Culinary Adventures with Chef Luiz
(Chef Silverio Luiz Tecedor is a chef consultant for IDF, who has spent the past 40+
years cooking and traveling around the world. Through the years, he typically flew
more than 100,000 miles annually, while cooking, teaching and learning about food
for CPC/Best Foods/Unilever. Here at IDF, we’re delighted that Chef Luiz has agreed
to share some of his global food-lore.)
Notes from the Dominican Republic
Chef Luiz shares a taste of his visit
SANTO DOMINGO, DECEMBER 2010— Flying over the beautiful Island of Hispaniola is always a pleasure to me. I have being coming here for work or vacation for about 30 years and have always enjoyed it. The island is divided into two countries, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, both with completely different cultures and food. My plane landed at one in the afternoon in Santo Domingo, the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. The weather was incredible—blue skies and 80 degrees. After leaving New York and a chilly 34 F, this seemed even better.
Tourism is the mainstay of the economy in the Dominican Republic. It’s made possible with beautiful beaches and an incredible number of resorts—Puerto Plata, La Romana, Bavaro Beach—combined with a temperate climate, great food and wonderful, friendly people and casinos in almost every good hotel.
Over the years, I came here with my family many times for vacation. We always had a very good time, and a fond memory for all of us is eating grilled fresh lobsters with garlic on the beach.
There’s lots of seafood, including of course, the lobsters, but the most exquisite shellfish is the fresh water shrimp called Langostinos here. They look like tiny lobsters and taste delicious, especially at my favorite restaurant Vesuvio. My friends here in Santo Domingo joke about my love for this restaurant and its langostinos and pasta verde. When I’m visiting, they know they can count on me being there every Sunday.
Simply delicious
Yucca, plantains, rice and beans are the main staples of the local cuisine. Moro (meaning Moors) is a dish made with rice and legumes that is cooked together as a daily meal. This dish used to be very simple, but today it has become more elaborate. There are as many versions as there are cooks. Oft times it is good enough to be eaten by itself, depending where you eat it.
Moro, probably came (along with the Spaniards) from the north of Africa, where rice with lentils is a common dish. The Cubans used to call this dish, Moros and Cristians, and they made it with black beans. Today Moros have become ubiquitous and it is even called ‘dirty rice’ in some places. Cajun cooks make a dish with the same name, but the local version here is made with beans rather than meat.
The food here looks similar to the food of my own country, Brazil, but it has a lot more spices and color, even though otherwise it has almost the same ingredients. A good example of this similarity is a food called cassave where here it looks like a hard tortilla, but in Brazil is very soft to the touch and called tapioca. Here it’s made with raw grated yucca, and in Brazil, it’s made only with yucca starch. This food was already a staple in Latin America before the Europeans arrived, and it is still being prepared, just as is the case with Mexican tortillas.
Some other common dishes are Mangu (mashed plantains cooked with onions and eaten for breakfast with eggs), and Mofongo, which is made with green plantains mixed with fried pork skins and fat. You can find Mofongo all over the city sold by street vendors.
Originally, I intended to travel to Haiti as well, but was not able to because of the ongoing cholera epidemic. I’ll check in again from the road soon…tchau for today and Happy New Year to all my friends!
