Warning Sosua Ocean Village

Thanks for the warning. Sorry to hear about this tragedy. I hope he gets better.

LK, We all know that you can cook.
Adam Perry Lang knows you !!

The lesson here is that most times we all eat and drink better at home.

In Cabrera, the restaurant pool is small and not very good. We rarely go to restaurants.
Our solution will be to hire a chef for "important/fancy/celebratory" dinners.

Comfort of home and quality of the food is paramount and you can be assured of fresh ingredients.

I'm sorry to hear about your guests. As you know from here, some of those stomach things can take months to clear up.
I have the name of a good, but expensive doctor in NY if the situation becomes worse.
When I was there, a member of the film crew from the Discovery Channel was loading up on meds for a shoot in some exotic place.

That sold me.!!

Sorry to hear about the problems and hope for a quick recovery for your friends. That makes two restaurants in that same area that have gone downhill recently. The other is the El Choco Restaurant across the main highway from the entrance to Sosua Ocean Village and that was posted some time ago. I will miss eating at both of them unless and until favorable reports start to happen again.

I posted about SOV years.... YEARS ago. Not a nice place at all. None of it.

As for the El Choco Rest. across the street? It WAS a very nice place. It changed owners a couple of years ago and failed. The old owners took it back and now some new owners have messed it up again.

I really love my at home BBQ.

Goodness! I'm so sorry for your friend. I'm assuming you're talking about Al Porto restaurant. We ate there several times in December; thankfully, no one got sick even though one of us eat fish -- what they were serving for dorado which clearly wasn't dorado. Let us know if you hear which specific type of contagious food poisoning your friend caught.

Lindsey,

in all due respect, i hope for the sake of the restaurant that you know what you're talking about here. I often hear people talk about getting "food poisining" after as little as 1 hour after eating a meal to as long as 2 days later. unless all of you guys got sick together after eating the same thing, i think the possiblility is there that you maybe jumping to premature conclusions. But wait, before you jump down my throat, please allow to explain.

I've been working in restaurants now for 31 years (I currently work in a restaurant). In the summers i work at another restaurant in Oslo, Norway. The kind of conclusions people jump to when it comes to food poisoning is mind boggling. And again, i'm not saying that you are wrong, but what makes you feel that you are 100% correct. unless more than one person got food poisoning here, and provided that person ate the "exact" same thing at the restaurant, even that isn't conslusive enough evidence to make accusations and point fingers at one place. some other causes could be this:
1.) Brushing your teeth using the tap water, especially after all of the rain we've been getting in december and january. the water is less than ideal or clean right now.
2.) Eating unwashed fruit (even washing doesn't gurantee you will get rid of all of the bacteria).
3.) Eating Salad (Washed or not. it doen't matter in most cases.)
4.) Eating Raw Vegatables.
5.) ice that has sat out over night (inside an outdoor ice bin) and had flies land on it.
6.) fruit that has stood out over night and had flies land on it.
THese are only a few things that can cause bacteria poisoning

There's many more things that could have led to his food poisoning or "food born illness," but the jest of it is this: it's really impossible to pin down exactly where the bacteria source came from unless, every single one of you got sick after eating the "exact" same thing.

And again, i'm not saying that you are wrong here, but it's been my experience in the past that people are quick to jump to premature conclusions and start pointing fingers at whatever was the last place they ate at, even when the last meal may have been as little as 1 hours ago or as long as 2 days ago.

Still, i wish th best for your friend and his family. i just hate to see the wrong source get blamed unless there is conclusive evidence.

FRank

I have to concur in part with the poster above. People draw hasty conclusions about food poisoning, but there are a myriad of sources from which to contract it. Not saying it WASN'T Ocean Village, just that, from what you've told the board it MAY not be.

Also, the fact that a waiter comes to my table and tells me NOT to order the fish is a positive for me. It means: A) He knows enough about fish to know when it's bad and B) He cares enough to tell me.

Yes, the fish shouldn't be bad in the first place, but I hope you tipped the hell out of this guy!

I also have an extensive background in kitchens(in the back of house) and the OP makes a pretty damning case against the restaurant, esp with a doctor's diagnosis and the kitchen's recent history.

In the US, the standard now is to use separate color-coded cutting boards for produce(green), raw meat(red) and prepared foods(white). Some kitchens even go as far as use knives with color-coded handles for separate foods. Even still, I've seen cooks in chain restaurants cut raw chicken or fish on a cutting board and then cut a sandwich on the same board without so much as a wipe down. What is almost humorous is the practice of wearing "magic" latex gloves which many cooks change about once an hour(if that) while moving from high risk foods to raw produce. I'm surprised more people don't get sick than they do, and "standards" are much worse in the DR.

I avoid any fresh produce when eating out in the DR unless I can see it prepared, such as Batidas at a fruit stand. No lettuce or tomatoes on the burgers. Avoid buffets and rice. The only case of bad food poisoning I got while in the DR was Bacillus Cereus(from rice) which was acute and a real roller coaster ride. The common name for it is "fried rice syndrome," something to think about the next time you go out for Chinese food or have "La Bandera."

Be careful of foods which might be made in large batches and then improperly cooled. Among these, I include soups, sauces and refried beans. It's a very common practice to make such foods on the stove and then put them into 5 gallon buckets to cool. It can take days for food cool down to a safe temp in a five gallon bucket. The spec for cooling in the US is nothing deeper than 4 inches, preferably with 6" of venting above and below with the hot foods on a top shelf. The ideal is to use ice baths and to stir the foods every 15-20 minutes until they reach about 40 degrees.

While in the tropics, the general rule is fried food is safe food. Being vaccinated against Hep A isn't a bad idea either.

PeterInBrat said:

....I avoid any fresh produce when eating out in the DR unless I can see it prepared, such as Batidas at a fruit stand. No lettuce or tomatoes on the burgers. Avoid buffets and rice. The only case of bad food poisoning I got while in the DR was Bacillus Cereus(from rice) which was acute and a real roller coaster ride. The common name for it is "fried rice syndrome," something to think about the next time you go out for Chinese food or have "La Bandera."

Click to expand...

WHOAAAA stop the press! All of that is news to me! Why no salads and veggies? ...and rice???

PLEASE explain!

I understand that this may or may not be due to Sosua Ocean Village. I was in Public Health in USA, and the circumstantial evidence you presented is enough for me. I understand we could be wrong, but since we don't have the CDC here, this is very important information. I thank you for sharing your experience.....all of us can decide for ourselves how to interpret it.

Fruits and Veggies
My medical friends tell me that 5 drops of iodine in 1 liter of water is what to use for washing your food.
On the other hand, my friend who has 25 yrs in RD has steady problems and has given up lettuce and tomatoes in an effort to find a solution.

I think a lt has to do with one's constitution - and level of tolerance.

We are not created equal ... flamesuit on:lick:

william webster said:

Fruits and Veggies
My medical friends tell me that 5 drops of iodine in 1 liter of water is what to use for washing your food.
On the other hand, my friend who has 25 yrs in RD has steady problems and has given up lettuce and tomatoes in an effort to find a solution.

I think a lt has to do with one's constitution - and level of tolerance.

We are not created equal ... flamesuit on:lick:

Click to expand...

Why just lettuce and tomatoes? Or do you mean all uncooked fruits and vegetables which do not have a tough outer skin that is peeled off before consumption?

She thinks they have a higher water content than other foods.

william webster said:

She thinks they have a higher water content than other foods.

Click to expand...

So she thinks the tomato/lettuce has the pathogen inside them from the water taken through the roots of the plant, right? Well she better add many, many more items to her list by this logic; think about watermelons to start and then add chinola and just keep going!

This post does not suprise me. We stopped eating there a year or more ago because the quality had gone down, but at least the prices continue to go up. When Lisa ran the place is it was top notch.
The same can be said for Gold's Gym. Now run on the theory of "raise the prices and they will come". Something wrong with that thinking.
As to el Choco restaurant this is truely a shame the recent people running the place certainly ruined a good thing. What happened to "it ain't broke don't fix it". In any event the owners have taken the place back and look for good things to happen there.

Bob K

A Different Immune System

PeterInBrat said:

In the US, the standard now is to use separate color-coded cutting boards for produce(green), raw meat(red) and prepared foods(white). Some kitchens even go as far as use knives with color-coded handles for separate foods. (...) What is almost humorous is the practice of wearing "magic" latex gloves which many cooks change about once an hour(if that) while moving from high risk foods to raw produce. I'm surprised more people don't get sick than they do, and "standards" are much worse in the DR.

Click to expand...

In the Dominican Republic those procedures are hardly known and applied anywhere. Some like to think they are in some high class hotels in Punta Cana...
In all those years I have never seen colour-coded cutting boards or cooks wearing gloves.

Anyway, most 'gringos' grow up in a clean, sanitized environment with little exposure to germs and bacteria.

Dominicans grow up... well, you know how....and so, in most the immune system is not bad at all.. :classic: :bunny:

donP said:

... Anyway, most 'gringos' grow up in a clean, sanitized environment with little exposure to germs and bacteria. Dominicans grow up... well, you know how....and so, in most the immune system is not bad at all.. :classic: :bunny:

Click to expand...

As we increasingly trade our natural immunity for vaccine induced immunity and drug (i.e., antibiotics) infection fixes, we will become more prone to foodborne illness.

jrmirador@alumni.iu.edu said:

As we increasingly trade our natural immunity for vaccine induced immunity and drug (i.e., antibiotics) infection fixes, we will become more prone to foodborne illness.

Click to expand...

Thats true. Doctors are seeing Crones disease in very young children these days.
They attribute this to the "over cleanliness" in today's world which inhibits the natural development of immunity.

I agreesouthwardbound2;1043823]So she thinks the tomato/lettuce has the pathogen inside them from the water taken through the roots of the plant, right? Well she better add many, many more items to her list by this logic; think about watermelons to start and then add chinola and just keep going![/QUOTE]

I agree