I am not sure what changes as one grows older. Slowly our taste in foods change, and things that we would have considered “gross” or that we didn’t like as kids slowly become acceptable foods, enjoyable even. I have yet to meet a kid who doesn’t love pasta, or one who enjoys eggplants. Likewise, I
We Dominicans love rice, looove it! Some even feel like a lunch isn’t complete without a serving of the grain. Corn and bulgur make an appearance in our cuisine as rice substitutes. But those are not dishes that are served frequently. I have to be honest, I love rice, but it would bore me to
Did you hear that Dominican Republic won the World Baseball Classic? No? OK, good, let me brag about it. Baseball is the sport in the Dominican Republic. Not to say that other sports are not played and followed; they are. Basketball, volleybal and others have good following and loyal fanatics, but baseball rules king. As
My dad is a inveterate practical joker. With him, life was always an adventure. One day he showed up at home with what looked to be dog food. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had been trying to trick us into eating dog food, but the label was clear: “soy meat” . “What’s that?”
For today I had a rich dish that included a cup of butter in its preparation. There was a change of plans. The night I was supposed to go in the kitchen to make this dish I woke up at 3AM with a dull pain in my stomach. Don’t worry, nothing more serious than an
A few years back, as part of an advertisement campaign, a certain local company had a funny commercial in which a newlywed husband called his wife on his way home to ask what she was cooking for supper. We never see the wife, but the husband gleefully repeats what she says: – “Pastelón de arroz?!”
Not long ago I got two emails from readers asking if I could give them ideas on how to cook brown rice. About a week later we hear the alarming news that government agencies were warning consumers in the US that rice might be contaminated with arsenic. Shortly thereafter another warning: brown rice was even
Have you heard the adage “you can’t please everybody all the time”? Turns out that, like taxes and death, that also is one of the surest things in life. A smart person soon learns that trying to please everybody is a fool’s errand. In the end we all just have to assess our priorities and
If you’ve been around for a while you may have noticed that my versions of traditional recipes, like this one for locrio de pica-pica (rice and spicy sardines), are often modified to make them healthier, and sometimes some extra vegetables are included. There is a reason for that: I write the recipes the same way I
A couple decades ago, during the years of my ill-spent youth, I could have never thought I would one day call myself a mother first and above all. The idea that parenthood could define a person seemed foreign to me. Oh, how times change! And many a childless person will roll their eyes at me,
I’ve mentioned this many, many times: For such a small country this one has so many regional variations in its cuisine that it’s entirely possible to reach adulthood without trying something that is a staple on the other side of the country. Meet exhibit one: Aunt Clara. I was born in the northwest of the Dominican
I once met somebody who told me that her husband never ate leftovers. Poor lady. I don’t know what positive qualities her husband may have, but for me somebody who would not eat the occasional leftovers cannot be a candidate to be Mr. Aunt Clara. At our home we recycle all the leftovers, and the idea of
Yesterday I got the call from school that every parent dreads: the school doctor told me Nadia had fallen in the playground. Before I went into full panic mode, and with a swiftness that I suppose comes from either training in handling freaked-out parents, or the experience of doing so, she informed me that other
Before I get another word out let me clarify something: This is not like the Christmas rice you know. And I know this because I have yet to taste two that are the same. Everybody seems to have a different idea of what it contains and how it should taste. Having said that, I have
There is more to the history of arroz con fideos (rice and fried noodles) than you think. It’s a story of immigration and travel. One of the greatest things about running this site for over 9 years is, that due to a strong web presence, our site has become the virtual Dominican gastronomic embassy. In
Today I am going to commit a sacrilegious act. One no Dominican child is ever allowed to do. I am going to criticize my mother’s cooking, may the cooking goddess have mercy on my soul. I hated my mom’s oatmeal when I was a child. There was something about that bland, slimy concoction that turned
“What do you mean you ‘don’t like it’?” How many times have we been the source – or target – of that baffling question? Taste is a weird thing, and the old adage “there is no disputing about tastes” encapsulates perfectly the pointlessness of such arguments. Perhaps the wisest approach to life is to …
Students from humble economic backgrounds who attended public rural schools in the 70s are probably most familiar with this recipe. According to my sources, school cooks often served this dish with bulgur instead of rice because schools received large donations of bulgur from the relief agency USAID. This is a variation of our locrio (rice
Dominicans are not the only ones to serve rice and beans, or to make moro, in fact this dish seems to exist in different incarnations in several Caribbean nations. Of course each country has its own flavor and combination of ingredients, just like each household in the Dominican Republic probably has its own version of
This weekend a friend and I visited Santo Domingo’s Chinatown, an uptown section of Santo Domingo that Chinese immigrants (recent and old) have made their home. Some of the ones we met didn’t yet speak any Spanish, some spoke Spanish with a heavy accent. We met two of them that were listening to, and enjoying,
I was 12, and I fell in love. It was all new to me and I was smitten: I ate moro de guandules con coco for the first time. It was my first trip to Samaná, and I remember with a smile the horror on my brother’s face when he found out that the food
Let me tell you my story on ensalada de coditos. When you are a kid you tend to believe everything you read: I thought that all English ladies went picnicking once or twice a week and that they all wore long flowery dresses and big floppy hats or fascinators, sat on red and white-checkered tablecloths and
We were guests in the home of Dominican friends. Three weeks passed without incident, until one day Mr. Rivera took ill and went to the hospital with who-knew-what stomach ailment. His wife stayed by his side morning and night, and I was thrust in the role of “Ama de Casa”. I decided right away that
Cooking rice and cultivating houseplants. I have the kiss of death when it comes to these things. I don’t know what it is about me, but sooner or later every plant that comes into my care meets a sad, withered demise. I have even been known to kill cacti. But that’s another story. Rice is
It’s fair to say that I have learned as much from my readers’ comments and emails throughout these years than I may have taught them. And I have discovered a treasure trove of new dishes in our cuisine that I did not know existed prior to my starting to write about Dominican cooking. A million
Although this is not an original Dominican recipe, it is true however that it has been adopted by Dominicans the same way we adopted Spaghetti. This is a vegetarian option to the better-known recipe. Time: 1 hr. Serves: 4 Before starting to cook: Heat up the oven to 400 °F (200 °C). Ingredients: 8 cannelloni
This lasagna recipe was passed on to me by a friend and it has no pretension of passing as an Italian dish. Just as our Spaghetti a la “criolla” this is an adaptation to our local taste. Time: 2 hrs. Serves: 4 Ingredients: 9 “strips” of lasagna (better if fresh) 1 lb of shredded mozzarella
Speaking of locrio de Pollo (Dominican rice and chicken), let me tell you a story… There are some cooking disasters that nobody but us knows, secrets that we keep as if they were bedroom secrets. Others, well, those others nobody seems to forget. My most infamous ones you ask? They seem to all involve rice.
In 2003 as part of a Slow Food Dominican convivium I attended an international conference in Naples, Italy. My husband and I decided to part with the rest of the delegation and spend a few weeks exploring Italy. This trip was without doubts one of the highlights of my life. The “why” is self-evident. Armed with a
An estimated 30,000 people of Chinese origin live in the Dominican Republic. Migration from China began in the second half of the 19th century and continues to this day. Many Chinese immigrants also came to the DR from other parts of the region like Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Peru and Ecuador. The early Chinese immigrants to
Now and then you come across food snobs who make a distinction between ‘haute cuisine’ delicacies and what they consider to be comida de pobre, inferior foods. This is usually connected to social class and custom, and almost always with economic necessity. As time goes by many of these distinctions have become blurred. Dominicans have
I was caught off-guard the first time I was served a plate of Dominican espaguetis, having always been accustomed to my pasta al dente, a la italiana. Well. This spaghetti was positively bathed in an orange gleam of oil, with shards of green peppers, chunks of salami, and, of all things, vinegar (!) thrown …
Let’s get our rice fix in a much lighter way: with a delicious asopao de camarones (shrimp and rice pottage). We’re not quite half-way through 2004 yet, but now is as good a time as any to sit back and reflect on whether the good intentions expressed at the beginning of the year have turned into
Aunt Clara's Kitchen is a collection of traditional Dominican and Dominican-inspired recipes, home ideas, crafts, and the chronicles of Aunt Clara and Aunt Ilana's adventures.
![Blender [US]](http://www.dominicancooking.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013-04-23_2223-140x159.png)