Food in Latin America

There are two things that are fairly certain about food in Latin America; the rice is good and the pasta is bad. Apart from that, you can count on it being difficult to things such as quality pizza. So far, however, the Dominican Republic has proved otherwise. The pizza I've eaten here outdoes pretty much everything I've had west of Delaware (yes, I realize there's an awful lot west of Delaware). So what explains this anomaly?


I'll venture a guess. According to my guidebook, by 1990 nearly 900,000 Dominicans had emigrated to New York City (that was 12% of the total population!). Most probably put down roots in The City and stayed, but some (including a man that later became president) returned. My suspicion is that they brought with them the knowledge of how to make truly excellent pizza.

I kept this one safely on the table.

Food-Boat Day

I wish every day was food-boat day. Every other Tuesday a shipment comes in from Florida. In the days leading up to it, we usually eat things like macaroni & cheese or hot dogs. In the days after it we have things like salad, steamed carrots and broccoli, kiwis, bananas, yogurt, Cheerios, and occasionally a free sample of fancy little frozen desert cakes.

Before

After

Almost nothing, agricultural or manufactured goods, is produced in TCI. It is all shipped in at huge expense, inconvenience, and use of fossil fuels. On South Caicos, nothing would grow. The soil is only a few inches thick above sandstone and almost entirely sand, and much of it is full of salt from the salinas. Fresh water is also scarce. I've read that conditions are slightly better on Middle Caicos, but the crops they have don't do very well. After the American Revolution, a community of exiled Loyalists settled here and attempted cotton and sugar cane plantations, but apparently they were never that productive and were abandoned after a trade blockade during the War of 1812 and a severe hurricane. I'm not sure exactly why we don't get more locally produced seafoods, but it is probably cost related and just easier to cook processed foods - regrettable, but I can't complain because I don't pay for it.

So what keeps the TCI economy going? On South its mainly conch and lobster exports. On Grand Turk there's a little tourism, but it's mostly government. On Provo its finance. The sort of "finance" you'd like to hide from the eyes of regulatory agencies at home. There's also high-end luxury tourism on Provo (i.e. places where you can find a room for $10,000 per night) as a consequence of the offshore finance. The financial sector has, of course, suffered most directly from the recession, but I'm unsympathetic.