I have been receiving requests to add this recipe for a long time, years in fact. I have to say that it isn’t just procrastination that has caused this, if you know me well, you know that I am not a big fan of fried foods. As a food blogger that documents a lot of
Since the dawn of time, people have associated certain foods, fruit and vegetables with sex. The ancient Greeks and Romans who were famous for their bacchanals and orgies even had treatises and writings about the effects of various foods on their libidos. Some of these beliefs, whether true or not, endure to this day. There
While I would love to think of myself as an intrepid investigative writer, travelling the Dominican countryside in search of hidden treasures of our culinary culture, the fact is that I am nowhere near that. We just travel aimlessly around the country from time to time, sampling the local foods and befriending perfect strangers on
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?!”
About ten years ago I was in Denmark, where my husband hails from, spending the holiday season with his family. With a full schedule of eating and more eating ahead, I had the “brilliant” idea of treating everybody to an “authentic” traditional Dominican pre-Xmas Xmas meal on the 23rd, including a delicious pan de batata (sweet potato cake) for
Locavores are those who are part of a global movement that proposes the consumption of locally-grown food. It’s a movement fueled by concerns about the environment and the nutritional quality of food that has travelled from afar, and subjected to diverse methods of preservation. As with anything, there are several sides to this argument. As with any
It was love at first sight with Mr. Queso de Hoja, the cheese vendor, whose, uh, balls of cheese were always the freshest… Oh, how I miss the street vendors. All vendors really, but in particular, and in no small part due to their multitude, the food vendors, of course. The travelling hair accessories guy
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
In an introduction to Dominican party food for our book, Jill Wyatt wrote: “Just as a child’s birthday cannot be appropriately celebrated without a sugary fruit punch in which banana slices are set adrift, it appeared that mourners could not properly grieve, nor could merrymakers effectively make themselves so, without some alimentary offering”. Jill has a talent for capturing the
In my head paleta de batata (sweet potato popsicles) and summer are indelebly connected. When I was a kid I spent many a summer in the Santo Domingo neighborhood of San Carlos, where one of my aunts lived. Back then it was the kind of old-fashioned middle class neighborhood you see in movies depicting the
Many of our readers have let us know how much they appreciate the background information we provide on many of our dishes, their origins and cultural context. What you may not know is how much we enjoy doing this research, learning about our food and culture, and about the people that have given them to
Summer, summer, summer! It’s everywhere. It’s “summer this”, and “summer that”. Girls in bikinis, over-tanned idiots and kids playing with garden hoses. Will the cliches never end? But I’m going to let you in on a little dirty secret: summer is my least favorite part of the year. If you don’t understand why I just don’t feel
This is a post about rediscovering. about meeting again, about going back to the past. It is not only about a dish that I had not seen or tasted in decades, it is about going back to a place I haven’t been in for an almost equal amount of time. It is about discovering that
First of all, what sort of vegetarian are you? What the airlines describe as ‘lacto’? ‘Lacto-ovo’? These curious categories have long been obsolete everywhere except airline ticketing codes. They mean vegetarians who eat dairy products and vegetarians who eat dairy products and eggs. Are you a fishetarian? That means a vegetarian who eats seafood (my definition).
Immigrants from the Middle Eastern region, mainly from Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt came to the Dominican Republic and other Latin American countries in the late 19th and early 20th century. At the time, most of the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe were under Turkish rule as part of the Ottoman Empire until
We once took a poll amongst our readers called “Mondongo: Yucky or Yummy?”, which sparked in me some reflection. My money was on a landslide victory for the Yuckies. I admit it, I voted more than once, in order to better register my enormous dislike. The Yuckies lost. By a lot. For those innocently unaware,
What Dominican does not love a good pollo guisado (braised chicken)? I am the grandchild of farmers, and so is my husband. If you can count on anything it is on farmers being sensible people. They are rarely too picky about their food, after all they know full well that pork does not come cut into
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
This past week one half of our family gathered at a local resort as we do almost every year. It is a time for relaxation, catching up, and on the practical side of things getting everybody together under the same roof, so to speak. We hope some day we’ll have a home large enough to
Am I ever glad that I have never called myself an expert on anything. Especially not an expert on Dominican food. Every time I learn something about food in general, or Dominican food in particular, I’m justly reminded that there is much to learn, and with things changing all the time one never finishes learning.
One too many dulce de coco (coconut fudge) later: “These extra pounds have to go!” I exclaim looking at myself in the mirror. Normally this would not be much of a problem if it wasn’t because I was in the middle of the holidays. Ah, the holidays. Time to overeat, overindulge, and find excuses. Not
There is an enormous variety of pumpkins, but in the Dominican Republic the best known is the auyama (West Indian pumpkin). A vegetable that has many uses in our cuisine: from desserts to rice dishes, from food coloring to filler in stews. This is a less-common presentation, but no less delicious. Auyama is recommended as
Every nation has its rules about what goes and what doesn’t when it comes to gastronomy. Coffee here as we know is drunk sweeter than sweet. Those of us who decline any sugar at all are considered eccentric at best. In the same way as Italians who react with horror at ignorant foreigners who flout
Lost in translation: It isn’t only an acclaimed movie that I could not bring myself to like. The language barrier is one of the biggest problems we have when writing articles, and even more so when developing and writing recipes. Not only do you have two people here who speak different variants of English, and
It is said, not completely groundlessly, that New York City is the second biggest Dominican city. When it comes to our sites, we have more readers in New York than in any other city in the world. Watching Hurricane Irene head for New York filled us with the same sense of dread as the news
A popular item in the Dominican diet which is not always everyone’s favourite is the papaya, known in the DR as ‘lechoza’. And most popularly consumed in this delicious batida de lechoza (papaya milkshake). Several countries in the region seem to shy away from the word papaya, which has – it appears – other connotations. Venezuelans
Things are changing around here, most of the changes are in the background, but they slowly start showing. Switching from our old platform to our new blog format is something that we discussed, and something I (Aunt Clara) particularly thought pretty hard about. Our old format served us well for many years, but things needed
I was introduced to cepa de apio for the very first time a few years back. I had been looking out for it since I first heard of its existence, when a friend told me it was an extremely rich source of calcium as well as one of the better-tasting tubers, or as Dominicans call them, viveres. I
After a few days during which our very hot summer gave way to intense and seemingly-random rain, we are back to sunlight and hot days. Fortunately we Dominicans have a few weapons in our arsenal to help us survive the heat. Fermented drinks are not uncommon in the Dominican Republic. I’d dare to say that
Confession time: I was sorely tempted to start this post with a tawdry joke about a butcher, a housewife and beef tongue. For this I have nobody to blame but Aunt Ilana’s husband, Pedro. Luckily, and for the sake of the children who visit our site, the joke would be lost in translation. Phew! Will
A little while ago I posted the recipe for carne ripiada (shredded beef) and had an exchange with our friend Amity, who has spent a lot of time both in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. I mentioned that unlike Venezuela, where carne ripiada is known as carne mechada, in the Dominican Republic carne mechada was
Smoked herrings is one of those ingredients that, although arrived from faraway lands, seems to be an essential part of our cuisine. It’s funny that in the area of the world where it should be best-known I have never found anyone that actually knew it. As fish is my basic source of protein – since
Oh, how time flies my friends! Today we finally change the very last of the tiny, lo-res pictures we used in the first version of this site, made with a 3 mp camera in the kitchen of my old apartment. Time flies and so does technology. When I first started this site, as a way
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.
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