The Pastelero Street Vendor sells Pasteles en Hoja yelling as he passes with his bucket “Pastele! Pastele en Hoja!”. Pasteles en Hajo are a wonderful food made with either platano or yuca stuffed with veggies or different meats and wrapped in a banana leaf or paper and boiled.
Pasteles en Hoja
The Pastelero walks around carrying a metal bucket that holds hot water. Some Pasteleros are a bit more elaborate and have a cart they either ride on or push. The pasteles are staying hot in the water. They are wrapped in their little pouch of banana leaves. The vendor opens the pouch, places the pastele of your choice on a plate. He then offers a topping of mayonnaise, ketchup or hot sauce (these are in bottles hanging on the side of his pail).
These treats are very good as long as they are fresh and hot. Another must try food here in Dominican Republic.
The Quesero street vendor walks the streets with a covered plate on his shoulder filled with a wonderful tasting white cheese. He sells a very popular cheese called Queso de Hoja. This popular cheese is a white string type cheese similar to mozzarella but a little stringier. It has a slightly stronger taste that leaves a squeaky feel in the mouth.
Quesero selling his cheese and he even has some salami on his tray.
The cheese vendor can be seen carrying a large platter. He has a plastic grocery bag hanging off his arm that is filled with bags and large crackers to accompany the cheese. The Queseros plate is usually covered with a piece of clear plastic underneath the wedges of this wonderful flavorful white cheese are impaled with little wooden toothpicks.
Queso en Hoja
The Quesero will give you a wedge of cheese and a round cracker to go along with the cheese. The price is usually around $35 pesos (as of 1/19)
El Frío Frío, also known as yun-yun, is one of the more popular street vendors in Dominican Republic. His nice and cold and sweet ice is a must have on a hot Dominican day.
Making a shaved ice frio-frio in Ciudad Colonial
This vendor pushes a brightly painted cart yelling out “Frío, frío”. Along with him yelling is a buzzing sound made by all the sweet loving bees following along.
In this cart is a collection of glass bottles with many different fruit flavored syrups and a large block of ice. He scrapes the ice with a metal scraper, puts it in the cup and adds whatever syrup you would like. It is the same as a snow cone but the syrups are so much better, they are made with a variety of fresh local fruits.
Yunyun – Frio Frio – Snow cone – Shaved Ice
Some of the Frió Frió carts are equipt with little motors so they can make blended fruit drinks also.
Caution for the tourists
The ice may not be made with bottled water so beware. Always ask before you take a chance with ice in the street.
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