British Virgin Islands

1. Roti

This is a traditional East Indian dish that looks like a burrito wrap but is actually a flatbread sandwich stuffed with chickpeas, goat, beef, or curried chicken and spiced with chilli-laden chutney and other spices. Of course, there are as many recipes as the cooks that make it. So, you may also find it filled with vegetables, shrimp, fish, tofu, or potatoes, and served with mango chutney. Now, depending on your preferences, it could be an excellent dinner or lunch option.

2. Fish & Fungi

This is a dish that goes way back in time as it is related to the times of slavery when each slave was allowed to have six salted herrings and six quarts of cornmeal weekly. Fish and fungi gradually became the national dish of the British Virgin Islands and a staple all tourists try at least once. Unlike what many people may think, the word “fungi” does not refer to mushrooms, rather than okra that is combined with cornmeal and boiled with butter until it becomes a thick mash. It is served with cod, mackerel, or any other salt fish or boiled fish.

3. Conch (Creole & Fritters)

Conch is the chewy meat with a unique flavour that comes from local shells and makes an island favourite that’s actually a savoury combination of salt pork, conch, hot peppers, spices, garlic, and onions. More than often, the Creole-style dish is topped with a sweet onion gravy and served with fish and fungi on the same plate!

To make the infamous conch fritters, on the other hand, the cooks first pound the conch until tender, then batter and season it with herbs, including sage and cayenne pepper, and finally plop it into crackling oil. The conch fritters match exceptionally with a cold beer (could also be local!).

4. Lobster

The reefs surrounding the most far-flung island in the British Virgin Islands, Anegada, are a party land for massive groups of crustaceans, including, of course, the local lobsters, which differ a great deal from their northern cousins. The Anegada lobster has its meat in its tail and literally no claws. You will find it served in every single restaurant in Anegada (and not only), usually grilled right where the waves splash to the shore and spiced with seasonings whose precise list of ingredients nobody will ever reveal!

Other palate-pleasing local dishes:

• Callaloo soup – A stew-like soup made with callaloo leaves that are boiled with a mix of potatoes, onions, eggplant, okra, seasonings, meats, and coconut milk.
• Rice and peas – Both rice and black-eyed beans are flavoured with spice, herbs, and flavourings that match the cook’s preferences!
• Tannia soup – A tasty soup made from an indigenous root with a distinct purple colour that is mixed with spices, onions, tomatoes, ham, and salt-fat meat.
• Porgies & Grunts – Another fish dish prepared with bonito, kingfish, and yellowfish boiled in a broth that’s flavoured with lime, and then seasoned with herbs and hot peppers. Most of the time, it is served with a Creole-style sauce made of onions, tomatoes, and peppers.

In this category, Johhnycakes and pates are the stars. The first is crunchy flatbreads (but airy and fluffy on the inside) featuring a batter made of milk, butter, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cornmeal that is then fried in oil until golden. The second is a BVI version of an empanada and consists of fried dough filled with salt fish, beef, or spiced chicken. The result is a fragrant puff that you can buy from any bakery or street stall (even a beach snack hut).

Apart from those, though, the BVI is an endless table laid with all sorts of sweets and snacks, from warm macadamia-nut cookies and sticky raisin rolls to gooey guava tarts, pink sugar cakes, and round dum bread!

You are at the birthplace of rum, so it is no wonder that the local distilleries, such as Callwood Rum Distillery and Cruzan Rum Distillery, have been producing the popular BVI drink since the 1700s! As expected, every major island in the BVI has its own rum variety, which is distilled either from molasses or sugar cane.

Besides rum, though, you may also want to try any of the fruit drinks that are made here, which are also popular and healthy options among locals and visitors alike, such as Seamoss. Seamoss is made of boiled seaweed, which is mixed (after it has completely dissolved) with spices and milk.

Other delicious drinks worth treating your taste buds with are:

• Mauby – A drink made with mauby bark that is boiled and spiced with cinnamon.
• Painkiller – A cocktail with navy and dark rum as its key ingredient and a mix of coconut cream, orange juice, and fresh pineapple juice that was first made at the popular Soggy Dollar Bar in the 1980s. You will see it served in a tall Collins glass or a Tiki glass filled with ice and garnished with freshly grated nutmeg and pineapple wedge.
• Beer – Although the microbrewing scene is relatively small yet, you will find several local beer makers producing absolutely fantastic brews that actually have a huge reach as they are served at most local bars. From Indian pale ale to Belgian-style wheat beer, you will definitely be spoiled for choice.

Of course, you could also give peanut punch, coconut water, banana punch, soursop punch, sorrel, pumpkin punch, passionfruit juice, lemon tea, and bush tea a try and see how your palate reacts to these amazing flavours!