I am finally back from my honeymoon in the Dominican Republic and part of me is actually happy to be home. A small part of me was getting a little home sick but the part of me that loves to lie on the beach is thinking its time to start planning for another holiday. The biggest thing I missed was being able to see my family and friends, my puppy and not being able to cook. After 14 days of eating buffets and a la cart restaurants over and over I was almost ready to live off of Doritos, except that Doritos cost 6.00 USD a bag in Dominican. By the end I was so desperate to cook I could have jumped over the counter and slapped the chef with his spatula for overcooking absolutely everything.  Needless to say I didn’t take many food photos and wasn’t excited to be blogging while in the Dominican.

There was one point that we did get to experience traditional Dominican Cuisine and I would like to say this was my Anthony Bordain, no reservations moment. We didn’t eat Balut or Guinny Pig mind you but I also wasn’t entirely sure what it was that we did eat, except for the spaghetti which I am pretty sure was for the kids. We were on a touristy excursion and we drove through some of the poorest parts of Peurta Plata. This is where you’ll see stores with sinks haning from the celing and car parts strewn across the sidewalk. Its here that the bus pulled over and we all walked into a small unsuspecting restaurant.

Immediately when we arrived the rum started pouring and before you knew it the talk of getting the mamajuana out. I had a rather bad experience the night before with mamajuana so I was eagar to just get some food in my belly. One thing we noticed is that there is a lot of stray dogs and cats in Dominican. They seem to be fairly tame and taken care of but I did find it odd that there was also something furry rubbing against my legs while I was eating.

There wasn’t a menu at this restaurant and it appeared to be another buffet. Just when I thought I was safe I see the metal food trays lined up again. This time there were only a few things to chose from so I took a bit of everything. I am not entirely sure what this all is, but the chicken was probably the best thing I ate during the entire Dominican vacation. I don’t know how it was seasoned but the flavour was amazing. There was also traditional fried plantaine, beans and rice, beef, lamb, and who knows maybe even stray dog and cat. For the most part the food in the Dominican is fairly bland but if I knew where I was in Puerto Plata I would go back to this hole in the wall in a heartbeat. Since I don’t this will be one of those meals I will just have to remember from a photo.