To Die Dreaming

Dominican food is famous for it's tastiness. I've inhaled quite a few Dominican dishes in New York but it rose to a whole other level in La Romana, Dominican Republic. First of all, the sheer freshness of the ingredients made the flavors dance. Dominican cuisine is a mix of Taino Native American, African and Spanish colonial influences. This is a combination that you find on a lot of Caribbean islands but Dominicans put their own spin on it.

The dish pictured above is mangu, which is mashed green plantains served with onions,avocado, fried eggs or salami. We found this dish everywhere we went and it's an important staple for the Dominican diet. This meal is so rich and so filling, that I never seemed to finish it.




La Bandera, pictured above, is the national dish and earns such an essential place in the Dominican diet that most eat it for lunch five times a week. It features stewed meat, rice, beans and plantains or salad, arranged to resemble the red, white and blue of the Dominican flag. The red and white is there but don't ask me about where the blue is. I didn't try this dish because it was almost always served with red meat, which I don't eat. My husband loved it, especially when the meat was stewed goat. It seems that Dominican goats munch on wild oregano bushes and the meat has a highly marinated flavor. My personal fave was boca de chica, a grilled fish platter that comes from the Boca Chica area of the island. It's seasoned with a medley of spices called sofrito and I think I had it for lunch every day.



For all of us, the hands down best thing we all loved was Morir Sonado, or to die dreaming. It deserves an award just for the name alone. It's basically what we used to call a dreamsicle; orange juice, cane sugar, milk and ice. Sitting on the beach and sipping one of these is dreamy indeed.