Dasheen, bay oil, mountain chicken stories and the best callaloo on the island. A walk through the old market with the vendors who run it.
Saturday, six in the morning, and the market is already in full voice. Farmers have come down from the interior in the dark, dasheen and tannia still muddy from the field, grapefruit stacked in pyramids, bundles of seasoning peppers that perfume the whole block.
The vendors run the place and they know it. Ask about anything and you get a recipe, a story and probably a sample. Bay oil is sold in small bottles as it has been for generations; the callaloo pot at the corner stall has a queue before eight.
Come hungry and unhurried. The market is not a sightseeing stop; it is the island's kitchen, and the best introduction to Dominican food there is.
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