Because the Dominican Republic is an island where agriculture and husbandry are developed, there is a wide range of attractive dishes where Taino, European and African influences are blended.

The Dominican cuisine is characterized for using the ingredients that are available, for example, beef which was frequently used before, now has been replaced by chicken, goat and ram which served with colored haricot beans and rice, making up the Dominican flag". If this dish is no accompanied by meat, then is called "moro rice with string beans," served with a sort of belly-pork sauce. The history of this type of dish dates back the 17th century and is registered in the annals as "the century of misery." Very popular are also the mondongo, a soup made of pumpkin with cooked callos, the taste is very strong; the Dominican Creole soup, a thick and hot vegetable soup and the sancocho, a nutritious meat stew, the gastronomic derivation of the Spanish stew and each region has its characteristic style to prepare it. Another Dominican choice of the Spanish paella are the locrios. It seems that the ladies of the Court that arrived in the Dominican Republic adapted the original recipe to the spices they found in the island. They change the saffron for the annatto dyed and created this basic formula that has given rise to the delicious Dominican locrio.

DELICACIES IN THE STREET STANDS Among the specialties that are sold in street stands of the Dominican Republic are the pork crackling, the chicken crackling, blood sausage and spicy pork sausage which are extremely delicious, chimichurris, which sometimes are served as hamburgers with salad and sauce or which are prepared with chunks of delicious smoked entire ham. The only remains of the food of the Tainos, the old inhabitants of the island, can be also found in some street stands or small stores at the village. The casabe is made with cassava flour cooked in a large clay dish and the catibías are battered cassava pies. To pick up, there is a wide choice as pastelones (meat cake), (little meat pie), cassava balls or yanikeke, the Dominican version of Jonny Cakes or fried flour balls, brought by the emigrants of the English-speaking neighboring island.

FISH, SEAFOOD AND SWEETS Beyond doubt, the fresh fish, the crabs and the lobsters just caught from the sea and placed directly to the grill are delicious and can be immediately bought. A delicacy is the famous lambi, the meat in chunks of the giant shell and if you travel to Samaná peninsula you can taste the fish with coconutæcooked fish with coconut milk. Sweets are very popular among the local populations: caguil, orange, rechosa or melon, a sort of soft fruit candy. Also cocoyuca, milk custard with grated coconut and the majarete, a sweet pudding, made of corn.

BEVERAGES Rum is for Dominicans the elixir of life, in strike without ice. Among the delicious drinks found there are the cuba libre, rum with ice, coke and lemon; piña colada made with fresh juice of pineapple with coconut.

Recipes from the Dominican Republic Cuisine

Dominican Breakfast

INGREDIENTS: butter, onion, garlic, 3 tomatoes, 2 sprigs of onion seedlings, 6 eggs, 1/4 of thinly chopped glacé cherry, parsley, salt and black pepper, boiled cassava cut in chunks, boiled chayote, 6 chunks of spiced pork sausage, slices of tomatoes or lettuce. Preparation: Sauté the onion and the garlic with butter. When the onion is tender, add he tomatoes, the onion seedlings, the beaten eggs and the glacé cherry. Stir constantly until the egg starts curdling, when spongy, sprinkle with parsley. Serve it with the fruits and the pork sausage.

Salty little pies

Little pies are a salty pastry, a typical light snack of the Dominican Republic. Ingredients: 500 g of boneless and shredded chicken, 3 peeled tomatoes, one red pepper and one green pepper, 1/2 red glacé cherry, thinly chopped, 2 minced chopped onions, 3 spoonfuls of seasoning, 8 stuffed olives of minced pepper, 60 g of cooked beans, 60 g of ground nuts, 60 g of raisins, 2 ground boiled eggs, 1 spoonful of vegetable oil. Preparation: Place the oil on a frying pan to cook at medium heat. Sauté the chicken, add the tomatoes, peppers, the onion and the seasoning. Boil everything until done, remove it from the fire and blend everything with the other ingredients.

Caramel Custard

Ingredients: 4 eggs, 500 ml of hot milk, a dash of salt, 8 spoonfuls of sugar, 4 spoonfuls of water. Preparation: Pre-heat the oven to 160 ºC. To make the caramel, place a pan to heat the sugar and water until browned. Remove from the heat and pour it on a custard cup. Beat the yolks and white separately to make the custard. Add gradually the yolks, the white, the milk, the sugar and the salt. Pour the liquid custard into the custard cup. Place the mold or the custard cup inside a pan with water and bake it during 45 minutes.