Dreadlock: this is the example that I was trying to make. We lack culinary diversity. Dominicans drown out the individual taste of the food . For example if you eat Dominican spaghetti or lasagna you will be inundated with so many spices that you will not be able to enjoy each individual ingredient or element of the pasta. Yes it taste good, it may taste great, but you cannot appreciate the authenticity and true nature of your dish. If you eat a Dominican steak you will experience the same, not appreciating the real and changing texture of the meat. Rosemary, basil, tarragon, marjoram are all grown in the DR but yet Dominicans do not use them, nor do they know how to use them. Unfortunately everything is fried boiled or stewed.

I once purchased some chicken, basil and rosemary at the major supermarket. I fillet the chicken breast and tenderized it with a meat mallet sprinkled salt garlic and added vinegar, basil, rosemary and olive-oil mixture that i concocted and placed it on a very hot "iron griddle , which I purchased and cured myself. I "seared" the chicken breast on the griddle and served it with salad and some tostones and every one could not believe the taste. I also did this with pork chops and they could not believe what a simple domestic herb and a simple meat mallet could accomplish.

This was accomplished without Cubitos, (broth bullions) or recaito or any packaged seasoning (which all contain MSG) which is a major contributor to hypertension and other life threatening diseases.

I bet you this! Go to any Dominicans home and you will find these, Bullions, Sazon Accent or Sazon Goya, adobo and recaito or similar ingredient, Oh and lets not forget la salsa china. Take these away and he/she wont be able to cook.

Take these away so that he/she'll will now have to learn how to cook.

But then again, I must relent. Why? EDUCATION lack thereof. Being able to appreciate the culinary arts comes from cultural enrichment which is a by-product of EDUCATION which leads to social widespread acceptance.

hey, ladronazo, you seem to be quite the cook. i dabble myself, sometimes. maybe one day we can exchange a few ideas about the subject. have a nice day.

Most of you have hit on the answer over and over again. The reason why it's not given much fanfare is because it is so similar to Cuban cuisine. Most Anglos can't tell the difference so they bracket it all under the catch-all phrase "Latin food."

In reality, Cuban cuisine is richer than Dominican in terms of variety. They retain or have absorbed traditionally peninsular dishes that Dominicans either lost, changed, or never really bothered with like Sopa Gallega, for one. They have also experimented more in an attempt to emulate nouvelle cuisine styles. In addition to that, they have incorporated from foreigners certain elements. The whole "chino-latino" thing in New York is really Chinese Cubans doing what they did back in Havana. Cubans make a whole roasted pig unlike any I have ever tasted or seen. They bury it in a pit in the ground for a whole day to roast under a bed of hot coals and palm leaves. They call it a barbacoa, which is more than likely a survival of Arawakan cooking techniques.

Our cuisine is more Puerto Rican than Cuban. Even down to the spices we use and the varieties of the things we make like the type of rice (long grain instead of short), beans (red or Roman instead of black), mixtures (moro instead of congri), etc. Also, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans share the same basic seasoning as a starter for nearly everything they make...the sofrito. And we make it the same way.

To me sounds better to say that our cuisine is more alike to Puerto rican cuisine than Cuban

Oh and ladronazo...I have rosemary, cumin, tarragon, basil and a whole mess of spices in my house. And I use them. Lately though I have developed an addiction to Jamaican curry. It makes my house smell like India, but I love the taste.

¡Ay coño...eh que fue así que me salió!

¿Po tu m´entendite, beldá?

Solo por curiosidad... cuando tu escribes de esta manera.. tu estas jugando, bromeando, o en buen Dominicano tratando de tripearme!!??
Por que tu te expresas muy bien en Ingles que es lo contrario a tu forma de escribir en español muchacho

LOL...

Sólo estoy bromeando...y trantando de tripearte. Yo soy completamente bilingüe en español e inglés. También hablo francés, italiano y portugués. Pero mis dos idiomas nativos son el inglés y el español.

Pero ya tú sabe...soy cibaeño ay fín...y me crié oyendo ey dialerto.

Aunque en mi casa nunca se nos permitió hablarlo.

"Por que tu te expresas muy bien en Ingles que es lo contrario a tu forma de escribir en español muchacho"

Seguramente esta bromeando con usted. Aunque yo domino el castellano muchas veces escribo palabras como deben sonar en el accento cibaeño cuando converso con dominicanos atraves de el internet. No se debe confundir semejante inclinacion con una falta de expresarse corectamente en la idioma de nuestros padres. Deja esa baina de tanto protocolo, socio

Now that right there sounded like a real Colombiano! My best friend Milton says that ALL the time. He´s from Barranquilla.

De hecho...el acento y las palabras del Caribe Colombiano son muy, pero que muy, parecidos al dialecto Dominicano. Muchas frases y palabras que nosotros suponemos que sean exclusívamente Dominicanas, ellos las usan también...como la ¨baina¨ y la ¨mojiganga¨.