 100% fruit juices instead of some sort of an artificial secret formula hanging somewhere in a mixture of artificially sweetened carbonated water.  I dare you because I love you, dear reader.

---

[i] http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/index.html

[ii] http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/honey-and-weight-loss.html

A Great Article

http://www.everydayhealth.com/bipolar-disorder/bipolar-disorder-caregiving-what-to-say-what-not-to-say.aspx?xid=nl_EverydayHealthLivingWithBipolarDisorder_20110213

Dear Makers of Lamictal

Dear Makers of Lamictal:


I wish we could trade our fate for a moment. You'd be sitting here with "bee-stung lips" scratching the skin off your legs and torso; also looking at the huge bright pink patches covering your shins, calves, knees and thighs. YES, I have the infamous Lamictal rash. This is so not fun and you know it. It is incapacitating, debilitating and frustrating. There is no Benadryl, Claritin or Cetrizine that will make me feel better. There is no cream that will help. I wake up in the middle of the night because I itch. I can't concentrate on this writing because I itch. I have been like that for over six days AFTER I  stopped taking the  medication. I wonder when this is finally going to stop. 


Believe me, I am not a crybaby or emotionally weak patient. I tolerate pain well. I have been very sick with like, dengue, and survived it with a positive attitude understanding illness is a part of life, even though my eyes hurt so much they felt like they were about to pop out their orbits (one of the common symptoms of dengue is a severe headache especially around the eyes). I had my two children the natural way, which is the painful one, no epidural and no Demerol, and recovered quickly. I am not a whiny patient and I am open to try medications that will help me with my conditions. I follow medical instructions and I am never absent to one of my appointments. Enough said about my tolerance and quality as a patient.


This is how all started: My Psychiatrist prescribed 50 mg Lamictal to help with impulse control a little bit. It worked for a long time. However, due to stressful life circumstances, doctor decided I would benefit from a higher dose. At this new dose I started having the well-known Lamictal rash, an allergic reaction that is fairly common, especially when doses are increased. La mictal is good for your psyche, but it is awful for your body. The "good" part is that the Lamictal rash is basically annoying and that's it. The bad part is that it can lead to a life threatening condition, and that, by the time the rash appears, there might be something wrong internally.




Darn, this itching is annoying. Why don't you take Lamictal off the market for a while, pretty please???? Thanks. 

Lamictal.(New & Approved)(lamotrigine from GlaxoSmithKline)(Brief Article): An article from: Family Practice News

Our Alienated Leaders

Governor Luis Fortuño recently said to a newspaper reporter that he doesn't follow the current news and that's why he always keeps his cool. Our new Women's Advocate said during an interview that she is not currently reading books because she doesn't have time to read.

It is curious, but I, too, sometimes avoid news programs and newspapers so I don't get even more depressed than what I normally am.

I am including a few examples of things you'll encounter in the Puerto Rico news:

• during the first ten days of year 2011, 33 people have been killed as a result of crime, accidents or homicides.
• a nine year old boy was brutally murdered 10 months ago, but the Department of Justice has not arrested anyone yet;
• a woman and her boyfriend sexually abused of their five children while allowing the neighbors to enjoy the "show"; 
• the students at the University of Puerto Rico have paralyzed the university system by what they call a student strike that has required the activation of the police anti-riot unit and the use of pepper spray against the students and whoever was standing nearby. 
• The Governor's Secretary said that the conflict on the Rio Piedras campus is led by a "group of pseudo professors that need to be kicked out of the university."
• a man chose a family holiday 

meeting taking place at a relative's house as the momentum to retaliate from a previous dispute with family members and set the house on fire, killing five people.

• a young mother of two was viciously killed by a thief while she was working at a fast food store drive thru.  
• five year old girl was run over by a drunk driver.
• unemployment rates keep rising
• crime rates keep rising

Hey, I am not a governor. I can CHOOSE not to read the news once in a while. But if I were a governor, I'd like to read about the chaos I should be trying to fix. I would need to know, so I can make decisions, do some strategic planning and take corrective measures. I wouldn't hide my head, in ostrich like fashion, from the reality that the common people face day to day. No wonder a guy, who threw an egg at the governor while speaking at an event, responded he wanted to be known as COMMON GUY  when he was requested his name by the press. If he were Muslim, he would probably had thrown his shoe at the governor.

Sobeida, What are you laughing at?

Sobeida Felix Morel was the lover of one of the most wanted drug traffickers in the Caribbean, José David Figueroa. I say she was, because now the drug dealer, known as Junior Capsula, is being held without bail at the Federal Detention Center in Puerto Rico after his arrest on the island. His federal case, incredibly, has nothing to do with illegal drug smuggling, but with obtaining a United States passport through fraud and deceit.
Locally, Junior Capsula  was convicted or murder in Puerto Rico. In 1995 he was incarcerated for the death of Arnaldo Martinez with aggravated kidnapping, conspiracy and violation of the Weapons Act of Puerto Rico.
Four years later, this "jewel of a man" managed to evade the prison system in November 1999 by filing a false release order. He immediately left Puerto Rico and went to the Dominican Republic, where he established himself as one of the "big shots" of the drug. His business quickly rose. He made friends with influential, wealthy, professionals and maybe even the government people. Basically, he did what he wanted. Its many properties and vehicles include at least two apartments worth over half a million dollars, and sports cars that many honest and hardworking young people dream all their lives but, ultimately, can't afford.
Capsula's adventure ended on Calle Loiza, near San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 17, 2010. He was captured by federal agents. with the collaboration of the local police.

As a young man with money, Junior Capsula was popular among the girls. His legal wife is now a fugitive in France, but here in the Caribbean he was romantically involved with two young women who, incidentally, were married to two of Capsula's partners. One of these women is the  Sobeida.
Turns out that Sobeida is still legally married to Eddy Brown, an alleged member of Junior Capsula's criminal emporium. Once Junior no longer felt safe in the Dominican Republic, he returned to Puerto Rico and settled in the Isla Verde area. His physical traits had changed. He now wears straight "punk" hair and has a finer nose. I am not sure if Capsula brought Sobeida to Puerto Rico with him, or if she came voluntarily, but the fact is that Sobeida and her sister were in Puerto Rico at the time Junior Capsula was arrested.
The same day Junior Capsula was arrested, Sobeida negotiated her surrender. She was deported to the Dominican Republic, where she is facing trial for conspiracy.
It has been published by the media that Sobeida has two children. I wonder what their fate has been so far. Sobeida may not care about them, but I am concerned if her children are safe, if they go to school, if they are well and healthy and who is taking care of them.
Sobeida's parents are living in poverty. They see their child once every three months and the mother is sick after a thrombosis.
What  about Sobeida? Fine, thank you. She was living the good life in expensive communities, driving luxury cars. She was getting liposuction, massages and breast implants. She went to parties. I must admit that she has a beautiful skin. She probably did what Cleopatra did, according to oral tradition: extensive and expensive beauty treatments. Sobeida may have not bathe in tubs filled with donkey's milk, but she is possibly getting micro dermabrassion treatments at hundreds of dollars per session. Hence the unfreckled skin. Her white teeth may have cost a fortune too. Her little fake fingernails show a professional French manicure.
Sobeida, what's wrong? You may be beautiful on the outside, but no one understands your inner attitudes. When you surrendered to the authorities, instead of being worried and covering your face with your jacket, just like criminals do, you smiled to the photographers and waved your cuffed hands at them. The site www.imagenesdominicanas.com calls Sobeida "the new megadiva" This name is tremendously correct. She thinks she looks sexy in her helmet and bulletproof vest. Or maybe she is so stupid that she doesn't realize her life is in danger, because in the world of drug dealers anyone who has information or has seen the operation is a potential enemy to those remaining in business and must be eliminated.

 Well, there is always the possibility that she is smiling because she is happy and relieved that her days of hiding are over. Maybe she is smiling at the possibility of being the person she was ten years ago: poor but free.  Or maybe she is shedding one by one the heavy layers of an apparent happy lifestyle and starting to feel lighter.


Of course, there is always the possibility that she is a sociopath, and therefore she doesn't care about the situation she is involved in. Sociopaths believe laws don't apply to them and that there is always a way around them. Maybe she is laughing at the Justice System. Maybe she is hoping to buy her freedom with a couple "Dominican" cheles. Maybe she is waiting for her contacts to come and rescue her as if they were the Batman and Robin of corruption.


There is also the possibility that Sobeida is psychotic and this is keeping her from truly comprehending the implications of her actions. Maybe she is smiling at the voices she is hearing. Maybe she is smiling because she has built a different reality in which everything is right.


Sobeida, we want to know: what are you laughing at?


INTERESTING READINGS: