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FOOD
What I actually eat in the Dominican Republic
Forget the top-10 lists. After all my trips, my Dominican food life runs on three things: fried chicken at the chinos, empanadas on the street, and two fruit stands I refuse to skip.
Selçuk Değer
13 June 2024 · 3 min read
Of course the Dominican Republic has its famous dishes — and I’ll get to those. But if I’m honest about what I actually eat when I’m there, it’s a much shorter list. Three things, on repeat.
Pica pollo at the chinos
Every Dominican town — even the smallest — has a Chinese-Dominican restaurant, and they all serve the country’s favorite comfort food: pica pollo, crispy Dominican fried chicken, with tostones — twice-fried plantain slices — on the side. It’s cheap, it’s everywhere, it’s always good. When I’m on the road and hungry, I don’t even look for alternatives anymore. Find the chino, order the pica pollo, done.
Empanadas and yaniqueques
My street-food staples: empanadas — I go for the ones with egg — and yaniqueques, the crispy fried flatbread that came over with migrants from the English-speaking islands (“johnny cakes”, say it fast in Spanish). Best eaten standing up, ideally near a beach, ideally with a second one already ordered.
The real Dominican diet — no white tablecloths involved.
The fruit stands
This is the part I miss most when I’m home. Fresh fruit salad from a stand costs almost nothing and tastes like the country itself. I have two fixed addresses: one stand in Las Terrenas, and one roadside spot in Santo Domingo — actually a truck that arrives every morning fully loaded, and by evening it’s sold out. And at both, there’s always music playing — salsa, bachata, merengue — because of course there is. If you’re on a trip with me, we’re stopping there. Non-negotiable.
“By evening the truck is empty. That’s how you know.”
Of course there’s more — la bandera (rice, beans, meat: the daily lunch of the whole country), mangú at breakfast, sancocho if you’re lucky enough to be invited to one. But the three above? That’s my real Dominican diet.
ON THE TRIP
We eat where locals eat
The chino, the comedor, the fruit truck — on an Al Ritmo trip these are the lunch stops, not a detour. Come hungry.
