Vincentian Dishes and the Grenadines

Specialised

ROASTED BREADFRUIT AND FRIED JACKFISH is the national dish — breadfruit roasted whole in the coals until the skin blackens, cracked open, and eaten with fried jack (a small oily fish) — and it is a genuinely everyday meal, not a restaurant construction. Plus: CASSAVA BREAD, the Kalinago-descended flat baked cassava round; pelau; callaloo; provisions; dumplings; buljol; souse; and the sweets of arrowroot and coconut. ⚠ THE GRENADINES ARE A DIFFERENT FOOD WORLD: BEQUIA with its boatbuilding and its whaling history — an IWC aboriginal subsistence quota of a very small number of humpbacks, taken by hand-thrown harpoon from open boats, which is documented, contested and recorded here as fact rather than endorsed; UNION ISLAND, CANOUAN and MAYREAU as fishing communities; and MUSTIQUE, whose resort food is ⚠ explicitly NOT recorded as Vincentian traditional cuisine. ⚠ LA SOUFRIÈRE ERUPTED IN 2021, destroying crops and livestock across the north — a documented food-system event.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

Languages: Vincentian Creole English

What is recorded

  • Roasted breadfruit and fried jackfish is documented as the Vincentian national dish and as an everyday meal. Bequia holds an International Whaling Commission aboriginal subsistence quota permitting a very small annual take of humpback whales by hand-thrown harpoon from open boats; this is recorded as documented and contested fact and is not endorsed. The eruption of La Soufrière in 2021 destroyed crops and livestock across northern Saint Vincent and is recorded as a food-system event. Resort catering on Mustique is explicitly not recorded as Vincentian traditional cuisine. documented
  • La Soufrière erupts, destroying crops and livestock across northern Saint Vincent. documented

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.