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
I finished cooking, served lunch, and my husband had a first taste of a dish I was cooking for the first time. My dear spousal unit is my usual test subject, and he knows to be honest. This is no time to lovingly lie to protect my feelings. My readers count on him. – “It
Sit down, let’s have a coffee and a delicious cheddar cheese bread roll. I have something to tell you: You my dear reader might not know it, but I was once unfaithful to you. Up until a few months ago I kept another blog titled “The Home in Paradise”, which chronicled my adventures – and occasional misadventures
In an a recent interview for a magazine I was posed a question: “Where do you get your recipes?”. I’m not going to reproduce my answer (the interview hasn’t been published yet), but this recipe is perfect for exploring some of it. Inspiration sometimes comes from odd places. But let me mention that these mini-tart shells (tarticos in the DR)
Like it happens every year, vendors round the world trip over each other trying to beat the rest in the Earliest Christmas Display Competition. Round here Christmasy things were on display on September. Don’t believe me? Not to be left behind (too much) we start adding festive (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Festivus, etc) recipes starting now. If
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
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 have mentioned it before, but we Dominicans are not big fans of potatoes. And I am fine with that. It’s not that we don’t enjoy the noble tuber, after all it is the main ingredient in our beloved Russian salad, and a common ingredient in our soups, but as a side dish, potatoes lose badly
My husband and I spent our first years together, more than a decade and a half ago, wandering the country. For me sometimes revisiting places I had been to, for him learning what this land of ours has to offer: From pristine white sand beaches to the highest mountains in the region, from tropical deserts to
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).
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
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 and I’ll share with you the recipe for this incredible ripe plantain appetizer. The greatest thing about cooking is that it satisfies my mad scientist
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
“Is it because you don’t love me anymore?” Ah, my husband, always so funny. About a decade and a half ago I was trying to find my culinary style. For the first time in my life I was in charge of cooking for someone else, and that someone else turned out to be somebody from
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
My experiences in adjusting to Dominican customs and etiquette surrounding food and eating have become a theme – and possibly also a standing joke – in some of our articles here. One such lesson that I learned the hard way is that no matter what, you never know how many people to expect when you
A much tastier choice to mashed potatoes, and a complete meal in itself, this is a very popular recipe in our country. You can substitute beef for other meats of you choice, or simply use cheese as filling.
Why spend money on losing weight when it’s mainly a question of common sense? Diets are a relatively new phenomenon, unless you count the biblical “milk and honey”, “bread and fishes” or the Roman “wine, women and song” as diets. The compulsion to go on a diet is relatively recent, because not so long ago
“Dominicans will eat ANYTHING for breakfast” observed a friend from a European country which shall remain nameless, to protect the guilty. He was watching his Dominican wife tuck into a bowl of soup at the breakfast table. It is true that Dominicans do have some breakfast preferences that to foreign eyes sometimes appear a little
A party’s not a party without a picadera – I may or may not have that printed on a t-shirt. Seriously. My experience with picadera in the DR is that you have to be pretty forceful to get any. If it’s a table laid out with food, you want to elbow your way in there,
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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