Anguilla

• Rum Punch – With every cafe and restaurant following a different recipe of varying complexity, you can expect nothing but great rum punches, either made using plain lime juice or orange/pineapple/grenadine/guava and pinches of bitters and sugar syrup.
• Sea Moss – It tastes like eggnog and is made with sea moss that is soaked and boiled until it becomes jelly. To complete the recipe, the local cooks add sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and milk!
• AXA Ale – The very first Anguilla beer, though not quite local (rather than imported from other Caribbean islands and the USA).
• BB&C – A frozen, creamy drink that is considered Anguilla’s unofficial cocktail, with banana, coconut, and baileys. Some bartenders also prefer to add a little rum, while others choose banana liqueur rather than a plain banana for a smoother flavour.
• Mauby – A non-alcoholic drink with a strong Caribbean flair that tastes like root beer (but leaves a bitter taste in the mouth than root beer). It is made with the leaves and bark of the Mauby tree and is a typical local beverage turned into a carbonated soft drink.
• Carib Beer – A popular, tasty, and light local beer brewed in Tobago and Trinidad with a stronger taste than Red Stripe (a smoother lager).
• Ting – A grapefruit soda (carbonated) from Jamaica served at every Anguilla restaurant and dazzles with its sweet and tart taste.

• Pigeon peas & rice – The most popular Anguilla dish with locally grown pigeon peas and rice was first brought to the island by European settlers. The ingredients are often cooked with meat. However, you may even see it served as a side dish.
• Rice & beans – With as many recipes as the families in Anguilla, this food is seasoned with various ingredients, such as pepper, salt, thyme, lime juice, and garlic, while some cooks like to make it a tad spicier by adding hot pepper sauce!
• Seafood – A major player in local gastronomy, expect to find from mahi-mahi and red snapper to jackfish (similar to tuna or barracuda) and lionfish on menus (usually grilled).
• Callaloo – You can treat your palate with a warming leafy callaloo soup (super rich in iron) with herbs, garlic, onion, pumpkin, hot red pepper, and okra, or a dish with crab meat and salted pork.
• Roast corn – The Anguillians love eating corn on the cob. When corn is available on the island, they prefer it sweet. For that reason, they roast it rather than boil it and then enjoy it with nothing on it but a pinch of salt (instead of cheese or mayonnaise like they do in Central America and Mexico).
• Saltfish – A main ingredient for many dishes, saltfish is a boneless white fish like mahi-mahi or cod that is preserved by drying and salting it. It is ideal for soups and is usually combined with garlic, tomatoes, peppers, and onions. Then, it is fried and served with a bit of hot pepper!
• Corn fritters – You will find corn fritters prepared next to upmarket options in the beach hut restaurants, using local shellfish as the main ingredient. The dish blends chopped meat with a little white fish and eggs, cilantro, red peppers, green peppers, and onions. Then, the mixture is made into a ball, covered in breadcrumbs, and fried.
• Grilled spiny lobster - Available year-round in Anguilla, lobster is cooked in the plainest way to keep its aromas and flavours, with only lemon butter or garlic and perhaps some spices before it is grilled.
• Crayfish – Your taste buds might get confused and think you are asking them to process lobster! However, crayfish is a bit more tender than lobster and has a sweeter taste. Given its high demand and low supply, you won’t find it easily available across the island.
• Stewed goat – The recipes vary. However, the most common method of preparing this dish is by accompanying goat meat with rice and pigeon peas (or other vegetables) and making all the ingredients into a stew.
• Johnny cakes – A staple in Anguilla served in every local restaurant is a delicious flatbread with cornmeal as the main ingredient. The dough created by mixing cornmeal, water, oil, and flour is then seasoned with a pinch of baking powder, sugar, and salt and kneaded into one block of smooth dough. The cook separates it (the dough) into small patties that are fried until slightly crispy.
• Fish soup – Fish soup comes in many varieties and can include different seafood or white fish. Most of the time, the soups are cooked with some cream or milk in a chowder style with a kick of heat.

If you only have the appetite to taste just one kind of Anguilla dessert, do consider having Tamarind Balls, a Jamaica-originating sweet (makes sense since most Tamarind fruits in the Caribbean are grown in Jamaica). As the pulp of the fruit ripens, it becomes sweet. Then, it is combined with sugar (some recipes also have a little flour or rum) and kneaded into a dough. After that, the dough is made into balls and rolled in sugar. The last step involves putting the balls in the refrigerator until they are set.

As for those loving coconut macaroons, we suggest trying sugar cakes. These are made with water, sugar, (lots of) ginger, and (just a pinch of) unsweetened coconut. Or you could opt for the coconut drops that are particularly filling, with a yummy ginger-filled cake cookie-like appearance.

As for a multi-versed Anguilla food that falls under several different categories, are the dumplings found in stews, vegetable, and fish soups, or added to dishes as a snack (depending on which part of the island you have them). They are made with plain cornmeal dough (flour combined with water, sugar, and baking powder) that is kneaded, worked into a cylindrical shape, and boiled or steamed. Absolutely appetising!