There’s Chicago style pizza, New York style pizza, California style pizza and then there is Dominican style pizza…….. There are many things that Dominicans do great, but sorry guys pizza isn’t one of them…

Casa Azul

Then we come across Casa Azul in Las Terrenas. Well, it was made by Dominicans and very friendly ones but the result? Well, let’s say I’ve found a new favorite place to get a pizza! This pizza was made in an actual stone oven giving it a slight smoky flavor and as to be expected with stone oven pizzas you get the small close to burnt spots on the crust (something that many feel marks a truly great pizza) which actually adds to the flavor.

The sauce was flavorful pizza sauce not the ketchup sauce that is frequently found in many pizzerias in this country. It was layered on a relatively thin, crisp crust that took in some of the smoke flavor from the oven.

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Although most of us like to take our frozen refreshments in the form of piña coladas, and daiquiris while visiting tropical islands sometimes an ice cream will hit the spot. The Dominican Republic has a number of different ice cream brands to choose from including Haagen-Dazs, Baskin Robins and the local favorite Bon ice cream (Helados Bon). So which to choose?

Haagen Dazs

As far as taste goes there is little competition for Haagen-Dazs. We recently stopped by a store in Santiago and yes it is just as good as in the States but also just as expensive if not more. A dish with three scoops of ice cream some cookie garnish and some caramel topping went for about $10 USD. Excellent ice cream but probably not somewhere I would go regularly.

Haagen-Dazs is also only available in a couple of the largest cities Santo Domingo and Santiago. Santiago was not listed on their website, but yes there is a store there which means there could be other locations that are not listed and I have not found yet.
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The Las Colinas Mall is a multi-story mall located on Ave 27 de Febrero in Santiago. They have both escalators and an elevator to get between the different levels.

Jumbo Super Market

The Jumbo Supermarket in the Las Colinas Mall is kind of like a Wal-Mart in the US. You find just about everything there. Food, liquor, clothes, household items etc. They also have a good bakery and a cafeteria style food area.

Their bakery is very good. We tried a couple different styles of fresh baked bread as well as several pastries. One of our favorite pastries was a custard cone with about a cup of very good flavored vanilla custard in a flaky pastry cone. They also had some very good fruit pastries. This will likely be one of the locations we will stop by regularly in the future.

Las Colinas Food Court

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Once again Cholera is spreading on the island of Hispaniola. This time we are seeing more in the Dominican Republic. Depending on the report you read there have been either 15 or 23 deaths due to the disease. While this probably still isn’t a sufficient reason to avoid coming to the DR it’s good to review the precautions you should take.

There are several main areas that you should be cautious about; the water, fresh fruit and vegetables food from street venders, food from other restaurants, food from resort restaurants. While you can never be guaranteed to never have a problem, being careful will greatly reduce the chances of you having problems. If though you find you are having heavy diarrhea or vomiting when you are visiting any country it is good to get yourself checked out quickly, waiting can make it take longer to clear up.

If you do think you got something (stomach pains, diarrhea, vomiting) try finding a private clinic or hospital. (more…)

The Churrascaria Norcineria Steak House is the restaurant located on the property of the Los Pinos Hotel (or Residence Los Pinos) in Las Terrenas which in in Samana located in the North East portion of the Dominican Republic. Churrascaria Norcineria is an open air restaurant (pretty typical in th DR) with a pleasant atmosphere and a friendly staff. You can also sit out in the garden area to have your meal or to have a drink. Prices range from about $9.50 USD per plate to about $20.00 USD with the majority being around $14.00 USD.

Menu
The menu was huge, including specialty pages with Italian food (I believe the owner is from Italy), imported steaks (Dominican beef has a tendency to be leaner, tougher, and a less flavorful than imported beef), Sea Food and a wide variety of other choices. Prices very with prices ranging from about 350 pesos to about 750 pesos. We chose the Shrimp and Fried Squid (yes, that would be calamari) for 500 pesos (about $15 USD). My wife was impressed enough to order that again the second night.
I picked the Camarones a la Plancha (450 pesos) the second night. These are large whole shrimp sautéed in the shell. Perhaps I just don’t get out much; this was a little different for me. The heads, legs, and everything else are still attached. I tackled the meal by breaking the head off, cracking the shell with my fingers and pulling the meat out. I would consider this to be a little more adventurous meal.

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What would a great vacation be without great food? We found that the city of La Terrenas has no shortage of great places to eat. Most of the restaurants don’t open for breakfast but one little pastry shop, Boulangerie Francaise in the middle of La Terrenas opens at about 7:00 in the morning. It’s the corner store of the Plaza Taine which is within easy walking distance of most of the Las Terrenas Hotels.

As you walk in the first thing you notice is the aroma of fresh warm bread. There is an array of fresh bread of several different types, Danishes, and donuts to choose from. They also have a number of different sandwiches on fresh bread and then my favorite dish there. The quiche! Normally I’m not a big quiche fan, but this was great, enough so that we chose to come back the next morning to have it again.
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Las Terrenas is a smaller beach side town on the Samana peninsula, North East of the City of Samana. Las Terranas is to date the nicest of the beach towns we have visited. We found the beach to be clean, not highly packed with people and with far less vendors hassling you while you are trying to enjoy the beach. I’ll go into greater detail in my article on the Las Terrenas Beach. Another thing you will probably need to know is how to get there our Las Terrenas Taxi page should help.

One of the major benefits of this town is the way that the beach is situated in relation to the town itself. As you drive into town you find the road for the most part winding down the side of the beach, with the motels on one side and the beach on the other. This goes for a long stretch of beach probably about 2 miles or so. What makes this nice is that each Motel has its own “private” section across the street where they have tables and chairs and during the peak seasons private bars at the beach. This spreads the people out over the beach instead of having just a few accesses to the beach. It also means for the majority of the Hotels going to the beach is just a matter of exiting your room and heading across the street. (more…)

Reigning King of Doughnuts – Krispy Kreme is expanding their empire by adding the Dominican Republic to their recent conquests. Let the masses rejoice! (let me know if I’m a little “Over the Top” on this intro).

What can I say? Of all the donut chains nobody compares to Krispy Kreme’s in my opinion. I was hooked the first time I walked into the store and was offered a sample, right out of the oven and barely cooled. It was their Original Glazed Donut, normally a little plain by my standards ( I favor the custard filled), but this “plain” donut was about the best I have ever tasted.

I now have another reason to visit the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo. Krispy Kreme is opening their first of 14 stores in the DR on Winston Churchill Avenue in Santo Domingo. Over the next 5 years they are expecting to open 14 more of the franchise stores throughout the DR. No doubt these will be in the mostly tourist areas giving people a little taste of home while on vacation at one of our beaches.

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Located along the North Coast’s route 5, only 20 minutes from the Puerto Plata International airport, Cabarete Beach is the perfect place for a laid back, and inexpensive, vacation. Restaurants line the beach, shops run along the main street, there is kite surfing, and several inexpensive hotels.

Restaurants
There are many restaurants to choose from along the beach. They generally have indoor, and outdoor, seating, and several are very good. Here are a few favorites:
If you’ve gotten tired of the traditional beans and rice dishes of the region, and just want a good beer and burger, Jose O’Shay’s Irish Pub is the place for you. There is also the option of pizza, cottage pie, steaks, and a few other tasty dishes. The dishes run from $10-20 dollars U.S.

My personal favorite place to eat is Casanova because it is inexpensive (happy hour runs from 4pm-7pm and gives you everything half off), and the ambiance is lovely. The most popular things on the menu are the pizzas and pasta dishes. During happy hour, a meal with a couple of beers will cost around $13 dollars.

On the main road, across from Ocean Dream Plaza is Bayerischer Hof. This restaurant offers savory pork fillets with mushroom and onion sauce, with the option of sautéed or mashed potatoes, or noodles. There is also a good Hungarian stew, Schnitzel, steaks, and other dishes. The prices run from $11-20 dollars.
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Burgers, oh yeaaaaah. When you think of a classic American meal very things if any beat a big juicy burger with a hefty serving of fries. You might be happy to know that it is not all yucca and plantains in the Dominican Republic. You can find the classic meal we all know and love too. You just need to know where to look.

We have found such a place. It is called La Costera (Translates: The Coastal). It is located in downtown Sosua, about a half mile from the beach.

First looking at La Costera, didn’t look like much. Nothing fancy, but it looked like a nice clean little sit down place. It was outdoors with a roof over it, which was great to get the nice cool evening breeze.

To be quite honest what really attracted us was the menu. It was posted on a small billboard type arrangement, including all the prices. They had hamburgers, fries, steak and other stuff us foreigners are used to.

And it was a pretty decent price 120 pesos (about $3.50) for a burger and 200 pesos (about $5.50) for the steak. So we decided to go with it, as we sat down we were reassured by a Dutch fellow sitting next to us that this is the best place to eat in Sosua.

Now I can’t verify that statement because I have not been to half the restaurants in Sosua, but I can say it was one of the best burgers I had in my entire life.

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