Sint Maarten

🇧🇸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

🇦🇼Aruba

Cornmeal with Black Beans

Tutu

Tutu; a cornmeal and mashed black-eyed pea side dish; a gluten-free corn-based side; beans and sugar cooked into funchi; a staple of Aruban cuisine; served with stews to balance strong flavors; appears at traditional meals

🇸🇽Sint Maarten

Crab Backs

Blue crab meat mixed with tomato, onion, herbs, Worcestershire sauce, and breadcrumbs, stuffed back into crab shells and broiled; a traditional Sint Maarten seafood dish

🇧🇸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.

🇲🇫Saint Martin

Creole Fish Court-Bouillon

Court Bouillon

A French-influenced fish stew with white fish fillets, tomatoes, garlic, spring onions, thyme, hot pepper, rum, and vinegar; a traditional Sint Maarten dish

🇫🇷Paris, France

Croissant

Crescent-shaped laminated pastry, buttery and flaky, adapted from the Austrian kipferl.

🇳🇱Netherlands

Croquette

Kroket

A Dutch breadcrumbed ragout croquette, served alone or in a soft roll with mustard.

🇯🇲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.

🇬🇾Guyana

Dhalpuri Roti

Dhalpuri

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

🇬🇾Guyana

Doubles

Two soft fried turmeric-yellow flatbreads holding a scoop of curried chickpeas, dressed with tamarind, cucumber and pepper sauce.

🇳🇱Netherlands

Dutch Pancakes

Pannekoek

Large thin Dutch pancakes cooked with sweet or savory fillings like bacon, cheese, or apples, often served as main course.

🇳🇱North Holland, Netherlands

Edam Cheese

Edammer kaas

Semi-hard cheese with mild sweet to piquant flavor depending on maturity, spherical shape with red wax coating, PGI status.

🇨🇼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.

🇯🇲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.

🇬🇩Grenada

Fried Bake

Round of leavened dough fried until it puffs hollow, split and filled with saltfish, cheese or smoked herring.

🇬🇵Guadeloupe

Fried Bread Sandwich

Bokit

Guadeloupe's street food; a deep-fried bread sandwich, crispy on the outside and soft inside; filled with saltfish, chicken, pork, seafood, or vegetables; accompanied by a spicy sauce or fresh vegetables; a veritable explosion of Creole flavors; the bokit that is the archipelago's must-have sandwich.

🇦🇼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.

🇳🇱South Holland, Netherlands

Gouda Cheese

Goudse kaas

Netherlands' most famous cheese, semi-hard cow's milk cheese with creamy and sweet flavor, aged for varying periods.

🇦🇬Antigua and Barbuda

Green Seasoning

Shadon beni, chive, thyme, garlic, pimento pepper and onion blended with vinegar into a green marinade base.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Guava Duff

Guava pulp rolled into a sweet dough, wrapped in cloth and boiled or steamed into a log, sliced and covered with a butter-and-rum sauce. BVI Guava Duff folds guava into boiled dough and serves the sliced pudding with butter sauce.

🇲🇫Saint Martin

Guavaberry

Small wild berry native to Sint Maarten, national symbol; not related to guava; rare fruit found in warm hills in the center of the island; used to make liqueur, jam, and tarts; a distinctive Sint Maarten specialty.

🇸🇽Sint Maarten

Guavaberry Hot Sauce

Hot sauce made with guavaberries, papayas, tomatoes, sweet limes, and mild Caribbean herbs and spices; used for grilling; a Guavaberry product; a distinctive Sint Maarten condiment. Guavaberry gives this Sint Maarten bottled pepper sauce its tart, aromatic fruit note.

🇲🇫Saint Martin

Guavaberry Liqueur

Guavaberry Rum

Legendary folk liqueur and national symbol of Sint Maarten; made from wild guavaberries (Myrciaria floribunda), oak-aged rum, and cane sugar; has a woody, fruity, spicy, bitter-sweet flavor; a Sint Maarten product.

🇯🇲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

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.

🇦🇼Aruba

Johnny Cake

Johnny cake; a traditional Aruban fried bread; made with flour, water, yeast, lard, and sugar; fried in oil; served with cheese or bacalao (salt cod); a popular snack and breakfast item; a feature of roadside snack-bars; a staple of Aruban street food

🇲🇫Saint Martin

Locri

Lokri

A rice and chicken dish similar to risotto; made with chicken, vegetables, lime juice, tomato paste, and local hot sauce; a special dish for holidays on Sint Maarten

🇹🇹Trinidad and Tobago

Macaroni Pie

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

🇦🇼Aruba

Madame Jeanette

Pica Madame Jeanette

Madame Jeanette pepper; a core ingredient of Aruban cuisine; a hot pepper hotter than jalapeño with fruity notes; used to flavor almost every dish; processed into hot sauce that is a much-wanted souvenir; encountered everywhere on the island

🇯🇲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.

🇻🇪Venezuela

Ponche Crema

Egg, milk and rum liqueur bottled since 1900 and drunk at Christmas, thick, sweet and dusted with nutmeg.

🇸🇽Sint Maarten

Republic Rum

Republic Rum is a bottled Sint Maarten rum from the Guavaberry Company, sold as a named island product rather than a bar-mixed drink.

🇦🇼Aruba

Rice and Beans

Arroz Moro

Arroz moro (rice and beans); a popular Aruban side dish; white rice and beans served with stews and meat dishes; a staple of Aruban cuisine; a feature of everyday meals