FOOD & DRINKS

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Food... 

Local dishes include sancocho or salcocho prieto (a type of stew made of six local meats and vegetables, often including plátanos, ñame and yautia), mondongo (a tripe stew), mofongo, ground plátano with garlic and chicharrón de cerdo (pork crackling), usually served with a soup, a side dish of meat and avocado (very filling), chicharrón de pollo is small pieces of chicken prepared with lime and oregano, locrio de cerdo or pollo (meat and rice), cocido (a soup of chickpeas, meat and vegetables), asopao de pollo or de camarones, chivo (goat). Also try pipián, goats’ offal served as a stew. Fish and seafood are good; lobster can be found for as little as US$12. Fish cooked with coconut (eg pescado con coco) is popular 
around Samaná. The salads are often good; another good side dish is tostones (fried and flattened plátanos), fritos verdes are the same thing. 
Plátano mashed with oil is called mangú, often served with rice and beans. Sweet bananas are often called guineo. Moro is rice and lentils. Gandules are pigeon peas, very good when cooked with coconut. Quipes (made of flour and meat) and pastelitos (fried dough with meat or cheese inside) can be 
bought from street vendors; can be risky. Casabe is a cassava bread, flat and round, best toasted. Catibias are cassava flour fritters with meat. 
The most common dish is called bandera dominicana, white rice, beans, meat/chicken, plátano or yuca and, in season, avocado. The traveler should be warned that Dominican food is rather on the greasy side; most of the dishes are fried. Local food can often be obtained from private 
houses, which act as comedores. Basic prices, US$3-6. 

Drinks... 

 Juices, or jugos, are good; orange is usually called china, papaya is lechosa, passion fruit is chinola. Agua de coco is coconut milk, often served cold, straight from the coconut, chilled in an ice box. Local beers are Presidente (the most popular, not more than six percent), Quisqueya and Heineken. There are many rums (the most popular brands are Barceló, Brugal, Bermúdez, Macorix and Carta Vieja). Light rum (blanco) is the driest and has the highest proof, usually mixed with fruit juice or other soft drink (refresco). Amber (amarillo) is aged at least a year in an oak barrel and has a lower proof and more flavour, while dark rum (añejo) is aged for several years and is smooth enough, like a brandy, to be drunk neat or with ice and lime. Brugal allows visitors to tour its factory in Puerto Plata, on Avenida Luis Genebra, just before the entrance to the town, and offers free daiquiris. In a discothèque, un servicio is a 1/3 litre bottle of rum with a bucket of ice and refrescos. In rural areas this costs US$3-4, but in cities rises to US$15. Imported drinks are very expensive. Many of the main bars have a ‘Happy Hour’ from 1700-1900, on a ‘two for one’ basis, that is two drinks for the price of one with free snacks.