Santo Domingo and Las Galeras (Dominican Republic), Hand to Mouth

We spent two days in Santo Domingo and five in the small-ish town of Las Galeras, on the Samana Peninsula. As has been the case in pretty much every Caribbean destination I’ve visited, the food was mediocre. Better than Tortola and Nevis, not as good as Aruba and St. Martin.

A Supposedly Good Thing I Will Never Eat Again

Relleno de lambi at Meson de Bari, Santo Domingo. Ground conch, slabs of eggplant, tomato sauce, and something cheese adjacent. Reminiscent of a sloppy joe. The habichuelas were very nice.

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Consider the Langosta

Probably our best meal overall, at Le BDM Creperie in Las Galeras. Came with an amuse bouche of mushroom omelet, coconut rice, Russian salad, and the same mesclun mix with vinaigrette that is apparently now found the world over. We also ordered a three cheese crepe, because it was there, and because we figured a French-ish restaurant might actually have some decent cheese (it was fine).

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Both Fresh and Not

Guanabana, a gift from our (Italian) Airbnb host from his own tree. I’m not sure what the texture is supposed to be like, but if it’s supposed to be like this, I don’t like it. The host also cooked at a small restaurant on site, which - despite having a pretty extensive menu - only served spaghetti, on par with what I would make for myself on a random weeknight, although I’d take the shells off the shrimp, and scrub the clams.

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Isn’t Samana great - the whale watching ! We spend a week in Playa Bonita after one of Nancy’s Opeastion Smile trips and drove over for whale watching. Playa Bonita was magical. A gorgeous 2k beach, nothing over 2 stories, mostly with French chefs, including the former personnel chef to Mitterand. I remember we both had the dorado fir dinner one night and went back and had exactly the same thing for lunch. Local guys with coolers, grills, and spear guns at each end of the beach would catch a fish to order, clean it, grill it, and serve it.