You can expect an abundance of vegetables, fruits, and root crops to appear on menus around the island. Dominica's economy, after all, is based on agriculture. Sweet ripe plantains, kushkush, yams, breadfruit, dasheen (also called "taro"), fresh fish, and chicken prepared at least a dozen different ways are all staples. The local drink is a spiced rum steeped with herbs such as anisette (called "nanny") and pweve (lemongrass). Dominican cuisine is also famous for its use of local game, such as the manicou (a small opossum) and the agouti (a large indigenous rodent), but you'll have to be an intrepid diner to go that route. At the time of this writing, the government had banned mountain chicken (a euphemism for a large frog called crapaud) because of problems with disease. Beware of menus that still include it. More »