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Symbols of Cultural and Historical Interest
1) Padres de la Patria
2) El Monumento
3) Zona Colonial

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Capital City: Santo Domingo
Other major cities: Santiago, La Romana, Puerto Plata,
Sights: El Monumento, Los 27 Charcos, Cayo Arena
Important places: Zona Colonial

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Yaroa
Casabe
Mofongo
Empanadas
Platano Maduro
Arroz con habichuelas

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Even though it did not originate here, Salsa dancing is extremely popular in the Dominican Republic.

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Santo-Domingo (DR) Salsa Dancing at El Conuco

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Baseball is more than a sport in the Dominican Republic. For many it is a way of life and a way to become successful. Interestingly enough, the sport has also had a very significant impact on education within the country.

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The Education Crisis Crippling Dominican Baseball Players

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Over the past two decades the educational system has gone through drastic changes in an attempt to help better serve its students. The following video demonstrates the state of education in the Dominican Republic.

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Hope brought by new high school in Dominican Republic

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Larry Huch Ministries and DFW New Beginnings partnered to open new high school in the Dominican Republic. 8th grade students there were interviewed about the hope they have with the chance to continue their education and what life might be like if they were not able to.

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Santo Domingo is the capital of the Dominican Republic. The city was founded in 1498 and is widely regarded as the first city in the Americas. This city also plays a significant role as a major sea port for the country.

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Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - Santo Domingo City Tour

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Santo Domingo the Capital of Dominican Republic where the night life has not end, culture, museum, excursions. Come to visit Santo Domingo

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This city is the second largest in the Dominican Republic and the fifth largest in the Caribbean.

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Santiago de los Caballeros , also called Santiago, city, northern Dominican Republic . It is situated on the Yaque del Norte River , in the heart of the fertile Cibao Valley , and is known as the capital of the Cibao region.

Santiago de los Caballeros is the country's second largest city and is more traditional than the national capital, Santo Domingo . Whether founded in 1494 by Christopher Columbus (as some historians claim) or in 1495 by his brother Bartholomew , Santiago was among the first European settlements in the Americas. In 1504, 30 caballeros (gentlemen) of the Order of St. James (Santiago) moved from nearby La Isabela to Santiago, henceforth known as Santiago de los Caballeros. After being destroyed by an earthquake in 1562, the city was rebuilt a few miles away, where Nibaje Stream meets the Yaque; ruins of the old city are still visible in the city's San Francisco de Jacagua district. Santiago survived numerous earthquakes and fires to serve repeatedly as the republic's capital.

The city's economy long depended mainly on the production of cigarettes, rum, furniture, pharmaceuticals, soaps, leather articles, and processed foods, including cacao, milled rice, and dairy produce. Services, including tourism, have become increasingly important, however. Santiago is on the main highway linking Santo Domingo (85 miles [137 km] southeast) with Monte Cristi in the extreme northwest. A regional international airport opened there in 2002. Pop. (2002) urban area, 507,418; (2010) urban area, 550,753.

Notable landmarks include the San Luis Fort (now a museum), the Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration, various palaces, and the Cathedral of Santiago el Mayor situated opposite the city park (Parque Duarte). Institutions of higher learning include the Pontificia Católica Madre y Maestra University, established in 1962, and a technological university founded in 1974.

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Santiago de los Caballeros | Dominican Republic

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Santiago de los Caballeros , also called Santiago, city, northern Dominican Republic . It is situated on the Yaque del Norte River , in the heart of the fertile Cibao Valley , and is known as the capital of the Cibao region.

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Major City

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La Romana, Dominican Republic - Wikipedia

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La Romana is the seventh-largest city in the Dominican Republic with a population estimated in 2010 at 130,426 within the city limits ( metropolitan population: 214,109), of whom 127,623 are urban and 2,803 are rural. The city is capital of the southeastern province of La Romana, opposite Catalina Island.

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Punta Cana is a major travel destination for tourists across the world. The resort-style city is a major creator for service jobs and also provides the country with a significant amount of economic benefits.

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El Monumento a los Heroes de La Restauracion

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El Monumento a los Heroes de La Restauracion

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Translated to "The Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration", this historical site pays tribute to those who fought in the Dominican Restoration War, which was fought in the late 1800s.

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Posted by Nikki under Santiago
Comments Off on Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration

Santiago de los Trienta Caballeros (Saint James of the Knights) is located in the northern region of the Dominican Republic and has several places that are definitely worth visiting. As a resident of this fair city, I'm always open for places to go, and the Santiago Monument is one I would recommend for anyone who finds themselves here looking for something to do.

A Local Hot Spot
Situated on the corner of Avenida Francia and Las Carreras, the monument is a popular place. After any event of Dominican note, (like when Martha Heredia won the Latin American Idol, Amelia Vega won Miss Universe, or whenever the local Aguilas baseball team wins), the monument is where everyone heads to celebrate. The whole downtown area is impassable during these occasions, and it is probably wise to avoid the whole general area if you don't want to get caught up in the chaos.

History
Designed by the architect Henry Gazón Bona and built by the dictator Rafael Liónidas Trujillo in the 1940's, it was originally named "The Monument of Peace from Trujillo" in his own ego inflated honor. Standing 70mt (229ft) tall, it was crowned by a statue of Trujillo mounted on a horse, and the 365 stairs that lead to the top were set to represent the fact that Trujillo cared for his people every day of the year. That would seem to be a somewhat ominous message considering how he cared for them...

After his assassination, in 1961, his statue was torn down and the name of the monument was changed to honor the heroes who restored the country's independence from Spain in the War of Restoration of the 1860's.

Recently, in a process that took over a year, the structure was remodeled inside and out.

The interior it is now a museum to the heroes of the restoration, containing statues and other works of art that commemorate Dominican heroes. The statues depict the different restoration heroes, one of the great musician and Navarete native Ñico Lora, and an area reserved for the great baseball players of the local Aguilas (Eagles) team. Among the art displayed are scenes from the 1863-1865 Restoration War battles.

Special attention was given to landscaping the gardens that surround the monument, planting trees, flowers, and other plants that are indigenous to the country. Before it was kind of sparsely landscaped and unattractive, but now it is quite nice.

A Magnificent View
If you have the stamina to go up a year's worth of stairs you will find one of the most beautiful views of the city. On a nice clear day you can see from the historic Hermanos Patiño bridge all the way to the León Jimenez Museum on the other side of the city. So, make sure you have your camera with you and didn't leave it in the car, because you don't want to have to "run down" 365 stairs to get it!

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Living in the Dominican Republic " Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration

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Posted by Nikki under Santiago Comments Off on Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration Santiago de los Trienta Caballeros (Saint James of the Knights) is located in the northern region of the Dominican Republic and has several places that are definitely worth visiting.

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Sights
Spanish for "the 27 puddles" but often referred to as the 27 waterfalls

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Our Trip to the 27 waterfalls in the Dominican Republic (footage shot on lumix ts2)

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Sights
Spanish for "sand fell" but referred to as Paradise Island

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Paradise Island or Cayo Arena, Puerto Plata - Dominican Republic

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Colonial Tour and Travel presents this beautiful tour to Paradise Island, one of the most beautiful and paradisiacal places of the Dominican Republic. Paradise Island, whose real name is Cayo Paraso or Cayo Arena, is a coral islet located in the Northwest of the Dominican Republic

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Personal Journeys

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A crowd at Estadio Cibao cheers a hit by Jonathan Villar. Credit Credit Roberto Muñoz for The New York Times

On the way to Tamboril, Dominican Republic, a famous cigar-making suburb east of Santiago, our rented Hyundai Grand i10 dropped into every dirt pothole with a disturbing thunk. Frankly, we'd been terrible at sightseeing. Our maps and apps consistently let us down, our walking routes took us past hospitals and funeral homes and we never once made it to the beach. We were about to give up and drive to the airport early when my niece Aurora, 25, looked out the rear window and asked, "Isn't that a baseball field?"

And that was the way it went in the Dominican Republic: Baseball found us.

Four days earlier, the week before Christmas, we had traveled there not for the 82-degree temperatures, cathedrals built by popes and bishops, merengue music, paella Valenciana and street-side ice cream parlors that seem to appear exactly when you need them - although those were nice. We were there to stave off seasonal depression. "As soon as the chill rains come," A. Bartlett Giamatti, baseball's former commissioner, once wrote, "It stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone." I located the world's best winter baseball - the Liga de Beisbol Dominicano - and dragged Aurora and my brother, Mark, to this island of banana plants and death-defying motorcyclists.

Baseball players in the Dominican Republic are like musicians - or, more recently, sprinters - in nearby Jamaica: so much talent for such a tiny island. Juan Marichal, David Ortiz, Robinson Canó, Sammy Sosa and Albert Pujols are from here. As of opening day 2015, Dominicans made up 83 of baseball's 868 players. "If you reverse time back 15 years ago, I was sitting under a mango tree without 50 cents to actually pay for a bus," Pedro Martinez, the Hall of Fame pitcher, once told reporters.

Baseball arrived on the island by sea in the 1860s, via Cubans fleeing the Ten Years' War, according to " The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic " by Rob L. Ruck. By the 1930s, it had grown into a big-money sport where owners mined the country for talented youths whose parents often worked at sugar refineries. In 1937 a team, run in part by the dictator Rafael Trujillo, hired Negro League stars from the United States, including Satchel Paige. Mr. Trujillo built the first modern stadium, complete with lights, in the mid-'50s. That was when star Dominican players first graduated to the majors, beginning with the utility infielder Ozzie Virgil.

I decided to adopt a team in the Dominican's winter league, which begins every October, then peaks with a round robin playoff in January. (Winner goes to the Caribbean Series, in February, to compete against Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela.) I wanted a winner, and Santiago's 79-year-old Águilas Cibaeñas, or Eagles of Cibao, had the high-profile names to go with gaudy statistics. Their cleanup hitter was Manny Ramirez, the former Red Sox postseason hero. The sure-handed Jonathan Villar of the Houston Astros played shortstop; Frank Batista, now a Chicago Cubs pitching prospect, was their ace. They played at the Estadio Cibao, the island's biggest stadium, an 18,000-capacity, old-school ballpark.

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Manny Ramirez, a former Águilas player. Credit Roberto Muñoz for The New York Times

I speak no Spanish, so my plan was to bond with local fans over baseball passion; we'd share the universal language of E.R.A. and R.B.I. But on the plane to Santo Domingo, for the Águilas' away game against Los Leones del Escogido, or Lions of the Chosen One, a friendly Dominican engineering student at the University of Illinois did not react well. She scoffed at the idea of an American striding into Dominican stadiums without even a "cómo estás." She translated my plan to her countrymen. "Try not to speak English," one advised.

Mark, Aurora and I had a few hours to kill on game day, so we took off on foot from our hotel, El Embajador, built in 1956 as an opulent island getaway, which once drew American stars, from Rock Hudson to William Holden, to its Art Deco lobby. As we walked down Avenida Bolívar in the thick humidity, we noticed men seated outside banks and businesses on folding chairs with rifles displayed on their laps.

Dodging guides-for-hire, we reached Zona Colonial, a district of narrow cobblestone streets full of museums and restaurants. At the center, the Parque Colón, a wide square containing a statue of Christopher Columbus, we watched children kick soccer balls and tourists consult guidebooks to confirm that a large sandstone building was actually the Basílica Catedral Metropolitan Santa María de la Encarnación, built by the Vatican in 1540 to co-opt the religion of the native people.

Finally, it was game time. Estadio Quisqueya, built with Mr. Trujillo's support in 1955, has the small, warm feel of a minor league stadium, and at times we felt as if we were watching the Lansing Lugnuts. The pumped-up music between innings was relentless, from Wiz Khalifa's "We Dem Boyz" to the booming merengue that backed male and female dancers in tight shorts. Vendors in chicken helmets sold chicken fingers; vendors in hot-dog hats sold hot dogs. Our Águilas put up a fight: Mr. Ramirez, showing a flash of the imperious "Manny being Manny" mode, glared at the umpire before lancing an R.B.I. double to right. But Escogido won, 5-4, knocking the visitors out of first-place contention.

The next day, we rented our Hyundai and drove about 93 miles north along DR-1, a narrow highway where motorcyclists zip between cars and pedestrians drag bicycles and bundles into the road. At one point, two huge trucks encroached into my lane on both sides, and as Mark and Aurora screamed, I accelerated to avoid being crushed.

It was dark when we drove past a patch of trees to Estadio Cibao, in the middle of a concrete barrio not known for its Saturday-night safety. The stadium was the only light in the area, with its giant yellow "A" over the entrance. As we lined up to buy tickets from a woman in a green metal cage, scalpers bunched around us, refusing to leave even when we shook our heads. "Don't you trust me?" one kept asking.

Far more than Estadio Quisqueya, Estadio Cibao resembles a major league ballpark: flags everywhere, TV broadcasters speaking to cameras out front, wall-size baseball cards depicting the star hitters Miguel Tejada and Zoilo Almonte. Perhaps because the Águilas were out of contention for first place (Mr. Ramirez wasn't even in the starting lineup) the stadium was only half-full. But the crowd made up for it with volume.

Near our seats along the first-base line (1,000 pesos apiece, or about $21 at 43 pesos to the dollar), college-age youths filled a section in their bright-yellow Águilas gear, pounding on snare drums, a marching band without the marching. Children threw candy to the players, who snagged it with their gloves and nodded their thanks. The elaborate center-field scoreboard wasn't working, perhaps owing to a huge stadium fire the previous month, and it was only by keeping score in a small notebook that I was able to follow the game. I silently befriended an older gentleman in our row by flashing fingers to confirm runs and outs.

With first place out of reach, the Águilas put on a power show against the Estrellas Orientales, scoring 10 runs on 16 hits, including a home run by the Kansas City Royals catching prospect Francisco Peña. The biggest drama came in the seventh inning, when the stadium lights abruptly shut off. For half an hour, security men in camouflage with guns surrounded the field, while players stretched in the outfield and dancers danced on the dugout. Then the lights returned and the Águilas won, 10-3.

On Sunday evening, the last game of the regular season, Estadio Cibao was more crowded but less rowdy, wide-eyed children in baseball caps in lieu of percussive students. I sat with a man who grew up in the Dominican Republic but now works as a plumber in the Bronx. He had returned to visit family. In illustrating the country's rich baseball history, he demonstrated Juan Marichal's high leg kick; I told him the English term for a runner getting trapped between bases is a "pickle," which made him laugh. Later, a man with a wife and young daughter asked to borrow my pen, which he tossed to the visiting Gigantes' dugout 20 rows below us. His young son had been sitting in the dugout for the entire game, and the players needed my pen so they could sign autographs on the boy's birthday.

The Águilas won the game, 5-3, solidifying second place, and our three-game Dominican series came to an end. We hadn't exactly been good luck. A month after we left, the Águilas collapsed in the playoffs, firing their manager, Andy Barkett, and replacing him with the popular former major leaguer Miguel Tejada. I'd bet on the wrong team.

After one of the games, we ordered room service and queued up a 2008 movie download called "Sugar," about a young, hard-throwing Dominican pitcher who grows up in poverty and uses baseball in an attempt to achieve the American dream. But his dream disintegrates one bad day in Iowa, when he injures his leg, develops a bad attitude and takes off to try to build furniture in New York. The movie suggests a different interpretation of Dominican baseball culture, one of exploitation, where children who fail to follow the Pedro Martinez path from the mango tree to the majors wind up with nothing.

Over the decades, unregulated talent factories known as academies have multiplied throughout the island to make money off giant baseball contracts. Critics such as Arturo Marcano, a Venezuelan-born lawyer and ESPN Deportes columnist, have accused the academies of hauling kids away from their families, keeping them out of school and occasionally manipulating them out of bonus money or into steroid use. Today, every American professional baseball team operates its own Dominican academy, and Mr. Marcano acknowledges they're "getting a little bit better." The newer problem is unregulated local middlemen who, he argues, "want to accelerate the growing process."

The baseball field Aurora discovered from the back seat of our rental car belongs to the MB Academy, run by Micalo Bermúdez, a shoe exporter sidestepping into the business of manufacturing players. As we watched from our woodsy spot beyond the outfield fence, Mr. Bermúdez's son, Marcelo, 21, a Florida college student who played high school ball, spotted the rare visitors and sent over a coach to invite us to watch the practice.

Marcelo Bermúdez, right, of MB Academy, and a player. Credit Roberto Muñoz for The New York Times

Marcelo Bermúdez explained how the academy system works, as we watched teenage prospects in the academy's uniforms field grounders and fire them to first base. Once a player turns 13, an academy can sign him to a contract. If that player winds up with a major league deal, the academy takes roughly 30 percent. MB Academy has signed 10 prospects this way, including Onil Peña, a catcher who received $385,000 from the Seattle Mariners two years ago, when he was 16.

Is this exploitative? "Exploitation is part of not being regulated," Rafael Pérez, baseball's director of Dominican operations, said in a phone interview. "There's always the possibility that could happen." But Mr. Pérez vouched for the MB Academy, calling it a well-run facility that "might be the best, to be honest, when it comes to pure infrastructure."

On this rushed Monday morning, Marcelo Bermúdez gave me a hasty tour of the field, the small clubhouse offices and a messy, dormlike barracks. I asked him why such a small island contains so much baseball talent. "Baseball is the No. 1 sport here in the country," he said, "by far. We have kids here who will do anything to sign. They see it as a dream.

"For a poor kid," he continued, "seeing all those other players becoming rich and famous, working at what they love, they want it to be the same."

Correction:

The Personal Journeys article last Sunday about baseball in the Dominican Republic misstated the age of the writer's niece, Aurora. She is 25 years old, not 27.

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The Lure of Baseball in the Dominican Republic

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Personal Journeys On the way to Tamboril, Dominican Republic, a famous cigar-making suburb east of Santiago, our rented Hyundai Grand i10 dropped into every dirt pothole with a disturbing thunk. Frankly, we'd been terrible at sightseeing. Our maps and apps consistently let us down, our walking routes took us past hospitals and funeral homes and we never once made it to the beach.

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Important places
Spanish for "Colonial Zone" but often referred to as Colonial City

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After Christopher Columbus's arrival on the island in 1492, Santo Domingo became the site of the first cathedral, hospital, customs house and university in the Americas. This colonial town, founded in 1498, was laid ...

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Mofongo is a dish that is a major staple of the Dominican Republic. Mofongo is mashed plantains with garlic flavoring.

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Mofongo (Garlic-Flavored Mashed Plantains), concedes Aunt Clara, is a dish with a special place in the hearts and stomachs of Dominicans, but actually originates in the neighboring island of Puerto Rico. While there is a Dominican version, it was made with plantains roasted on coal, and it didn't produce the same mofongo we've now come to love.

Not surprisingly, I know some Dominicans who would take serious issue with that claim. Mofongo is the flagship dish in many typical Dominican restaurants like Adrian Tropical, which offers a number of variations on the theme, some Dominicans would consider it heresy to label it as a foreign import.

Putting that aside for a moment...

So what is mofongo?

Mofongo is an extremely tasty and filling dish made with plantains: fried, mashed with garlic, shaped into a ball and served in a pilón (the mortar bit of the pestle and mortar).

Classic mofongo is made with chicharrón (fried pork rind) and Adrian Tropical also does a chicken version and - my choice - a garlic prawn alternative - all served with a garlicky broth to moisten the plantain and bring out the flavor. It can be eaten for lunch or supper and is also a popular snack for late-night revelers.

Go to Puerto Rico and you'll find the same thing - mofongo is all over the place there too. In fact, so much of Puerto Rican cuisine is similar to Dominican, that it's difficult to say who invented what. There are some differences, like in the spelling: what we know as guandules (pigeon peas) in the DR is spelled gandules in PR. Similar or identical dishes sometimes have different names.

I had the pleasure of visiting Puerto Rico last month, and my seven-year-old son gave a special vote of approval for 'pinchos' - that universal treat of barbecued chicken, fish or meat on a skewer also known as brochettes, kebabs or pinchitos elsewhere. Bearing in mind my less than carnivorous tendencies, I enjoyed a simple but delicious plate of garbanzos (chickpeas). Mofongo - never, ever to be confused with - is a sensitive subject. I always have to think twice before saying the word, especially when ordering in a restaurant, because I don't know what I'd do if a steaming plate of innards was put in front of me, instead of mofongo. I'm also going to re-read this article very carefully to make sure I haven't put my foot in it, so to speak.

How's this for a compromise? Puerto Rican and Dominican cuisine share the exact same roots: Taíno, African and Spanish. Both countries have Middle Eastern and Chinese immigrants, as well as European influences apart from the Spanish, the only striking difference being the Corsican influx to Puerto Rico. Later influences may have varied - for obvious reasons Puerto Rico has a much stronger US influence than the Dominican Republic, for example, while the DR has closer contact with its Haitian neighbors.

Mofongo, however, comes from the African side of the family so that's where we shall say its origins really lie. Dominicans and Puerto Ricans are the grateful heirs.

Looking for more Mofongo recipes?

Camarofongo (Shrimp Mofongo)
Mofongo cups stuffed with shrimp and avocado
Boricua Mofongo by Sazon Boricua

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Mofongo - Recipe & Video (Garlic-Flavored Mashed Plantains)

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Mofongo (Garlic-Flavored Mashed Plantains), concedes Aunt Clara, is a dish with a special place in the hearts and stomachs of Dominicans, but actually originates in the neighboring island of Puerto Rico. While there is a Dominican version, it was made with plantains roasted on coal, and it didn't produce the same mofongo we've now come to love.

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Bachata is a style of music as well as a style of dance. Take a look at what dancing Bachata looks like!

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Romeo santos Debate de 4 ft  Luis Vargas, Raulin Rodriguez & Anthony Santos

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Merengue is the traditional dance from Dominican Republic. Here is a video of a Merengue performance.

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Elvis Crespo & Pitbull - Suavemente (merengue dance)

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Instagram - @tomasherold Gabriela Julie and Lazaro performing Ballroom Dancing at the sold out "2012 Jiggy Showcase" on March 1st at White Plains High School. Choreography was also done by them.

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Día de la Altagracia is a one of the most celebrated holidays in the Dominican Republic. This holiday is celebrated with a fest on January 21st and is rooted in Catholicism, the major religion in the country.

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The portrait of Our Lady of Altagracia is thirty-three centimeters wide by forty-five high. Expert opinion has it that it is a primitive work of the Spanish school, painted towards the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century.

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This student from Millersville University provides a unique perspective on Education in the country.

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Discovering the Education System in the Dominican Republic

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Donate to Pack for a Purpose here: https://www.packforapurpose.org/destinations/caribbean/dominican-republic/ Music: Remember Me by Thomas Bergersen Special thanks: Millersville University and the department of music at Millersville University for making this experience possible Other thanks: Allison Raffin, and Lance Samuel for videos and interviews.

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Casabe, or cassava bread, is one of the most popular and conventional snacks in the Dominican Republic. Casabe gained its popularity when Spaniards first arrived on the island, due to the fact that it would not go stale or get moldy.

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Casabe - a crispy flat bread made from cassava (yuca) flour - was at the centre of the Taíno diet. When the Spanish first arrived on the island, they soon found that casabe had advantages over their traditional European bread, in that it does not go stale or mouldy. For this reason, it is said that the conquest of the Americas was fueled by casabe, taken by the conquistadores from Hispaniola as they continued their push into Mexico and other parts of the continent.

You can find the casabe recipe here.

Over 500 years later, casabe is still a popular food in Dominican households. As with conventional bread, it can be eaten at different times of the day, in a variety of ways. Most commonly for breakfast, consisting of a coffee and a piece of casabe, it is also used to accompany soups and stews such as asopaos and sancochos. Other ways of consuming casabe include soaking it in water and serving it with fried eggs or avocado. It can also be baked and served with a sprinkle of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. For a light supper, accompany it with a mug of hot chocolate. It can also be used as a buffet food with dips, in the same way as tortilla chips, crackers or pitta bread. There may be more traditional ways of eating casabe that may have escaped my notice, if so please let me know. It is certain that there are endless new ways that could be devised for this versatile food, and suggestions for this would also be welcomed.

To make casabe, the yuca has to be peeled, washed, ground up, compressed, sieved and then finally shaped into large circular moulds and baked on a hotplate. To make a large, commercial quantity is not an easy task using the traditional method, which is more appropriate for producing the amount needed to feed a household. Up till a couple of decades ago, casabe production was a dying tradition in the Dominican Republic. The ultimate cottage industry, it was restricted to several very small producers mainly in the northwest of the country, and distribution and sales beyond the local area were close to nonexistent. Casabe was revitalised by enterprising producers like Nicolas Almonte of Casabe Guaraganó, who in the 1970s adapted this labour-intensive craft to a larger scale process where much of the production is done by machinery. This allows for increased volumes of production. Now other producers have followed suit and casabe is being produced on a much larger scale and being distributed to colmados and supermarkets around the country, as well as to overseas markets, especially the United States.

An additional benefit of the increased production is that is employs a significant amount of people - especially women - in rural areas, and acts as an incentive to keep people from migrating to the cities or overseas. Monción has a population of 14,000 and it is estimated that 4,000 or so owe their living directly or indirectly to the casabe industry. Although the Monción area is home to many small and medium-scale producers, they are working together as a casabe producers association in order to promote the product.

The challenge for these producers is to increase the popularity of casabe, which is still seen as a "humble" food. They stress its versatility and health benefits as selling points. It is fat-free and rich in fibre, for example, and although not formally certified, yuca is always grown organically. Despite being preservative-free, casabe has a shelf life of up to eight months, as the Spaniards were so grateful to find. The producers also want to develop the image of casabe and turn it into a gourmet product for the domestic and international market. There are already some good ideas in action - many producers are making several varieties including garlic-flavoured casabe, or as a dessert - casabe filled with guava or pineapple jam, and different sized casabe such as 'buffet' to serve with dips.

"Casabe lady" photo by *Nicolas Almonte's definition of gourmet casabe is "un casabe hecho con amor" - casabe made with love.

Pedrito Guzmán. Used with permission.

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Casabe - Keeping an Ancient Tradition Alive

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Casabe -- a crispy flat bread made from cassava (yuca) flour - was at the centre of the Taíno diet. When the Spanish first arrived on the island, they soon found that casabe had advantages over their traditional European bread, in that it does not go stale or mouldy.

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The symbols on the Dominican Republic Coat of Arms are indicative of the countries rich culture. "Dio, Patria, Libertard," or God, Homeland, Liberty, is the countries motto. The Coat of Arms also includes a cross and a holy bible, which is a testament to its deep roots in Catholicism.

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Coat of arms of the Dominican Republic - Wikipedia

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The coat of arms of the Dominican Republic features a shield in similarly quartered colors as the flag, supported by a bay laurel branch (left) and a palm frond (right); above the shield, a blue ribbon displays the national motto: Dios, Patria, Libertad (God, Homeland, Liberty).

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Hello everyone!!

Today I bring you all a recipe from the heart of the Dominican streets. A typical street food treat right from the Valley of Cibao, in the heart of the Dominican Republic: Santiago!

For some time, friends had been asking me for this recipe and I admit that I had to research a little. This recipe is terribly flavorful...enjoy!

Ingredients for the Santiago Yaroa

4 ripe plantains.

1 lb ground meat.

½ lb of Gouda cheese.

½ bell pepper.

1 tbsp. paprika.

½ Cubanela pepper.

1 sweet pepper.

1 red onion.

2 spoonfuls of tomato paste.

2 spoonfuls of mayonnaise.

2 spoonfuls of cream cheese.

2 spoonfuls ketchup.

1 bouillon cube.

1 spoonful of black pepper.

1 spoonful of green milled oregano.

Salt to taste.

Directions for preparing an amazing Santiago Yaroa

Boil the ripe plantains with a little bit of salt. Take them out of the water, mash into a puree and separate.

Prepare the ground meat and cook it with the sweet pepper, the onion, the pleasant pepper and the cubanela pepper along with the paprika, the bouillon cube, the black pepper, oregano, tomato paste and salt. When the meat is cooked, add the mayonnaise, cream cheese and ketchup and mix well.

Make a bed with the ripe plantain pure to make a layer and place a generous layer of meat above. Place the cheese on top of the meat and put in the microwave for a few seconds to melt the cheese. (It is not necessary because the heat of the meat will melt the cheese anyway, but if you are very hungry, the microwave will help accelerate the process!)

It can also be prepared with chicken meat and with French fries instead of ripe plantains, although the truth is that in this recipe, the combination of the sweet taste of the ripe plantains and the ground meat is simply mouthwatering. I have to give it to "Santiagueros" (people from Santiago): "Santiago is Santiago!" (*popular say in Santiago to express the pride Santiagueros feel about their city and their culture)

Don't forget to subscribe and continue enjoying with the new of the fogoncito!

Arturo

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About Arturo Féliz-Camilo

Escritor. Consultor. Historiador. Cocinero tradicional Dominicano. (Writer. Consultant. Historian. Dominican traditional food cook)

This entry was posted in Finger foods, Traditional Dominican Food, Traditional street food and tagged dominican food, Dominican food at el fogoncito, El Fogoncito in English, el fogoncito.net, elfogoncito, elfogoncito.com, elfogoncito.net, santiago, santiago de los caballeros, Spanish food, traditional Dominican food, yaroa, yaroa recipe. Bookmark the permalink.

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¡Yaroa! ¡A proof that Santiago is Santiago!*

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Santiago Yaroa recipe Hello everyone!! Today I bring you all a recipe from the heart of the Dominican streets. A typical street food treat right from the Valley of Cibao, in the heart of the Dominican Republic: Santiago! For some time, friends had been asking me for this recipe and I admit that I had...