Plantains

Although they look like bananas one eats as they ripen, plantains have less sugar and therefore are almost always cooked. When they ripen, they do turn sweet enough that when they are fried, they caramelize and make a side dish for almost any Caribbean main course. Plantains are used to make mofongo, which is virtually the official dish of Puerto Rico. For this, they are mashed with pork (bacon, chicharrones, sausage) and seasoned, then formed into dense towers that may be larded with enough protein to be a main course or they may be a side dish destined to soak up gravy on the plate.