Dominican Republic Food, Part 2

Last week I wrote about some of the traditional Dominican food I ate while in Santo Domingo. On my last night I went to a well-regarded restaurant in the colonial zone called La Residence. Featuring a menu with Mediterranean, Spanish and Dominican influences, prepared by a French trained chef, La Residence presents an eclectic mix of dishes.  The setting for the restaurant is a very quiet, dimly lit (which didn’t help my photos) open air courtyard.

I elected to go with the Menu Del Chef, which provides you a three-course meal for around $12 -$15 American. A great deal considering many of the regular entrees are more than $20 on their own. The meal began with a palate cleansing tuna tartar and avocado mousse:

My first course was a presse of zucchini curry with goat cheese and piquello tapenade. Yum. Of course you add goat cheese to just about anything and my reaction will be “yum.”

On to the main course, which was a Chillo filet with a ginger chop suey of vegetables.  Chillo is better known to Americans as red snapper, a fish that is one of the primary catches for fishermen in the Carribbean.

Dessert was an absolutely exquisite mango, pineapple and chocolate sorbet.

Not the most ideal conditions for photos, but hey, you’ll just have to take my word for it that the meal was exceptional.  Tune in next week as we look at some food in Puerto Rico and examine the bustling street food scene in Bogota, Columbia.