The Ministry of Culture has seen the need for an official national dish for Dominica.
Chief Cultural Officer, Raymond Lawrence says the island, up till this point, does not have an official dish.
According to Lawrence, years ago Dominicans embraced the crapaud or the mountain chicken as Dominica’s national dish but it was never the official national dish of Dominica.
He says, “It was never officially sanctioned by the Cabinet as the other National Emblems were like the flag, the National Anthem, National Flower and the National Bird so we feel that it’s time that we get an official National Dish for Dominica, something that is sanctioned by the Government of Dominica.”
The Ministry set out to find out first hand all the dishes that Dominicans would really like to see as the national dish of Dominica. Lawrence told gis news on Tuesday that extensive efforts were made to get an accurate feel of the dish which Dominicans prefer as their national dish.
“It is not one persons dish, it is not a groups dish, it is a National dish so it means that we had to try to find out what the majority of people in Dominica think and what they would prefer as a national dish.”
The culture official described the voting procedure and the options put forward to the public.
“There were a number of options, including things like Callaloo, Broth, Fig and Codfish, Sancoche, Titiwi, the wild meats, Agouti, Manicou, the other mixtures of things like Farine and Pear for instance. We had a long list of popular dishes in Dominica which we included in the surveys and then we carried out four surveys, one on Dominica News Online where we presented the options and asked people to vote, we also did one on the radio stations because we know a lot of people listen to the radio so we had a simulcast on DBS, Kairi and Voice of Life. We also did one among the secondary school children in Dominica and we also did one among the hoteliers and restaurants in Dominica.”
“We were looking at things like popularity among Dominican’s, a typical dish among Dominicans, something that is part of our heritage that we are accustomed to. We were also looking at a type of dish where the ingredients were available in Dominica, something that you could prepare any time of the year.”
Callaloo emerged the top choice of voters at the close of the voting period and currently, the division of culture is preparing a document for Cabinet’s review.
The plan is for the official dish to be announced during this year’s independence season.