Food Culture of Dominica

I have not been blogging because internet access in Dominica is intermittent, at best.

Dominica is a beautiful Caribbean island, virtually untouched by American developers, therefore, it has maintained its natural resources and beauty. It is often said that if Christopher Columbus came back to the Caribbean today, this is the only island he would recognize. Full or waterfalls, rivers, mineral deposits, sulphur springs and fruit and vegetable trees everywhere.

The first place I was staying at, a guest house near the Trafalgar Waterfalls, had a breadfruit tree and a coconut tree in the yard. I visited a relative yesterday who lived way up in the mountains and on her land, she had dasheen bush, avocado tree, christophene tree (chayote to Spanish and Americans, cho-cho to Jamaicans), Scotch Bonnet pepper plants, huge thyme bushes, fresh parsley, lettuce, cabbage, and pineapple tree. Wouldn’t it be amazing to wake up in the morning and have nothing in the refrigerator to eat. No need to go to the store, just go in your backyard and have your pick!! What a life!!

Roseau is the capital and you walk the whole thing in a few hours. Most of the variety stores are owned by the Chinese and there are 3 Chinese restaurants. The rest are rum shops with fast food and some snackettes and restaurants. Most restaurants close around 6 or 7pm, if you are lucky. Better eat early here, otherwise your only alternatives are fast food – KFC, Chinese and pizza or the expensive hotel restaurants. But when you are able to get food at the restaurants it is delicious. I tried a wonderful wildlife animal called agouti. It was stewed in creole sauce with tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic. It was delicious and it has its own taste. I also had Crab Calaloo which I think is the best thing I have had here so far – It is calaloo soup completely pureed with crab and dumplings that were so light and airy.

But the most common foods here are saltfish and ground provision. You pretty much get this everywhere you go. Saltfish (aka codfish) usually sautéed with onions, peppers and tomatoes after the salt has been boiled out of the fish. Ground provisions are boiled root vegetables that will include fig (green bananas), white yam, sweet potatoes, plantain, eddoe and dasheen.