Turks and Caicos 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.

🇧🇸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 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.

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

Bambarra Rum

TCI's rum brand named after the Bambarra settlement on Middle Caicos; blended from Caribbean rums and bottled in Providenciales; range includes white, gold, aged, and flavoured rums (coconut, dark); a Turks and Caicos product.

🇯🇲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.

🇧🇸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.

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

Buds and Rice

A resourceful 'hardship dish' using buds of the local pear cactus (Opuntia dillenii) cooked into rice for flavour and sustenance; a distinctive Turks and Caicos tradition

🇯🇲Jamaica

Callaloo

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

🇧🇸Bahamas

Cassava Bread

Grated cassava pressed of its liquid and baked into a flat, dense bread — the oldest bread on the islands.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Chicken Souse

Souse

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

🇯🇲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.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Cornmeal Porridge

Cog

A creamy Jamaican breakfast porridge of fine cornmeal simmered with milk, condensed milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla and bay leaf, a comforting morning staple.

🇧🇸Christiansted, Bahamas

Crab and Rice

Land crab picked and cooked into rice with its fat, thyme, onion and pepper so the grains turn orange.

🇧🇸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.

🇬🇾Guyana

Dhalpuri Roti

Dhalpuri

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

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

Dry Conch and Hominy

Dried conch meat rehydrated and cooked with hominy (dried corn); a traditional Middle Caicos specialty known for its sweetness; a distinctive Turks and Caicos hardship dish

🇯🇲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.

🇬🇵Guadeloupe

Grilled Lobster

Homard Grillé

Grilled lobster; a Guadeloupean seafood delight; lobster expertly grilled over a wood fire; accompanied by lime; the pinnacle of the local culinary experience; the grilled lobster that is a Guadeloupean luxury. Turks and Caicos cooks grill local lobster over fire with lime and island seasoning, alongside the shared Caribbean preparation.

🇧🇸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.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Guinep

Bunches of small green-skinned fruit cracked open with the teeth to reveal a sweet-sour pink pulp around a large seed.

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

Hashed Lobster

Lobster meat hashed (minced) and cooked in a seasoned sauce; a traditional South Caicos dish; a distinctive Turks and Caicos preparation