Coming from a coastal town in an area defined as “Tropical Desert Forest” my first visit to Constanza in my early teens came as a real shock. Geographically and climate-wise you would have a hard time finding two places so different and still located on the same small island. To my 13 (or 12?, can’t
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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
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I have a confession to make: I’m terribly out of tune with the seasons and other natural cycles. It’s actually a bit embarrassing. I used to show up at my corner fruit vendor when I lived in Santo Domingo and ask for mangos when it wasn’t mango season, or avocados when the trees were still
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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
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Just as we do at home, we aim to keep the food in our blog balanced. This seems intentional, and to a certain point it is, but I’ve also noticed that over time I’ve unconsciously been avoiding repeating too many recipes of the same category. After posting a few rice, meat and other type of
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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
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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
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There is a question I have been asked many times in these ten years: What makes a dish “Dominican”? The answer escapes me. And since Aunt Ilana is the anthropologist here I have put off coming up with my own definition. The fact is that I doubt there will ever be a consensus on the
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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
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Years ago I shared with our readers the story of how I went from carnivorous to vegan some time during my early 20s. Many a sun has set and risen from that time, and my dietary preferences have changed too. I have gone from carnivorous to vegan, from there I lapsed into vegetarianism, and today I call
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Have you ever heard of the word “scrumping”? No? You’re not alone. As it happens, neither have most of the world’s non-British English speakers, as far as I could find. And when they have, most of them think of a completely different activity than the one in the minds of Brits. Allow me to explain
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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
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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
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Sometimes an idea comes to me, and although I have no clue how to make what I envision I can still feel, see or taste the result I want. This recipe is one of those ideas. Remember that cornmeal and beef casserole that I shared with you some time ago? Well, it turns out that
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Ginger is used in Dominican cooking in desserts and the ever-welcome ginger tea. It is not a traditional part of our savory cuisine. I’ve set out to change that. OK, that would be a bit too ambitious. But in the meantime let me share with you the many ways in which we use ginger at
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I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that entertaining can be sometimes a stressing proposition. But it need not be. One thing I learned over the years is that, the host(ess) too is supposed to enjoy the occasion. What’s the point if not? So I have my to-go dishes that are perfect for entertaining:
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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
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It happened in the summer of 1993. It wasn’t a difficult decision. It was always uncomfortable around the table in the company’s cafeteria. I had already developed a reputation for being picky, people had suspicions. The real challenge came when we were sitting for our Christmas dinner, as my mom cut me a piece of
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Welcome to my latest obsession: ripe plantains and finger food. Of all my obsessions this is probably the least insane one. I am sure you agree. Please say you do. The greatest thing about cooking is that it satisfies my mad scientist tendencies without having to harness the power of lightning or going through the
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A popular item in the Dominican diet which is not always everyone’s favourite is the papaya, known in the DR as ‘lechoza’. Several countries in the region seem to shy away from the word papaya, which has – it appears – other connotations. Venezuelans also call it ‘lechoza’, and the Cubans ‘fruta bomba’. In English
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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
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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
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After a few days in 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 would dare to say
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For the last 3 days it has been raining in our corner of the world. Does anyone have the number for a good ark builder? Luckily it hasn’t been raining non-stop, something we have experienced in the past, but the sun hasn’t been out that much lately. Up to some point it is a nice
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If you’re used to the sweet peanut butter that can be typically found on supermarket shelves, you’re in for a surprise if you try ours. A good surprise. I have to say that I’m partial to our peanut butter – not only is it flavorful, spicy and more grown-up, it’s probably also healthier. Now, this
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Today is our last day in Denmark, tomorrow we start the long trip home, and even though I miss my country’s food it is not less true that one of the reasons why I enjoy my visits to Denmark has to do with food. Good food. My in-laws are restauranteurs and hoteliers, which means that
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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
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Years ago, when Aunt Ilana travelled to Samaná so often that she was practically a resident, she came back from one of her trips with a culinary discovery. Starting now read this post in your head in the voice of Sir David Attenborough, go ahead, it’s very amusing. Aunt Ilana’s great discovery? Coconut bread. This
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What’s in a name? For a a lot of people around the globe, specially for those that do not speak Spanish, tortillas are the corn-based thin flatbread that the Mexicans have popularized the world over. For Spanish speakers tortilla is also the thick Spanish omelette containing potatoes and other ingredients. Many of us Dominicans grew
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Life moves in circles, doesn’t it? And never is this more evident than when you have kids, and one day you look at yourself in the mirror and your mother (or father) stares back at you, while that kid loudly demanding your attention reminds you of that child that used to look at you from
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Aunt Clara's Kitchen is a collection of traditional Dominican recipes, recipes inspired by Dominican flavors, as well as the chronicles of the Aunties' adventures in the kitchen and outside.
