Is DR a paradise for seafood lovers ?

I can't comment on the state of the fishing industry here. I just wanted to add that I love seafood, shrimp especially, crab, lobster, scallops sometimes (I am cooking up a seafood feast featuring garlic shrimp here tonight!) and I have not been happy here. I want even a Red Lobster restaurant! Yum!

Persoanlly I just don't like the way they cook it. I don't like to eat food that's looking back at me while I eat. They serve shrimp here in Sosua, garlic shrimp for example, cooked in the shell whole. Only the shell tastes like garlic! And I have to clean the whole thing at the table. Yuck. Well, for me anyway. Just like eating shrimp curry in Madras or Kuala Lumpur. GREAT prawns - if they'd just CLEAN them before tossing them whole into the curry.

:: sigh :: OK. I'll stop ranting now. Just how far is the nearest Red Lobster anyway? Puerto Rico? Or do they have one in Santo Domingo now, Rob?

Tom aka XR

While not the main dish

Fish and seafood is certainly popular among the upper crust.

And even the upper crust consume a good deal of fish.
Perhaps not in restaurants, but in their homes and when on vacation.

At places like the road to Santiago (by what i now call the "back way" -> Through the tunnel) there are at least twn places to stop and eat fried fish. donde Johan is the oldest and most crwoded...

You don't order "filets" you order ?How many! fish you are going to eat....

At "La Ensenada" out on Punta Ruc?a there must be thirty shacks that sell seafood.

So it seems that there are places and there are places that feature seafood.

that said, let it also be stated that tropical waters are not known for their rich sea life and over-fishing is very easy to accomplish. Lobsters are now tiny in comparason to what we used to get 40 years ago with our gloved hands, just reaching under some coral...

HB

Fish and Seafood

C'mon guys - all you have to do is ask for your prawns to be cleaned! (In Spanish it's - pelado - meaning peeled or plucked!?) That way you can get the big prawns cleaned with just the heads on so you can easily pick them up by the long whiskery things and pop the delicious meat right into your mouth. For other meals they will just clean them thoroughly and throw the meaty bits into the sauce. most places will do this, especially around Cabarete - (La Casita, Las Brisa de la Yassica, even Willy's place on main street). However, most prawns are the farmed variety and not from local seas!
Fish is great in most places but don't believe some restaurants when they tell you it's fresh! If you eat out on a Sunday or Monday in Cabarete then there is no fresh fish as no-one fishes on those days and especially when the weather is a bit rough or it's windy.
Plenty of tiny roadside Cabarete pescadora's which serve up really good fish - with or without the eyes looking at you, very cheap and very good too - order by number! (How many fish can you eat at one sitting)?
Then you can also get good Dorado/Dolphin/Mai Mai - all in fillets! Or great grouper - filletted too! One or two places here in Cabarete will sell you/serve you shark - depends what you like - nice just dipped in water and vinegar on a fondu thingy for a few seconds and then dipped in any number of tasty sauces on the side!
Lobster - just ask at those restaurants at the beach in Cabarete which have them on display in tanks of sea water - a bit pricey but yummeeeeeeeeee!!!
In a nutshell - want fish & seafood? Do the North Coast.

Hillbilly mentioned La Ensenada. Stop by Do?a Elsa (or Elisa's) for centollo a la criolla (or big big crab creole style). Best lobster I have had was in 1986 in El Barrio restaurant (no longer exists) in Punta Cana before all the development (met my husband over that one). But just a year ago the best I had was in Pedernales. That area is not yet developed, so the fishermen still bring in the big ones. Delicious. Worthy of the trip southwest alone.
Vesuvio Restaurant on the Malecon prepares giant lobster fradiavola for those that don't want to go so far away. And La Taberna del Pescador on Winston Churchill has delicious lobster lasagna.
For shrimp, there are farms in Sanchez and Palenque (San Cristobal) so the fresh variety can be found in the main supermarkets, complete with the tasty heads. Sautee them with giant leek and fresh tomatoes and serve with sizzling linguini. Delicious.

I have to agree with HB.

But that is not a surprise. Poorer people cannot afford seafood other than salted cod fish and herrings (and not even that now). However people with a little more money eat seafood often.

Check this:
http://www.dominicancooking.com/recipes/seafood.htm

The best fish I've had in my life was in Playa Rinc?n. Fresh out of the ocean with fresh coconut right off the tree prepared by the friendly Cecilia. Yum Yum!

Lobster, schrimps and fish in Sosua/Cabarete

I could not get anyone to tell me where to buy and take home lobster, schrimps, general seafood and fresh fish in Sosua. Is there any place other than the frozen stuff at the Playero?

I ended up buying small colorfull fishes off some fishers in Cabarete in front of the Sanssoucis. It was quite good but no seafood.

Any places in Sosua to buy and take home?

Perhaps a good reason for your observations , Formosano2000 and PIB, were best explained by a doctor in Clinica Abreu to me, as his patient.

He told me to NEVER eat local fish or seafood from the south coast as it is all highly contaminated from everything dumping into the ocean from Santo Domingo and other areas nearby, and that this situation is very similar to most of the Puerto Rican coast as well.

I am sure the North Coast fish are in much better condition due to a smaller load of contaminants emptying into the sea, as well as Bahia Samana area.

Sosua Fresh Fish

Escarignan,
Just hang around the beach around 09.30am or sit in La Roca and have breakfast - someone will walk by with any number of fresh fish hanging on a stick, all for sale! We've seen snapper, grouper, tuna, barred mackerel and other odds and sods this way.
PS: we're normally there on a tuesday but presume that this happens every day they go out fishing?
Peter & Alex

I'll be in Sosua next week & this thread has gotten to me. What are you recommendations for lobster restaurants in Sosua and Cabarete? - D

This is not the time for lobster

This is the time when Lobster is under protection and should not be caught. Of course Dominican fishermen don't read newspapers, listen to the News or see television, so they don';t know nor do they care that their welfare is being threatened

Sad but true.

Oh yes, I. too, have shared Cecilia's delicious fish at Playa Rincon, and it is especially good. The air, the sea and the setting is something to be remembered forever.

HB

Where to find great seafood!

Take "Las Americas" toward the airport.When you reach the Airport,turn in.Buy a ticket on American Airlines for Boston Mass.! When you get to Boston's Logan Aiorport,rent a car and head North along the coast.You can start eating "seafood"in Revere Mass,a few miles north of "Logan".Continue eating as you drive through New Hampshire and Maine,Cross the US/Canadian border,and eat even more great seafood as yo drive through Nova Scocia!
As far as the DR goes,a few good fish stalls at some of the beaches,but what do you think they do with the fish they don't sell the day before?Most seafood is way overcooked here,just like everything else,to kill the bacteria!
I would NEVER eat a "raw" oyster or clam here."Sushi"?,you have got to be kidding! I would not even eat "Steak Tar Tar" last Saturday in Sosua,(Like "Eddy" did!)and you all know where my mouth has been!!! Cris

No Lobster?

Does this mean the restaurants in POP won't be selling lobster?
Do you know of any place that might? Other than Maine!

Thanks,
Maryanne

DannyW, maimon is for you.

DannyW, too bad I will be in atlanta next week till the 10th august. Tell me how long will you stay here?
Here is what you do: drive to maimon (after riu mambo hotel complex passed puerto plata). Look out for the restaurant called Johan, its a run down typical dominican seafood restaurant and grab a table inside. This is the most popular restaurant (judging from the number of people inside) and order fish, Lobster, shrimps, lambi etc. You name it they have it. Everything is dirt cheap. I usually order "Cottorra" fish. Its the best tasting flavored fish for me and the cheapest. I have tried the rest of the fishes but the taste is just too dry and they over-cook the damn thing untill it becomes card board. Lobsters are good and priced cheaply. Lambi is great so you can eat it as a starter. Shrimps are usually from a frogen pack so I think they may be imported.
Dr. Dan, when you go there, eat some extra food for me too. Have fun.

May I say that one of the pleasures of visiting Hillbilly's beach house at Punta Rucia is eating raw oysters picked from the Estero Hondo reserve park, off from the mangroves. The water there is crystal clear, and thus the oysters are safe.

May I note that just two weeks ago was there with my two nieces that live in Dallas, Texas (12 and 11 years old) and they downed two dozens of raw oysters. We were cautious and didn't let them have more, just in case they could have been alergic, but they did not get sick. They also ate fresh fish from the sea that same day.

So Criss, there still are places, though far removed, in the DR, where you can have raw oysters.

By the way (including all the boys and girls in our big group -- including Keith Ripley's twins), we must have eated about 600 oysters that weekend... at RD$20 the dozen....

Sushi... well, in my opinion the best sushi is the takeout sushi prepared at Pescayama by Jose (Plaza Nueva Orleans) on Winston Churchill, north of Gustavo Mejia Ricart. Go at noon because it sells fast.

and...You can find an "Oasis" in the middle of the Sahara Desert too!

But the original point of this post was that an "Island" in the middle of the Carribean Sea should be teeming with great seafood,at low prices,on every corner,like it is in New England,California,Mexico,most all the other islands in the World,the entire Orient,and"Coastlines everywhere,"Whats Up Here?"Sure there are "Oasis" where you can find great fish,but for the most part,the DR is a "desert" when it comes to seafood!Cris

I love seafood. I would say in general the DR just doesn't have a good variety of fish. At least not wht you'd expect...Is it due to the warm waters? Can anyone tell me if the situation is the same in the other caribbean islands? Or is it just the DR? It may be overfishing, contamination or a lot of factors combined. I remember as a kid I used to catch fresh water shrimp, jaibas, etc... in the Camu river (I can't believe I used to eat from there). I even once caught this huge eel with a fishing line that I built out of plantain bark...I couldn't believe it.

PIB: I have to agree with you about the one in Playa Rincon. Not only is the beach awsome, but the fish they cook there in the little "restaurant" is just fantastic. Have it with a fresh coconut or one of the pina coladas prepared in a real pineapple. I was there a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. Planning on going back this year...

Regular people from Barahona to Oviedo eat fish regularly - carite, mero, chillo, etc. The comedor central in Barahona has fish daily as part of its "plato del dia" (with rice and beans) for a whopping RD$60. Fried fish is sold daily on the beach at San Rafael and Los Patos.

Surenos may be among the few Dominicans who realize that the ocean is there!

And Criss, your directions to good fish were correct, but went too far. You should turn off of Las Americas for the Airport, but swing back around after you turn. The comedor on the left often has very fresh fish that is not overcooked.

Lobster in Cabarete

No doubt there will still be lobster available in Cabarete as there are no rules regarding whether they are in season or not!! Shame - but that's often the way here in DR. No forward thinking and no retentative memory - eat it whilst it's here, sod the future????
Lack of fish and fishing around the DR? I fish, therefore I am, but it's an uphill struggle to find them!! Nothing but little ones in the surf, not a lot on the reefs, (not a lot of decent reefs really) and the offshore deep water fish just are not around in the numbers you'd expect them. Overfishing? Probably. Warm water? Possibly but we've fished warmer waters elsewhere and they've all got fish! Pollution? Possibly, but who can tell? Wondering if this is linked to the fact that there are no sea gulls in DR? Very little bait food shoaling, etc. etc.
Did see some small bait fish leaping about with small yellow fin tuna chasing them at dusk the other night from Pier Giorgio but not for long!
Maybe I'm just a lousy fisherman? Walk softly old man, but carry a big fish is my motto!

There are rules regarding the taking of lobster in the DR and the closed season corresponds to that of the Bahamas and Florida-closed from March 31 until August 1st. However, I've yet to meet a Dominican who respects this closure and I'm not sure the reason why will ever sink in. If you could see the "shorts" the divers bring by to sell us it would make you sick. They take everything and I've given up explaining to them why they should respect the closure or size limits.

I would also like to point out that it is not only the divers that are guilty of destroying this resource but the inspectors as well, who are supposed to enforce the laws. On more than one ocassion I've had an inspector enter my restaurant and demand to check for possession of lobsters during the closed season and even go to the length of opening our freezers to see if we had any hid there. There is a HUGE fine if we are caught with them in our possession. Immediately after inspecting our premesis, the inspector went down to the native restaurant on the beach and ate,...you guessed it, FRESH LOBSTER. I've seen this happen more than once.

There are several other major tourist attractions in the area that serve fresh lobster year round. I'm not talking a few dinners here, a few dinners there, but serving a hundred or so people every hour during the day as the tours would arrive. Again, I've seen it happen.

Fish in the DR? Basically waters under 180 feet are fished out due to the same mentality that has decimated the lobster and conch catch. Divers with hookahs (long air hozes) are now working depths of over 100 feet and walking along the bottom and spearing anything that moves. They leave nothing.

Pelagic fishing (trolling for surface fish) is a little better as these fish move with the currents and follow the baitfish that move from area to area. Thank the Lord that these fish still have to be caught on hook and line otherwise they too would be well on their way to extinction as are many local bottom species. However, I'm seeing longliners working some offshore areas so I guess that fishery is next on the "gone to hell" list.

Some of you may remember the problems I had with the Marina de Guerre and my sportfishing boat some 5 years ago and that I had to eventually sell it. I've often sat on our veranda looking out at the ocean and lamented that my serious fishing days were over now that I no longer had a boat here in the DR. However, lately I don't feel so bad when I think about the few fish I caught while fishing here and then realizing it's getting worse. If you think several dollars a pound is expensive, try justifying 100 gallons of diesel fuel for a ten pound dorado or a little blackfin tuna.

You want to go fishing? Go fish the Gulfstream off Palm Beach or Bimini if you want to catch fish. And if you want to eat good fish,...