22

Florida
Enrique and Amanda
Folklore

-20-

rolls of dough. The dough cooks crisp and you bite into the good hot shrimp. I think maybe you like that all right."
He hurries off to the store to buy the necessary ingredients. When he returns, he goes to the kitchen and begins preparing the meal, while Amanda sits in the front room and listens to the radio. "I syre got me a good cook for a husband," she says. "Enrique cooks lots more better than I do, and he likes to, so I'm glad to let him do it. You know,m ost all Cuban men is good cooks."
I sit in the kitchen window and watch Enrique. The entireh ouse is soon permeated with the odor of the sauce which he prepares by frying finely chopped onion, garlic, green and red peppers in tomato paste and olive oil. When the shrimp are boiled, he pulls them into shreds with his fingers. The sauce is strained to remove the onion, garlic, and peppers, and then mixed with the shrimp. Dough is made of flour, baking powder, and water, and portions of shrimp are encased in it. The empanadas are then fried in very hot lard, and come out crisp and golden brown.
He has made a large pot of rice, which he strains and then steams with the addition of a tablespoonful of lard. He prepares a salad of sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce, and pours over it a dressing of salt, pepper, olive oil and vinegar. He pours four large lgassess of homemade raising wine, and smaller glasses for the children.
Someone shouts "Hello" from the front porch, enters, and walks on down the hall. "This is Miss Cardidad Martinez," says Amanda. "She is a very good friend to us who wanted to meet you."
Caridad is about nineteen years old; her complexion is very light,

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