Thread: Food on Dominica

Hi Everyone...

I made up a list of things I absolutely can't live without... food-wise. Are all these things available at a reasonable price on the island and if not, which ones are harder to get your hands on?

milk
bread
eggs
diet pepsi
fish
general seafood ie imitation crab meat!
lettuce
onions

thank you so much!

milk: shelf and powdered are easy to come by however the real stuff is very rare! Parmalot is almost $ 6 EC a box
bread: you can find bread everywhere at very reasonable prices although it's not going to be quite what you're used to and sometimes it's better (the bread at market is amazing and it's 3 EC for a LARGE loaf!)
eggs: VERY easy to come by! At market they're $6 EC for a dozen
diet pepsi: Rare...there is a Coke factory on the island but diet soda in general is harder to find, diet pepsi practically impossible
fish - PLENTY of tuna and blue marlin about 6 EC a pound at market
general seafood ie imitation crab meat! - I've never seen imitation crab
meat - rare...I personally bring my own (PM me if you want details!)
lettuce - found everywhere at market, Dee's, and the shacks - cheap at market
onions - found everywhere - cheap at market

Also, $1 US = $2.67 EC

Get yourself a case of parmalat milks...they come in a variety of types (skim, 1% and 2%). If you chill them, they taste more like regular milk, and you'd probably not even notice the difference if you were to eat it with cereal or drink with coffee since the other flavors mask the minute difference in taste that VULCANIZATION provides.

As for the diet pepsi, I wouldn't know, never drank diet stuff on the island. if the other person is saying its hard to find, then I'd recommend you ship down a couple of cases with you from here in a barrel within which you can place other items like cereal (REALLY expensive down there), snacks and other items which are even pricey here and will be ridiculously priced down on the island of greedy idiots. Good luck.

BTW, for details about shipping barrels, do a SEARCH I know i've posted a bunch of topics about how to ship barrels and how to get them thru customs with the cheapest duties.

Originally Posted by Cuando2

Get yourself a case of parmalat milks...they come in a variety of types (skim, 1% and 2%). If you chill them, they taste more like regular milk, and you'd probably not even notice the difference if you were to eat it with cereal or drink with coffee since the other flavors mask the minute difference in taste that VULCANIZATION provides.

As for the diet pepsi, I wouldn't know, never drank diet stuff on the island. if the other person is saying its hard to find, then I'd recommend you ship down a couple of cases with you from here in a barrel within which you can place other items like cereal (REALLY expensive down there), snacks and other items which are even pricey here and will be ridiculously priced down on the island of greedy idiots. Good luck.

BTW, for details about shipping barrels, do a SEARCH I know i've posted a bunch of topics about how to ship barrels and how to get them thru customs with the cheapest duties.

I'm going to ship myself barrels before coming down. you mentioned in an old post to tell a driver to pick it up b/c if they see a rich American they will rip you off at customs...what is the average cost of duties at customs for a overstuffed barrel when you send a driver to pick it up?? are ALL of your foods and other items still in there or are some missing?? also, which drivers on the island are the MOST trustworthy??

The biggest reason to send a driver is so you don't have to make the trip. One of my friends decided to go on his own and it only cost him $35 for mostly food items. $1 US = $2.67 EC. The trip there is about an hour, plus the time at customs, plus the trip back so you're looking at about 3 hours of time. Also, they open your barrel and inspect it in front of you (or your driver). The taxes are also very subjective so be nice to the customs guy or your driver! If you want a trustworth driver PM us and I'll give you his name and number. We use him almost exclusively. He has taken us to the airport, helped us move and has picked up a barrel for us.

I think i paid like 45 ECs for customs duties when the driver picked it up for me. You gotta pay the driver too...either if you go with him or make him go, and I forgot how much i paid him...probably like 20 bucks US but I'm not sure I remember that amount. The driver was Havis I believe.

When I went and picked up the barrel the first time in person it was like some ridiculous amount of duties. I also had Max drive me, and the greedy idiot ripped me off on the fare too. Havis was a much better/much nicer/MUCH more reliable driver, charged less, and made great conversation, compared to the idiot Max. Him and the other dude, Alexis over-charge, but they put their name out like crazy...after a semester or two, you will find cheaper drivers who are much better. Good luck

Seriously, is it really THAT hard to find milk in Dominica? Is it just the area where Ross is or are there other places you can go on the island that has milk? I would even camp out over night in front of the grocery store if that meant I could have some milk. Is it completely impossible to get milk or is there a chance to somehow get milk? How often do the grocery stores have milk?

Also, I keep hearing about the barrels. How much can these barrels hold? How expensive are they? Who ships these barrels?

Is it possible to ship a box that is refrigerated down to Ross? Can you ship like frozen foods down there to last the entire semester?

Originally Posted by monsoon338

Seriously, is it really THAT hard to find milk in Dominica? Is it just the area where Ross is or are there other places you can go on the island that has milk? I would even camp out over night in front of the grocery store if that meant I could have some milk. Is it completely impossible to get milk or is there a chance to somehow get milk? How often do the grocery stores have milk?

Also, I keep hearing about the barrels. How much can these barrels hold? How expensive are they? Who ships these barrels?

Is it possible to ship a box that is refrigerated down to Ross? Can you ship like frozen foods down there to last the entire semester?

Dude, what did I say a few posts up, just do a search and you will find all the info.

And calm down about the milk factor, just read my post above...seems like you didn't read this thread at all.

Hi, yeah, I know, I am stressing but I really really need my milk. I have at least 1 large glass a day.

I don't think I can do that Parmalat stuff and I KNOW I can't do the powdered stuff. So those options are out for me.

I did read the post but it didn't answer some questions for me. All I got from the threads on here was that milk was rare. But how rare? How often are the shipments made to the grocery store? Once a week? Once a month? Once a semester? I know someone earlier said once a semester but has that changed since 2004?

Can you make a trip to the other side of the island to bigger cities for some milk? I know it sounds kinda silly but it would be worth it for me. Could you please answer some of my specific questions?

As far as I know (and If I'm wrong on this please someone feel free to correct me) the Ross students are the big milk drinkers and not many people in Dominica drink milk. I do not liek shelf milk, or thought I didn't until I had a nice cold glass of Parmalot. It actually tasts liek real milk. Why don't you go buy a box at home and test it out? I also stated somewhere that Tina's or Picard Grocery will get in milk maybe once a semester. They will tell you it's more frequent but unfortuantely it's not. I am sorry for this bad news but I really do not think you are going to get much real milk down here.