Seafood on Spring Break

I spent my Spring Break soaking up the sun in República Dominicana. In about the middle of the week our group rented a car and took a trip down to a restaurant about twenty minutes’ drive from the villa we were staying at that was reputed to have the best lobster in Las Terrenas, the city we stayed in.

And it probably was the best lobster I’d ever had.

The place didn’t have menus, but the waiter briefed us on the food that they served – a seafood salad, barbecued lobster, fries and banana fries (that’s right!) So we ordered a bit of everything, since we were extremely hungry.

For drinks some of us had Presidente, which seems to be the national beer down there, but the rest had virgin Pina Coladas, which were mixed inside an actual pineapple. For me, those were the highlight. I mean, I love seafood, but these were just so refreshing on a hot and humid day, and I just know I’ll probably never have anything like that again.

The place was all outdoors, as with most venues in the Dominican Republic, and it had a tiny little shack to hold the drinks. They even do all their cooking on a few outdoor stoves, just behind the shack.

The seafood salad was delicious – shrimp, calamari, fresh fish and bits of lobster mixed in with avocado, tomato, red onion and a tasty, slightly spicy vinaigrette. The fries were chunky and crispy too.

We were really excited for the banana fries, but we were sure what to expect. They were a slightly different breed of bananas, like plantains, so they weren’t sweet, but they had a rougher texture than potatoes. Basically they were mashed and then deep fried  and they were delicious.

Then we ate the lobster, which was so good. We’d ordered four, but our waiter said that because they were so small he’d cooked another two for us, for free – how sweet is that?!

All this, washed down with that beautiful Pina-Colada-in-a-pineapple, made for such a satisfying lunch that we weren’t hungry again until 10pm that night. Delicioso!