Dominican cuisine is simple, generous Creole cooking based on abundant tropical ingredients — rice, beans, plantain, meat, fish, tropical fruits. It draws on Spanish-African-Taíno fusion and today expresses itself as much in popular comedores (family stalls €4-8/meal) as in the gourmet restaurants of Santo Domingo and Punta Cana.
Essential dishes: the bandera dominicana (the flag, national dish: white rice + red beans + braised meat + plantain + salad — the universal Sunday lunch), sancocho (festive stew with 7 meats — beef, pork, chicken, goat, chorizo — with vegetables and plantains, holiday dish), mangú (mashed green plantain at breakfast with roasted onions, egg and fried salami — los tres golpes), pollo guisado (chicken braised with tomatoes and coriander, daily staple), chivo guisado (braised goat, north-western specialty notably from Monte Cristi), chuleta (spicy pork chop), pescado con coco (fish in coconut milk, Samaná specialty, heritage of Afro-American Pilgrim Fathers who settled in 1824).
Regional specialties: in Samaná, pescado con coco and seafood marinated in lime (escabeche). In Santo Domingo, chimichurris dominicanos (spicy street pita burgers), empanadas and pastelitos (filled pastries). On the north coast (Puerto Plata), pescado a la criolla and fresh seafood. In the Cibao (Santiago), chicharrón (crispy pork rind) and goat.
Desserts: dulce de leche (caramelised condensed milk), majarete (corn cream with coconut milk, cinnamon), habichuelas con dulce (sweet red beans with coconut milk, traditional Easter dessert), coco rallado (grated coconut with sugar), frutas tropicales (mango, papaya, pineapple, passion fruit, dragon fruit).
Drinks: Dominican coffee (excellent, grown in the Cibao mountains), morir soñando (to die dreaming: orange juice + milk + sugar + ice, surprising Dominican signature), mamajuana (rum-wine-honey macerated with bark and herbs, presented as aphrodisiac, worth tasting), Cerveza Presidente (national beer, light blonde, omnipresent, sharing 22-oz green bottles). Dominican rum (Brugal, Barceló, Bermúdez) is among the Caribbean's finest — essential tasting, notably Brugal Centenario or Barceló Imperial.
Cocktails: piña colada (rum-pineapple-coconut, popularised by Dominican bars), cuba libre (rum-coke-lime), mojito, mamajuana. Dominican cigars (Cibao region, Santiago, La Romana) are world-renowned — often ranked top by Cigar Aficionado, they rival Cuban cigars. Houses: Arturo Fuente, Davidoff, La Aurora, Romeo y Julieta Dominican Republic.
Read also
- Punta Cana and the East — Bávaro, Cap Cana, Bayahibe: the world capital of all-inclusive and its 30 km of beaches.
- Santo Domingo and the South — The first European city in the Americas (1496), UNESCO colonial zone, historical heart of the New World.
- Samaná — Lush peninsula, Rincón beach, humpback whales January to March, ecotourism and authenticity.
- Puerto Plata and the North — Amber coast, Sosúa, Cabarete world capital of kitesurfing, Pico Isabel de Torres cable car.
- Santo Domingo — UNESCO colonial zone, Fortaleza Ozama, Alcázar de Colón, first cathedral in the Americas.