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A half-mile stretch on the outskirts of south downtown San José has become a hotbed for food trucks from across Latin America. In the past two years, new trucks have launched specializing in corn cachapas from Venezuela, tender nacatamales from Nicaragua, and, as of last May, the slow-cooked stews and savory mashed plantains of the Dominican Republic.
Wrapped in the characteristic blue, red and white of the Dominican flag, the El Fogon d’Geny truck shares a small, picnic table–lined lot with a few other food trucks. Its arrival is great news for fans of Caribbean food: Dominican dishes used to be nearly impossible to come by in the Bay Area. Now, El Fogon d’Geny is putting in the work to introduce the cuisine’s hearty flavors to the South Bay.
Owner Vanessa Rodríguez was born in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, but grew up in Nagua, a smaller city on the island’s northeastern coast. As a child, she learned to cook alongside her mother, grandmother and aunts. In 2002, she moved to Bávaro, Punta Cana, a more touristy area where she began her career as a professional cook. Over the years, she blended what she learned working in restaurant kitchens with her family’s recipes to develop her own style centered on patient, low-and-slow cooking and aggressive seasoning…