Anguilla

🇯🇲Jamaica

Ackee and Saltfish

Boiled ackee — the soft yellow arils of the national fruit — sautéed with flaked salt cod, onion, tomato, scotch bonnet and thyme until it resembles scrambled egg.

🇦🇮Anguilla

Anguillian Callaloo Soup

Callaloo Soup

A creamy soup made from callaloo leaves, often with coconut milk, okra, pumpkin, hot red pepper, herbs, garlic, and onion; sometimes includes crab meat or salted cod; rich in iron; an Anguillian soup.

🇰🇳Saint Kitts and Nevis

Anguillian Coconut Dumplings

Coconut Dumplings

Sweet dumplings made with flour, grated coconut, sugar, spices, coconut milk, and raisins, poached in water and served with condensed milk; a traditional Anguillan dessert

🇲🇫Saint Martin

Anguillian Coconut Tart

Coconut Tart

A pastry filled with grated coconut, sugar, and spices; a local bakery specialty in Anguilla, often served with vanilla ice cream; a classic island dessert. Across the islands this coconut-filled tart is baked as a bakery sweet, with local notes ranging from Anguillian spice to Sint Maarten and Cayman fillings.

🇰🇳Saint Kitts and Nevis

Anguillian Conkie Dumplings

Conkies

Cornmeal, grated pumpkin, coconut and sweet potato spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, wrapped in banana leaf and steamed into a soft parcel.

🇦🇮Anguilla

Anguillian Johnny Cakes

Fry Cakes

Dense, fried or baked cornmeal biscuits; the bread of Anguilla; made with flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, sugar, oil, and water; served with everything from lobster to saltfish; can be baked in traditional coal ovens or fried

🇦🇮Anguilla

Anguillian Roadside BBQ

Beach Shack BBQ

Charcoal-grilled chicken, ribs, and pork from roadside stands and beach shacks; a budget-friendly staple, especially during Carnival and festivals; often served with johnny cakes, rice and peas, or grilled garlic bread

🇦🇬Antigua and Barbuda

Antiguan Sugar Cake

Sugar Cake

Chewy confection of grated coconut cooked down with sugar, often tinted pink and flavoured with ginger or nutmeg; a classic Antiguan sweet treat; the mixture is often divided into two batches, one coloured pink and the other left white, poured one over the other to form a pink and white cake; found at markets and schoolyards; the sugar cake of Antigua.

🇦🇬Antigua and Barbuda

Antiguan Tamarind Balls

Tamarind Balls

Sticky sweet-and-sour balls of tamarind pulp rolled with sugar, sometimes with a pinch of hot pepper; a bite-sized Antiguan snack with a tangy kick; coated in granulated sugar; chewy, peppery, sweet, and sour; found at markets and schoolyards; the tamarind balls of Antigua.

🇦🇼Aruba

Aruban Cornmeal Pancake

Pan Bati

Pan bati is a soft, thin Aruban cornmeal pancake made with flour and sugar on a flat griddle, eaten sweet at breakfast or savory with soups and sauces.

🇦🇼Aruba

Aruban Fried Empanada

Pastechi

A traditional Aruban breakfast and snack: a deep-fried crescent pastry filled with cheese, chicken, beef, tuna, or vegetables, seasoned with onion, green pepper, celery, raisins, cumin, nutmeg, and hot pepper.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Bahamian Johnny Cake

Johnnycake

A dense, slightly sweet pan bread of flour, butter, sugar and milk, baked in a skillet and cut in wedges.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Bahamian Peas and Rice

Peas 'n' rice

Rice cooked with pigeon peas, salt pork, thyme, tomato paste and browning until the grains take a light brown colour.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Bahamian Rum Cake

Rum cake

A dense butter cake soaked repeatedly in dark rum syrup until it keeps for weeks without drying.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Bahamian Stew Fish

Stew fish

Snapper or grouper browned and stewed in a dark flour roux with celery, onion, tomato and thyme.

🇧🇧Barbados

Bajan Fish Cakes

Fish cakes

Salt cod flaked into a seasoned batter with herbs and hot pepper, dropped by the spoonful into hot oil and sold hot by the bag.

🇧🇧Barbados

Bajan Macaroni Pie

Macaroni pie

Macaroni baked with cheddar, mustard, onion and a whisked egg custard until it sets firm enough to be cut in squares and served as a side.

🇧🇧Barbados

Bajan Pepper Sauce

Scotch bonnets blended with mustard, turmeric, onion and vinegar into a thick yellow sauce that sits on every table on the island.

🇧🇧Barbados

Bajan Souse

Souse

Boiled pork cuts cooled and steeped in a pickle of lime juice, cucumber, onion, parsley and scotch bonnet, served cold and dripping.

🇧🇧Barbados

Bajan Sweet Bread

Sweet bread

A dense coconut loaf with cherries and raisins, brushed with sugar water so the top glazes, sold by the slab in bakeries.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Boil Fish

Grouper poached with onion, potato, lime, and bird pepper into a thin, sharp broth. In the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos it is commonly served with grits, hominy, or johnny cake.

🇦🇮Anguilla

Bushwacker

Anguillian Bushwacker

Created at the Ship's Store on St. Thomas in 1975, the Bushwacker is a frozen cocktail of rum and creamy coffee-and-chocolate liqueurs. BVI bars serve their own adopted versions.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Callaloo

Amaranth leaves steamed down with onion, tomato, thyme and scotch bonnet, eaten at breakfast with dumplings or as a side.

🇹🇹Trinidad and Tobago

Carib

Pale lager brewed in Trinidad since 1950 and the default beer of Carnival and of every lime.

🇹🇹Trinidad and Tobago

Coconut Bake

Grated coconut worked into a bread dough and baked into a dense, faintly sweet flat loaf.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Coconut Drops

A Jamaican sweet of grated coconut simmered in brown sugar and ginger, dropped onto banana leaves or wax paper to set, a rustic, chewy candy.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Conch Chowder

Conch simmered with tomato, potato, carrot, celery and thyme into a red soup finished with a splash of sherry pepper sauce.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Conch Fritters

Minced conch folded into a peppery batter with onion and sweet pepper and dropped in oil as golf-ball fritters.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Conch Salad

Raw conch knocked out of the shell and diced at the stall with onion, sweet pepper, tomato, lime and sour orange, then eaten from the cup within minutes.

🇦🇼Aruba

Cornmeal Polenta

Funchi

Funchi; a cornmeal polenta-like side dish; one of the three core ingredients of Aruban cuisine; served with nearly every stew; a legacy of indigenous Arawak corn cultivation; a gluten-free corn-based side; designed to balance strong stew flavors

🇧🇸Bahamas

Cracked Conch

Conch pounded flat with a mallet, dipped in seasoned batter and fried, served with peas and rice and a wedge of lime.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Curry Goat

Goat on the bone browned with Jamaican curry powder, scotch bonnet, pimento and thyme, then stewed until the meat falls off and the sauce thickens.

🇬🇧Gibraltar, United Kingdom

Fish and Chips

Battered white fish — cod, haddock or plaice — deep-fried to order with thick-cut chips, salt and malt vinegar, wrapped in paper.

🇨🇼Curaçao

Fish Soup

Sopi di Piska

Sopi di Piska; Curaçao's fish soup; freshly caught fish with vegetables, herbs, and a hint of lime; both refreshing and comforting; fish paired with plantains and yucca; a staple in local households and restaurants; a reflection of the island's maritime heritage; a dish after a day on the beach.

🇦🇼Aruba

Goat Stew

Cabrito Stoba

Cabrito stoba; a traditional Aruban goat stew; goat meat slow-cooked with potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes, green peppers, nutmeg, and hot peppers; served at celebrations; accompanied by funchi or pan bati; goat thrives in Aruba's rocky terrain; a staple of traditional stoba cuisine; requires 3-4 hours of cooking.

🇲🇸Montserrat

Goat Water

Anguillian Goat Water

Montserrat's national dish: a thin, deeply seasoned goat stew simmered with onion, tomato, herbs, and spices, traditionally cooked over a wood fire and served with breadfruit or other provisions.