Sint Maarten

🇯🇲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.

🇦🇼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.

🇦🇼Aruba

Aruban Fried Fish

Pisca Hasa

Pisca hasa is fish fried until crisp and served with creole sauce; Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire each have named island forms, including Piska Korá and Bonaire Piska Hasá.

🇫🇷Paris, France

Baguette

Baguette de tradition

Long thin crusty bread with a soft airy interior, the symbol of French baking.

🇧🇸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.

🇧🇧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.

🇯🇲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.

🇳🇱Netherlands

Bitter Balls

Bitterballen

Small round version of kroket made with beef or veal ragout, popular bar snack served with mustard, traditionally with liquors.

🇨🇼Curaçao

Black Cake

Bolo Pretu

Bolo pretu (black cake); a traditional Curaçaoan festive cake; a rich, dark fruitcake; a feature of celebrations and special occasions; a reflection of Dutch and Caribbean influences

🇧🇧Barbados

Black Cake

A dark, rum-soaked fruitcake of dried fruit, brown sugar and spices, the traditional Christmas cake of Guyana and the Caribbean.

🇧🇸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.

🇧🇶Bonaire

Bonaire Kabritu Stobá

Stoba di Kabritu

Bonaire's national dish and food; slow-cooked goat meat simmered for hours with onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, local herbs (yerba di hole, oregano, thyme), lime juice, and spices; meat falls off the bone with rich savory flavor; traditionally served with funchi and bana hasa

🇧🇶Bonaire

Bonaire Pan Bati

Pan Bati

A savory pancake made from cornmeal, thicker than Dutch pancakes with a slightly sweet taste from added sugar; traditionally made from leftover funchi; can be eaten with jam or butter for breakfast or with savory stews; means 'smash bread' in Papiamentu

🇧🇶Bonaire

Bonaire Pastechi

Pastechi

Bonaire's street food; crescent-shaped deep-fried dough with a sweet hint; fillings include cheese (traditionally Edam), chicken, fish (tuna, red snapper, mahi-mahi), beef, and vegetables; dough lighter than empanadas; sold at early morning stands along Kralendijk boulevard; a Bonairean tradition.

🇫🇷Pays de la Loire, France

Brioche

Rich enriched bread made with generous butter and eggs, tender cake-like crumb with golden crust.

🇸🇽Sint Maarten

Buljawou

Buljol

Salt cod with mixed vegetables, served with fried plantains; evolved from Buljol (saltfish salad), but plantains are grated, fried, and included with the cod; a traditional Sint Maarten dish

🇧🇶Bonaire

Cadushy of Bonaire Liqueur

Cadushy

Cadushy of Bonaire Liqueur is a 20% bottled spirit made from kadushi cactus and lime at Bonaire's Cadushy Distillery, marketed as a taste of the island.

🇯🇲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.

🇦🇼Aruba

Cheese Balls

Bolita di Keshi

Bolita di keshi are crisp fried balls of grated Gouda or Edam bound with flour and egg, a cheese-forward snack sold at Aruban bakeries and roadside snack-bars.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Chicken Souse

Souse

Chicken parts simmered with potato, onion, allspice and a great deal of lime into a clear, sour, peppery broth.

🇦🇼Aruba

Christmas Tamale

Ayaca

Ayaca; a Christmas staple in Aruba with as many recipes as families; cornmeal dough spread on banana or plantain leaves; filled with chicken, pork, prunes, raisins, olives, cashew nuts, ham, and piccalilli; folded in leaves, tied with string, and boiled for an hour; families come together to prepare it listening to Christmas music

🇹🇹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.

🇬🇵Guadeloupe

Colombo Powder

Colombo

The signature Guadeloupean spice blend; a curry-like mix of pepper, turmeric, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, and mustard seed; also called massalé; brought by Indian indentured workers in the 19th century; the foundation of Colombo dishes; the Colombo powder that is the soul of Guadeloupean cuisine.

🇸🇽Sint Maarten

Conch and Dumplings

Karkó & Dumplings

The national dish of Dutch Sint Maarten; tenderized conch (large sea snail) pressure-cooked with flour dumplings, herbs, spices, tomato, and onions until it forms a thick gravy; served with rice, vegetables, and johnny cakes

🇧🇸Bahamas

Conch Fritters

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