Gastronomy in Dominican Republic

The cuisine of the country has a mixture of African, Spanish, and native Taíno influences.

"Mangu," is usually served at breakfast, a combination of bacon, cheese and plantains. “La Bandera” is served at lunch time; it consists of beans, fried plantains, rice, meat, and vegetables. Other well-liked dishes include chicharrones de pollo (cube chunks of deep fried chicken), locrio (variation of Spanish paella and prepared with achiote), monfogo (plantain based dish), pastelitos (meat or cheese prepared by folding a piece of pastry over a filling), ropo vieja (seasoned and fried beef served with side salad and rice), sancocho (is a Spanish-style and the ingredients include several roots, avocado, green plantains and beef or chicken) and yucca cassava (kind of bread).

Generally, the desserts are extremely sweet. Some of the favorite Dominican desserts include aqua de coco (coconuts combined with fruits and sugar cane juice), arroz con leche (rice pudding), bizcochos, caña (sugarcane), dulce de coco (sweet coconut paste), dulce de leche (milk cream flavor with fruit), flan, helados bon (ice cream with rum and coconut flavor), frio frios (ice with fruit syrups), mango cake and rum cake. Some preferred beverages in the country are beer (in some vicinity the only beer available at liquor and convenience stores is “Presidente”), coffee (usually served black with sugar), Mama Juana (mixture of several herbs, leaves, roots and bark that blended with gin, honey, lemon, rum and wine) and rum (produced in a natural method of refining). Other common drinks are Morir Soñando, ponche, mabí and 4batida.