Good Eats, Barbados Style

There is so much to say about our trip, that I thought I'd start somewhere easy: food. We ate lots, and it was all delicious, but I have to admit I was mighty happy to eat fruit once we got home. Most fruits were out of season down there, and anything that isn't grown on the island is super expensive.



First up, the ubiquitos flying fish sandwich. The flying fish is the national fish of Barbados, and can be found in most tourist and local restaurants. We ate it most often fried in a sandwich, and it was delicious.



Here it is served with breadfruit fries.



And here is a cutter (the Bajan word for sandwich) from Cutters, near Crane Beach. Triple decker!



Banks is the beer of Barbados, and we enjoyed quite a bit of it though locals seemed to prefer Carib beer, from Trinidad.



We went out for Jamaican food one night, and had some fantastic jerk chicken.



There are many fish markets on the island, and Oistins is the largest one. Every night, stands open up serving grilled or fried fish fresh off the boats.




We waited a LONG time for our food to arrive, but when it did, it was delicious! (no photos, we were too hungry to worry about that!)



After visiting Harrison's Caves, we ate at a little shack across from a gully we were about to visit. The food was cheap, and delicious (you can see the fantastic macaroni pie that was served everywhere), and the view as specatcular.



Another staple of many meals was rum punch. I took it upon myself to sample many, and had quite a few good ones.


Christmas Eve at Blakey's


At Cutters, you can see the fresh nutmeg on top.

My favorites were from the Round House, Cutters, and the clubhouse on the golf course where we stayed. The formula is apparently 1 part sugar, 2 parts sour (lemon or lime juice), 3 parts water and 4 parts rum (mix of aged and white), finished with bitters, cherry and fresh nutmeg.



Here's a plateful of traditional food from the Brown Sugar restaurant's Christmas buffet lunch-clockwise from the top: roasted squash; beet salad; cormeal fritters; jug jug (kind of like refried beans); sweet potato pie; pepper pot (meat mixture in a peppery sauce); rice and peas and fried flying fish.



Of course I have to end the post with dessert! We didn't actually have it very often, and aside from a yummy piece of coconut pie at the Round House, I think this sad looking piece of banana bread was the only other dessert I ordered. It might look sad, but it was anything but! I shouldn't have said anything at the time, but as soon as I mentioned that this was the best banana bread I'd ever tasted, Rob and Erik were very eager to help me finish it.

And now I'm hungry! And I could sure go for a rum punch....