This post features student writing.

For my independent project I learned how to cook two typical Dominican dinners and interviewed our amazing cook, Narda. The first dish I learned to cook is meat with tostados and rice. To start you add lemon, oregano, and chicken flavouring to beef and then let it sit in the sun until dry. Once dry you boil the meat until cooked and serve with fresh vegetables, such as tomatoes, onions, and peppers, as well as rice and tostados. To make the tostados you first peel plantains and then slice them into pieces about an inch thick. Once sliced, you fry them in vegetable or canola oil for around eight minutes. After frying them you squish them into discs and then fry them again.

Another dish I learned to cook was chicken in rice. To cook this you start out with the chicken, which you cook and season in a large pot with lemon, olives, and Worcestershire sauce, and chicken stock or chicken flavoring with water. You then cook the chicken halfway before adding water and rice. After adding the rice, cook until both the chicken and the rice are fully cooked, then enjoy.

After learning to cook these two meals I asked Narda about some of the most common foods for each meal. Breakfast usually consists of boiled fish, bananas, and spiced hot. For lunch a meal would consist of rice, some beef or goat, and beans (usually brown). Dinner would usually contain mangú, which is boiled and mashed plantains. Mangú would usually be accompanied by salami and egg. Another common dinner would be chicken with vegetables and plantains. I chose to learn how to cook typical Dominican meals for my project because I really enjoy cooking and because once I tasted the food I wanted to know how to make it for myself.