Cayman Islands

🇯🇲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.

🇲🇫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.

🇦🇬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.

🇧🇸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.

🇧🇧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 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 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.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Bammy

Flat cassava cake pressed and dried by a Taino method that predates the Spanish, soaked in coconut milk and then fried or steamed.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Callaloo

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

🇰🇾Cayman Islands

Caybrew Beer

Caybrew

The 'Premium Beer of the Cayman Islands'; a European-style pilsner with complex malty aroma and refreshing finish; originally called Stingray Brewery (founded 1996), rebranded to Caybrew in 2007; also produces 345 session lager, Island Hopper IPA, Hopnosis, and Ironshore Bock; a Cayman product.

🇰🇾Cayman Islands

Cayman Macaroni Pudding

Macaroni Pudding

A sweet dessert combining elbow macaroni with eggs, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, evaporated milk, coconut milk, butter, and raisins, baked until firm with a custard texture; a popular Christmas dessert in the Cayman Islands; a distinctive Caymanian sweet.

🇰🇾Cayman Islands

Cayman Pepper Pot

Pepper Pot

A spicy soup made with chicken, bacon, sweet potatoes, Cayman peppers, red bell peppers, hot peppers, garlic, spinach, coconut milk, chicken stock, and spices; a hearty, warming dish with significant heat; a traditional Caymanian soup. Cayman cooks simmer leafy greens, okra, coconut, and salted meat into this local pepper pot.

🇰🇾Cayman Islands

Cayman Rum Punch

Rum Punch

A carefully balanced blend of local rum and fruit juices - typically mango nectar, guava nectar, strawberry-banana nectar, pineapple juice, orange juice, cranberry juice, water, and lime juice; an art form in Cayman, with recipes varying by bar; a signature Cayman drink.

🇰🇾Cayman Islands

Cayman Sweet Potato Pudding

Sweet Potato Pudding

A tasty traditional dessert made from sweet potatoes, reflecting the island's use of local root vegetables in sweet preparations; a Caymanian pudding; a traditional Caribbean dessert.

🇯🇲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 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.

🇧🇸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.

🇰🇾Cayman Islands

Custard Top Cornbread

A popular traditional Cayman dessert made with corn meal, flour, sugar, baking soda, nutmeg, eggs, coconut milk, evaporated milk, vanilla, lime juice, and butter, baked for 2 hours until firm with a custard-like texture; a Caymanian dessert.

🇬🇾Guyana

Dhalpuri Roti

Dhalpuri

Flatbread stuffed with a dry, seasoned ground split-pea filling before rolling, so the pea layer is sealed inside.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Escovitch Fish

Whole snapper or parrotfish fried crisp and doused in a hot vinegar dressing with onion, carrot and scotch bonnet cut into strips.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Fish Tea

Thin, peppery broth boiled from fish heads and bones with pumpkin, yam and green banana, drunk from a cup before a meal.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Fried Dumpling

Johnny cake

Round of flour dough fried until it puffs and browns, split and filled with saltfish, callaloo or fried plantain for breakfast.

🇰🇾Cayman Islands

Heavy Cake

The official national dessert of the Cayman Islands (gazetted in 2024); a very dense, slightly sweet and spicy cake made from grated cassava, coconut milk, brown sugar, butter, and spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, cloves); almost the consistency of bread pudding; can also be made with yam, sweet potato, pumpkin, or breadfruit.

🇦🇮Anguilla

Jamaican Festival

Festival

Sweetened cornmeal and flour dough rolled into a finger shape and deep-fried until golden — the fixed accompaniment to jerk and fried fish.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Jamaican Ginger Beer

Ginger beer

Fresh ginger grated and steeped with lime and sugar until it turns fiercely hot, then strained and chilled.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Jamaican Patty

Patty

Half-moon of turmeric-yellow flaky pastry filled with heavily seasoned minced beef and scotch bonnet, baked and eaten from a paper bag.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Jerk Chicken

Chicken marinated for a day in pimento, scotch bonnet, thyme and escallion, then smoked slowly over pimento wood on a grate laid across a split oil drum.

🇯🇲Jamaican Coast, Jamaica

Jerk Pork

Pork shoulder cured in the same pimento and scotch bonnet paste and smoked over pimento wood until the outside blackens and the fat renders.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Jerk Seasoning

Wet paste of ground pimento berries, scotch bonnet, thyme, escallion, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon, rubbed into meat overnight.

🇹🇹Trinidad and Tobago

Macaroni Pie

Macaroni baked with cheese, evaporated milk and egg into a firm block that can be cut into squares.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Mannish Water

Goat head, tripe and feet boiled with green banana, yam, spinners, pimento and a splash of white rum, served at weddings and celebrations.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Oxtail and Butter Beans

Oxtail

Oxtail browned and stewed for hours with butter beans, pimento, thyme and scotch bonnet until it turns sticky with collagen.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Pimento

Dried unripe berries of the pimento tree, native to Jamaica and named for tasting of clove, nutmeg and cinnamon at once — the base of jerk and of most Jamaican cooking.