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Rafe’sin our dressy clothes Her face softened just a little She offered her hand "It is so nice to lasses? And extra plates, if you’re going to share?"

"That would be a question for Flori, I think"

But Rafe’soff presuether "Food, at last! Okay The dish in front of you is called La Bandera"

"That justoff that I knew a Spanish word

"Exactly It’s supposed to look like the colors of the flag But every Dominican kid is like, ‘What the hell?’ Rice is white Fine And the sauce on the meat is reddish But beans aren’t blue It doesn’t make a lot of sense"

I picked up my fork and popped a flake of the stewed pork into h I don’t think it would be better if it were actually blue"

"This ison the table "Mashed plantains, fried, with a meat sauce on top But they’re even better like this" He pointed at gorgeously crispy pieces of plantain on another plate

"What’s that?" I asked, ai It was square, about the size of a playing card And when I sank my fork into the corner, it squished

"Fried cheese Another health food The only lighter thing is this bulgur salad" He picked up the bowl and showed rains sat torilled shrimp on top

A clean plate landed on the table in front ofspoon on to each of our dishes Then she set a glass of water down in front ofoff

"Your rinned at me as he scooped food onto his plate "The kitchen boys call her la torhouse for coht?"