Dominican food from a Makai kitchen: what to cook, what to order, what to buy

Dominican food is home cooking built from a few parts: white rice, beans, a meat or fish simmered in a seasoned tomato base, and plantains or root vegetables, often with casabe, the crisp cassava bread inherited from the Taíno, on the side. At Makai Residences in Cap Cana, where each of the 216 residences is handed over fully furnished, kitchen included, an owner meets it in three ways, cooking it, ordering it and shopping for it, and this guide covers what each involves, from the lines on a restaurant bill to the weights at the market.

What is a Dominican plate made of?

Dominican cooking is assembled rather than elaborate, and the same few parts keep returning. White rice is the base. Beside it go beans, a stewed meat or fish, and something starchy: plantain, or roots such as yuca, yautía and batata. Dominicans group those starches under one word, víveres, and the batata in the market is a pale-fleshed sweet potato rather than the orange kind sold as a yam in the United States. Put white rice, beans and stewed chicken, beef or pork on one plate and you have la bandera, the flag, which heads the Ministry of Tourism's list of dishes to try.

Most of the flavour comes from one technique. A guisado is meat, fish, beans or vegetables simmered in a tomato base with sazón, the Dominican name for sofrito; the usual ingredients are cubanelle peppers, red onion, garlic, oregano and cilantro. Beans and vegetables go into the same base without the citrus that meat is given. The result is seasoned rather than hot: spicing is mild by Caribbean standards, and the few dishes made hot with local chillies are the exception.

Among the oldest foods on the table is casabe, a round, crisp bread of grated and dried cassava that was a staple of the Taíno diet and is still eaten with soups and stews. In December 2024 UNESCO inscribed the knowledge and practices of making and eating cassava bread on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, on a nomination the Dominican Republic shared with Cuba, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela. UNESCO notes that it is generally made from bitter cassava, so that it keeps for longer.

Green or ripe: why does the plantain decide the dish?

If one ingredient is worth learning before the first shop, it is the plantain, because its ripeness decides what it becomes. A green plantain is firm and starchy. Sliced, fried, pressed flat and fried a second time it becomes tostones, the crisp side served with fried fish and with many main courses. Boiled and mashed it is mangú, the classic breakfast. Fried and then pounded in a pilón, a wooden mortar, with garlic, oil and pork crackling, it is mofongo. Let the same fruit ripen until its skin starts to blacken and it turns sweet: sliced and fried, it becomes maduros, which a long-running Dominican cookery site suggests serving beside la bandera. In Spanish the two stages are simply verde and maduro, words worth recognising on a menu.

That makes a Makai kitchen a practical place to start. Every residence is handed over fully furnished, with the kitchen, fixtures and soft goods included, and is described as turnkey, with nothing to source or install after handover. A first week of cooking in can follow the Dominican pattern: a pot of stewed beans, white rice, a stewed chicken and a plantain at whichever stage it has reached on the counter. This website does not itemise what the kitchen holds, so ask for the inventory in writing before your first stay.

Eating out or ordering in: what does the bill add?

Read the bottom of a restaurant bill before reaching for a tip. A meal eaten on the premises carries two lines under the food: a 10% service charge, the propina legal, which is compulsory rather than left to the diner, and the 18% ITBIS, the Dominican value-added tax. Reports agree that the 10% does not reliably reach the individual server, so a little extra handed over directly is customary when the service was good. The service-charge convention is documented by consumer and travel reporting rather than quoted here from statute, so query any bill that looks different.

Ordering in changes one of those lines. Pro Consumidor, the consumer-protection agency, holds that the 10% may be charged only when the food or drink is consumed inside the establishment, not on take-out or delivery. The Supreme Court of Justice upheld that reading in a 2021 ruling, and the agency restated it in an August 2022 resolution that treats a breach as a serious infringement. A dinner collected and carried back to the residence, or delivered to the door, should arrive without the service charge; if it appears, keep the receipt.

The menu itself is the last thing to check. Law 358-05, the consumer-protection law, requires an offer to include the applicable sales taxes or to carry a notice that they are not included, and a price that is displayed must show the total with the taxes set out separately, or that same warning. So a menu may list prices before tax only if it says so, and that note is worth finding before you weigh eating out against cooking in.

Where do the groceries come from when you live inside the gates?

From Makai the shopping comes in three layers. Inside Cap Cana, the community's own dining directory lists a minimarket, a gourmet market with meat, charcuterie, bread and wine, a fish market selling the catch local fishermen bring in each day, an eco-store with organic produce, a liquor shop and an app for food delivered to the door. That covers a weeknight. For a full stock-up, the distance list on this site puts downtown and its shopping about 20 minutes from Makai by car, and a long-running travel guide notes that the resort areas have grocery stores laid out much as they are at home.

The third layer is the colmado, the small corner shop where, by the same guide's account, most Dominicans buy their food: basic groceries, drinks and some fresh produce, with a line of credit for local regulars. Weights are in pounds. When Pro Consumidor surveyed prices in September 2026 it quoted whole fresh chicken by the pound and rice in 10-pound bags, so recipes from North America translate directly. On tax, the tax authority treats fruit and vegetables sold in their natural state as outside ITBIS, while processed and packaged food generally carries it.

Bringing food from home is possible but not informal. The customs authority's traveller manual says food products must be declared, and plants, agricultural products and foods are regulated by the agriculture and public health ministries, so check before packing anything fresh. Alcohol is simpler: an adult may bring in about 1.3 US gallons free of import taxes, an allowance the manual sets in metric units.

Which months change what is on the table?

Owners at Makai keep personal use of their residence each year, and the weeks they pick decide part of what they will eat. The calendar below covers the dates worth planning around.

Two of them carry a rule or a custom a newcomer can miss. From 1 March to 30 June the closed season announced by the environment ministry bans the capture, storage and sale of lobsters and several land crabs, so a lobster offered in spring deserves a question about where it came from. And in Lent the pots of habichuelas con dulce come out: red beans simmered with milk, sugar, sweet potato, biscuits and spices until sweet and creamy, made first on Ash Wednesday and expected above all on Good Friday. Offered a cup, expect dessert rather than a side dish.

On Christmas Eve, Nochebuena, the dinner is built around roast pork seasoned with oregano, garlic and sour orange, with moro de guandules con coco, rice cooked with pigeon peas and coconut milk, plus pasteles en hoja and ensalada rusa, a salad of potato, carrot and beetroot in mayonnaise. Menus vary by region and household: one Dominican gastronome notes that the south eats more chicken, while pork is commoner in the north and the capital.

Common questions

What is the difference between tostones and maduros?

Ripeness. Tostones are green plantain, sliced, fried, pressed flat and fried again, so they come out crisp and savoury. Maduros are ripe plantain, used once the skin has started to blacken, sliced and fried until soft and sweet; they are a classic partner for la bandera.

What is casabe?

A round, crisp flatbread of grated and dried cassava, inherited from the Taíno and still eaten with soups and stews. In December 2024 UNESCO added the making and eating of cassava bread to its list of humanity's intangible cultural heritage, on a nomination the Dominican Republic shared with Cuba, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela.

Should take-out or delivery include the 10% service charge?

No, according to Pro Consumidor, which holds that the propina legal applies only when food or drink is consumed on the premises; the Supreme Court of Justice upheld that view in 2021 and the agency restated it in August 2022. When you eat in, both the 10% and the 18% ITBIS apply. If a take-out receipt shows the service charge, keep it.

Can I bring food from home when I fly in for a stay at Makai?

Yes, but declare it. The customs authority requires food products to be declared, and plants, agricultural products and foods fall under the agriculture and public health ministries, so check before packing anything fresh. Alcohol has a separate allowance of about 1.3 US gallons per adult free of import taxes, set in metric units.

What do Dominicans eat on Christmas Eve?

Nochebuena dinner centres on roast pork seasoned with oregano, garlic and sour orange. Around it go moro de guandules con coco, rice cooked with pigeon peas and coconut milk, pasteles en hoja made from green plantain and yautía, ensalada rusa and soft telera bread. Menus vary by region: chicken features more in the south, pork in the north and the capital.