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for those who seek adventure 
The average Dominican not only appre¬ 
ciates and enjoys good food, but is capable 
of making a fair judgement on the quality 
and taste of food. Despite our recent expo¬ 
sure to the “fast food” concept, our prepa¬ 
ration of the fast food items usually “boils 
down” to a tastier version of its original. 
Whatever it takes in terms of pre-cooking 
preparation, we are essentially Creole in 
taste and it is a rewarding experience for 
any cook that our population savours with 
enthusiasm our excellent cuisine. 
Dominican cuisine is a fascinating combi¬ 
nation of France and Africa, both famous 
cuisines, with our own tropical blend as well 
as the influence of the British Isles and more 
recently through travel, India, China and 
North America. The essence of Dominican 
cooking is the pre-cooking preparation which 
takes the form of seasoning or marinating. 
The herbs and spices chosen for seasoning 
are always fresh and compliment each other 
to achieve a subtle blend, so that only in 
exceptional cases, no singe herb or spice 
dominates. 
Our farmers produce an abundance of 
wonderful herbs, i.e. chives, thyme, celery, 
parsley, seasoning peppers, hot peppers 
and sweet peppers. To these herbs are 
added crushed garlic, salt and a small quan¬ 
tity of vinegar or lime juice to obtain an ideal 
marinade for either meat or fish dishes. 
Fruit and vegetables are easily obtainable 
most of the year. Fortunately, there are 
different peak seasons for some fruit and 
vegetables, so we are never without some¬ 
thing to enjoy. During the summer months, 
there are also our “fun” fruit like the kenip, 
yellow plums, numerous types of small man¬ 
goes, plumrose and sugar-apples. These 
fruits are eaten ripe without ceremony, many 
being consumed at any given time. Our 
Our services include: 
• Information on setting up export/import operations 
• Services to help exporters find effective and reliable overseas markets 
• Helping buyers to procure local produce 
• Market research on key overseas markets 
• Processing enquiries from overseas 
For more information contact us at: 
P.O. Box 173, Roseau, Commonwealth of Dominica 
Tel: (809) 448-2780, 3494/5 • Fax: (809) 448-6308 • Telex: 8626 DEXIA DO 
DOMINICA EXPORT IMPORT AGENCY 
Market facilitators promoting and developing agricultural 
and agro-processed products from Dominica. 
WORKING TO INCREASE EXPORTS! 
60 
tropical climate inspires many beverages. 
Oranges, grapefruit, tangerine, sour-sop, 
passion fruit, tamarind and our ever available 
green coconut make terrific drinks, as well as 
delicious sorbet and sherbet for easy refresh¬ 
ing desserts. The coconut cream extracted 
from the dry coconut combined with fruit 
juice makes an exotic blend and by adding a 
little rum, a few drops of Angostura Bitters 
and some freshly grated nutmeg, one can 
create an awesome punch or cocktail. 
Julie and Graham mangoes, water-mel¬ 
ons, pawpaws, ripe bananas, pineapples, 
guavas, mamie-apples and carambola cut 
into small pieces and flavoured with cherry 
juice makes and excellent fruit salad, a 
favourite Dominican dessert. Using a blender, 
these fruits can be made into rich fruit nectars 
and served chilled on a warm tropical day. 
Most of our fruit makes good jam and can be 
made into tarts. 
Contrary to what one might expect Do¬ 
minicans are not great salad consumers. For 
health reasons as well as to serve the tourist, 
some effort and creativity has been given 
more recently to salads and we have emu¬ 
lated the “toss” salad idea. Moreover, we 
produce water-cress, lettuce, avocados, to¬ 
matoes, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, rad¬ 
ishes, turnips, spinach, egg-plant, 
christophene and pumpkin, which is supe¬ 
rior to the North American species. A stir-fry 
using a combination of these vegetables is 
excellent eating. These vegetables are also 
used for cream soups either individually or 
combined. The traditional favourite being 
the “Calalloo” made from the young dasheen 
leaf, ochroes and lots of herbs and exquisitely 
flavoured with smoked meat and crab. 
Our root vegetables such as the dasheen, 
yam, cushcush, tannia and sweet potatoes 
are one group of food consumed daily. Then 
there is the banana family, i.e., green banana 
and the plantain (green and ripe) and finally, 
the breadfruit and breadnut of the same 
family. All of these are normally eaten sim¬ 
ply, just boiled or steamed preferably in the 
skin, peeled, cut into slices and served very 
hot. Sometimes, they are then fried, just for 
a change of taste. 
The green banana and plantain make 
chips that are equal to the potato chip in 
taste. All of these vegetables can also be 
cooked, mashed, seasoned and deep fried 
for croquettes or made into vegetable pies or 
au-gratin by being sprinkled on top with 
cheese and placed under the grill. 
More recently, we have been experi¬ 
menting with fruit and vegetable combina¬ 
tions particularly in salads. Thus our creativ¬ 
ity is challenged and we can tempt the most 
fastidious of gourmets. Our restaurants and 
fast food outlets are only too happy to oblige 
those seeking adventure. 
