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 | Santo Domingo Local Customs | Tips 1 - 10 of 28 |  |
 shake those hips! by willy_wonkaLeave a Comment
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Playing domino while drinking a few cold beers is a pastime we Dominicans enjoy. If we can't play we like to at least watch and participate in the fun.
Domino is usually played by 4 people in 2 teams of 2, where the players of the same team sit in front of each other. Normally we play on wood tables and we like to slam the domino bricks on to it, especially when making the game difficult for the opposing team or when making "capicúa". Most of the time the game is at the local colmado (convenience store) or at someone's front porch or patio. While this pastime is enjoyed all over DR, I chose to place it in my Santo Domingo page because here is where I've lived and spent most of my time.
Read about how to play the game and a brief explanation of the word capicúa at the website below.
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Picapollo is chicken that's covered with flour and then deep fried until the skin is crunchy. This dish can be served with rice, tostones (fried sliced plantain) or French fries and it's a life savior for a lot of people when hunger attacks and they can't wait long. They can be found in any big city, being Pollos Victorina the most famous ones.
Useless trivia: when I was growing up and Pollos Victorina was new, the tostones were very hard and were eaten only if there was no fries or if you *really* had no choice. So hard we used to joke that they could be used as frisbees hehe.
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 Presidente Beer almost totally
"vestida de novia" by marielexoteria |
 Güira (photo from
www.tyhturismo.com) by marielexoteria,
1 more photos
The most traditional song is a merengue with a not-so-subtle güira sound, and it goes like this, with my loose translation:
"Ábreme la puerta (2x, open the door [to me])
que estoy la calle (because I'm [out] on the street)
y dirá la gente (and people will say)
que esto es un desaire. (that this is a turn down.)
allá dentro veo (2x, I see in there)
un bulto tapao, (a hidden something)
no se si será un lechón asao (I don't know if it'll be a roasted pig)"
These parties can be either prearranged some days (or weeks) in advanced or something created by the spur of the moment, usually after we Dominicans get our "doble sueldo" - which is a tax-free 13th pay we get together with our tax deductible December pay.
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 Colmado (photo from
www.el-bohio.com) by marielexoteria
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Casabe is a thin, flat bread made of yuca, also known as cassava. Casabe is one of the few things that we inherited from the Taíno people and that we still enjoy to this day. We have several sorts of casabe: natural, with garlic flavor and filled with different kinds of fruit/marmalade. You can find them in big packages or buffet size, roughly the size of a coffee cup. They're eaten mostly by themselves, as a between meals snack but a lot of Dominicans like eating casabe with chicharrón de cerdo (deep fried pork meat).
Yuca is a root and comes in 2 sorts: sweet, which we cook (boil, in empanadas, in arepitas, fried) and eat right away and bitter, which must be processed before consumption and which is the one used to prepare casabe.
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These people sell their merchandise (usually fresh fruits, herbs and veggies) on the streets. They start shouting or talking through a megaphone from early in the morning to sometimes early in the afternoon in the neighborhoods. These vendors are found everywhere in the country but since the pictures were taken in SD, I made the tip here.
These people are important for those who don't want or can't go to the supermarket everyday if they're missing something for lunch or dinner.
On the pictures on this tip you'll find 2 plantain and fruit vendors, a bread vendor and a drinkable water vendor (in that order).
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These starters I'm going to talk about are available pretty much all over the country, but the reason they're on my Santo Domingo page is because it's there where I've found and eaten them the most.
The Dominican traditional starters or buffet food include:
- Pastelitos: they're like small empanadas or savoury pastries. The difference between empanadas and pastelitos is that pastelitos are round and empanadas are in the shape of a half full moon. The filling possibilities are endless: chicken, ham, ground beef, vegetables...
- Quipes: this is a recipe that we borrowed from the Lebanese/Middle Eastern community living in my country. It's basically a meat ball but made of bulgur and filled with chicken or ground beef and then deep fried.
- Croquetas de pollo: or chicken croquettes. They can also be filled with ham and are pretty much like the ones you can find in Madrid.
- Bollitos de yuca: like croquettes, but with yuca "dough" and filled normally with cheese.
These dishes are usually the buffet food of choice for a lot of events because everyone likes them and because cooks can get creative with the choice of filling and spices. They're also sold in supermarkets, raw for you to fry and enjoy, and in some bakeries.
All the photos in this tip are taken from the link below and are temporary until I can take pictures myself.
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 Dulce de tres leches (photo
from Wikipedia) by marielexoteria, 2 more photos
- Conconetes: a conconete is basically a soft biscuit made with brown sugar and grated coconut. This was a simple thing to eat together with cherry or raspberry soda when I was child. They can be found on colmados.
- Dulce de 3 leches: my personal favorite, a cake made of 3 milks (hence the name): evaporated milk, condensed milk and regular (whole) milk. The cake doesn't have butter, which makes it have a consistency sort of like sponge cake but it doesn't get soggy even after being soaked with the 3 milks.
- Arepa: it's a sort of cake made of coconut milk and corn flour. It's normally made in an iron pot on top of hot coal, then it's covered with a metal lid with more hot coal on top.
- Flan: flan is so popular that it used to be sold in cans, ready to eat, being the most common the caramel one. I've also seen, but not as often, coconut flan.
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- Dominican Fiesta Hotel And Casino
Avenida Anacaona, Santo Domingo - Hotel Santo Domingo
Av Independencia esq Abraham Lincoln, Santo Domingo - Intercontinental V Centenario Santo Domingo
Avenida George Washington 218, Santo Domingo - Oasis Hamaca Resort
Calle Duarte 26, Boca Chica (formerly Hilton Hamaca Coral), Santo Domingo - Sofitel Nicolas Santo Domingo
Calle Las Damas Cuidad Colonial, Santo Domingo - Continental Hotel
Av. Máximo Gomez No. 16, Santo Domingo - Hotel Conde de Penalba
Calle El Conde esq. Arzobispo Meriño Colonial zone, Santo Domingo - Hotel Europa
Arzobispo Merino & Emillano Tejera Zona Colonial, Santo Domingo - Hotel El Senorial
Presidente Vicini Burgos 58 Gazcue, Santo Domingo - Don Juan Beach Resort
Abraham Nunez St, P.O. Box 1348 Boca Chica Beach, Santo Domingo - Sofitel Frances Santo Domingo
Calle las Mercedes esq. Arzobispo Merino Zona Colonial, Santo Domingo - Quality Hotel Santo Domingo
KM 22 Autopista Las Americas Next to Las Americas Free Zn, Santo Domingo - Gran Bahia Principe Samana
Ctra Samaná-Las Galeras s/n Los Cacaos (formerly Occidental Gran Bahia), Santo Domingo - Hilton Santo Domingo
George Washington Avenue #500, Santo Domingo - Renaissance Jaragua Hotel And Casino
George Washington Ave. 367 Apto. Postal 769-2, Santo Domingo
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