Dominican Republic: Rum-Soaked Barbecue Chicken with Pidgeon Pea Rice & Avocado
Our Dominican Republic food-story begins over 600 year ago on the idyllic Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the birth of the culinary term ‘Barbecue’. Oblivious to the impending arrival of Spanish ‘explorers’ who would change their way of life forever, the Taino (Hispaniola’s Indigenous people), enjoyed a rich cultural life based on communal farming, fishing and feasting. T hey also had a unique way of grilling food on a platform raised over a wood fire that allowed the food to pick up a lot of smoky flavours that they called ‘barabicu’. In 1492 Spanish Conquistadors ‘discovered’ and quickly occupied Hispaniola. Their first settlement on the island, named Santo Domingo, was the first place in all the Americas (North and South) to be colonised by Europeans. Less than 20 years later, Santo Domingo also became the first place in the Americas that European slave ships docked, opening the door to the infamous trans-Atlantic slave trade and making Santo Domingo the heart of