Turks and Caicos Islands

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

Hashed Shark with Pear Bush Buds and Rice

Hashed Shark

Hashed shark is a Grand Turk preparation of minced shark cooked with pear-cactus buds and rice. Availability depends on lawful local practice.

🇦🇮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.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Old Sour

Key lime juice salted heavily and left to stand for weeks, often with bird peppers dropped in, then strained into a bottle.

🇯🇲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.

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

Pear Bush Buds

Young buds from the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia dillenii) that resemble okra; traditionally consumed as a vegetable in the Turks and Caicos Islands

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

Peas and Hominy

The traditional precursor to peas and rice; pigeon peas cooked with hominy (dried corn), chunks of dry conch, and sometimes pig tail for flavouring; a distinctive Turks and Caicos dish

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

PeppaJoy Hot Sauce

PeppaJoy

A TCI-born gourmet pepper sauce made with scotch bonnet peppers infused with guava for a mildly sweet, fruity heat; all-natural ingredients, zero preservatives; varieties include Original, Lemon, and Ghost; a Turks and Caicos condiment.

🇧🇧Barbados

Rice and Peas

Rice cooked in coconut milk with kidney beans or gungo peas, thyme, escallion and a whole scotch bonnet, served with every Sunday dinner.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Roast Breadfruit

Whole breadfruit roasted directly on coals or a fire until the skin is black, then peeled and sliced as a starch alongside ackee or fish.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Rum Punch

Rum, lime, sugar syrup, fruit juice and grenadine mixed to the old rhyme — one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Scotch Bonnet

Small crumpled chilli, red or yellow, extremely hot but distinctly fruity, used whole in pots and pulled out before serving.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Sorrel

Dried hibiscus calyces steeped with ginger, pimento and cloves, sweetened and often spiked with rum — drunk at Christmas.

🇹🇹Trinidad and Tobago

Sorrel

Hibiscus calyces steeped with clove, cinnamon, ginger and orange peel, sweetened, and often spiked with rum at Christmas.

🇹🇹Trinidad and Tobago

Souse

Pig's trotters or chicken feet boiled, then pickled cold in lime juice, cucumber, onion, pepper and shadon beni.

🇰🇾Cayman Islands

Stewed Conch

Stew conch

Conch browned in a dark roux of flour, tomato paste and onion and simmered until the sauce goes almost black.

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI Coconut Bread

Coconut Bread

Sweet bread made with fresh coconut meat, flour, sugar, and vanilla; a local favourite at bakeries in the Turks and Caicos Islands; a traditional island baked good; a TCI treat.

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI Coconut Pie

Coconut Pie

Coconut custard pie on a digestive biscuit base, topped with whipped cream and toasted coconut flakes; a Turks and Caicos dessert; a traditional island sweet; a distinctive TCI treat.

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI Cod Fish Cakes

Cod Fish Cakes

Salted cod mixed with mashed potatoes, formed into patties, coated in cornmeal or breadcrumbs, and fried; a traditional Turks and Caicos snack

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI Corn Bread

Corn Bread

Bread made from cornmeal flour ground from local Guinea Corn; a traditional staple before wheat breads became common in the Turks and Caicos Islands

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI Crab Stew

Crab Stew

Land crabs stewed in a rich gravy with vegetables and herbs; a traditional Turks and Caicos dish

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI Ginger Bread

Ginger Bread

Spiced bread with ginger; a traditional sweet with a special place in the hearts of Turks and Caicos Islanders

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI Hominy Grits

Grits

Coarsely ground dried maize (Guinea Corn) cooked into a porridge; made from drought-resistant corn historically grown on the islands; a common traditional breakfast in the Turks and Caicos Islands; a staple of TCI cuisine.

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI Johnny Cake

Johnny Cake

Slightly sweetened pan-baked cornbread that preserved well for sailors and fishermen on long trips; derived from 'Journey Cake'; served with boiled fish, souse, or as a snack; a staple of Turks and Caicos cuisine.

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI Potato Bread

Potato Bread

Sweet bread made with grated sweet potato, coconut, flour, and sugar; a specialty of Middle and North Caicos; a traditional Turks and Caicos baked good

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI Steamed Conch

Steamed Conch

A traditional Turks and Caicos preparation where conch is steamed, often served with grits or hominy; a classic method before frying became common

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

TCI Steamed Fish

Steamed Fish

Whole fish (typically snapper or grouper) steamed with herbs, vegetables, and lime juice; locally caught snapper almost always served whole; a signature Turks and Caicos seafood dish Turks and Caicos cooks steam whole fish with peppers, onions, and island seasonings.

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

Turks and Caicos Rum Punch

Rum Punch

A signature cocktail made with Bambarra rum (coconut and dark), orange juice, pineapple juice, grenadine, floated with dark rum, garnished with cherry and pineapple; a signature Turks and Caicos drink

🇹🇨Turks and Caicos Islands

Whelk Soup

A traditional 'hardship dish' made from tiny whelks (shellfish) collected along rocky shores; a Salt Cay specialty; a distinctive Turks and Caicos tradition Salt Cay and Turks and Caicos cooks make this hardship-era soup from whelk and local aromatics.