Characteristic products
The sun's cycle sets the pace for Belizean life. We get up early, so breakfast is served fairly early, usually from 7am. Lunch is served around midday, and dinner is finished around 7pm. Fish and seafood are abundant in Belize: lobster, shrimp, conch, crab, sea bream, grouper, tarpon and more. Dried and salted cod is known as " saltfish " and is a Belizean staple. In terms of meat, chicken is ubiquitous, but pork is also very popular, not to mention beef and goat. Game such as iguana, deer, peccary and gibnut, a giant rodent, are also sometimes found.
Red and black beans, cassava, rice, corn, yams, plantain and wheat are the most common starchy foods. Cassava accompanies most Garifuna dishes, whose name literally means "cassava eater". Chayote, known locally as " chocho ", is a small, pear-shaped green squash with a neutral taste. Callaloo is the leaf of the taro, a local tuber. Belizean cuisine has no shortage of flavors, and there's an abundance of chili peppers, especially the fierce habanero, common in the West Indies, as well as allspice, ginger, black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, oregano, garlic and thyme. Orange juice, lemon juice and vinegar are often used in marinades.
Classics of Belizean cuisine
Everywhere, at any time of day, you'll find rice and beans in Belize, a nourishing dish that's a tasty blend of rice and red beans cooked in coconut milk. It's often served with fry Jacks, popular fried bread rolls that also accompany breakfast. Another morning specialty, Johnny cakes, are made from flour and coconut milk and cooked over a wood fire, usually served with butter and beans.
A classic of Belizean kriol cuisine, bile up or boil up is a combination of boiled eggs, fish, pig tail, cassava, yams, sweet potatoes and plantains, all poached in a broth. Other West Indian specialties include brown stew chicken, with chicken caramelized in a spicy brown sugar sauce. With so many Indians coming to work in the sugar cane fields under British occupation, it's hardly surprising that chicken curry is such a popular dish in Belize.
Cod is very popular here and is served with a spicy compote of taro leaves(callaloo and saltfish), but sometimes also with green cabbage. Conch fritters are fritters made from conch, the enormous shellfish common to the region. Although the Peruvians are credited with inventing ceviche, it can be found from Mexico to Chile. The fish is marinated in a tangy lime juice sauce, accompanied by chopped fresh vegetables: tomato, cucumber, shallot and, of course, coriander.
A traditional Spanish and Mayan dish,escabeche is an onion soup seasoned with garlic, white vinegar, cinnamon and chili peppers, and usually garnished with chicken or fish. Typical of Garifuna cuisine, hudut is a recipe for fish cooked in a spicy coconut broth and served with mashed plantains or yams. Closely related, bundiga is a heartier stew served with rice.
Tapou is a creamy, spicy fish and crab soup, garnished with cassava and plantain. Finally, chimole, a typical soup from the north of the country, is made from chicken with onions, tomatoes, potatoes, squash and hard-boiled eggs. The soup is flavored with recado negro, an almost black spice paste. Locals call this soup " black dinna ".
The closeness to Mexico and Guatemala is felt in tamalitos or dukunu, the local version of Mexican tamales: a corn dough filled with various ingredients (salty or sweet) and steamed in banana leaves. The Garifuna culture has its own version called darasa: also cooked in a banana leaf, its paste is made from grated green banana, mixed with coconut milk, orange and lemon.
Cochinita pibil, typical of the Yucatán region, is made with pork marinated in orange juice and spices, and preserved over low heat for several hours in a banana leaf. It is then served in a tortilla, to which avocado is added. Garnachas are deep-fried corn tortillas topped with beans, shredded cabbage and lots of melted cheese. Salbut is a puffed, fried tortilla topped with lettuce, avocado, shredded chicken, tomato and pickled red onion. Finally, panades are fried turnovers filled with various ingredients, most often cabbage and spicy fish.
Desserts and drinks
Local desserts are generally quite simple, although there are all kinds of more modern pastries to suit all tastes. Typical desserts include sweets such as wangla (sesame caramel) or tablatas (a kind of caramelized coconut rock).Sweet potato pound is a dense sweet potato pudding topped with raisins, cinnamon and ginger. Coconut tarts are crisp tarts filled with a crumbly coconut filling. Similar to the Latin American dulce de calabaza, stewed pumpkin is a sweet made from squash candied in a thick syrup. In Belize, fudge is a variety of soft caramel made from coconut milk, often topped with dried fruit (peanuts, raisins, etc.).
Fruits are, of course, legion in this tropical country: pineapple, mango, banana, papaya, citrus, guava, passion fruit, avocado, etc. The tamarind is prized for its tangy pulp, while the soursop has a very sweet white flesh. These fruits are widely processed into fruit juices. Not forgetting, of course, the hibiscus roselle, whose flower buds are infused to make a refreshing red drink called sorrel tea or agua de Jamaica. Although Belize is a small player on the world cocoa market, some specialists claim that Belize and the surrounding Yucatán regions are the historic center of cocoa domestication. You can even discover its production on local farms.
When it comes to alcohol, it's impossible not to mention rum. The farmlands of northern Belize are ideal for sugar cane cultivation, enabling the production of top-quality Belizean rum. Rum is an integral part of Belizean cultural life, and is celebrated at every opportunity. The most widely consumed beer is Belikin; a national institution, every bar and restaurant table is quickly covered with it on weekends out in Belize. Belizean "wine" is actually a sweet-and-sour spirit made from the cashew fruit(cashew wine) or from craboo, a small yellow fruit with a very pronounced taste, known in the French West Indies as moureiller or quinaquina.
