|
There are a number of excellent restaurants on Barbados, with several of gourmet standard. Some of these are in the luxury hotels such as Sandy Lane or Vila Nova, but you don’t have to go to a hotel for cordon bleu cuisine. Eating out is not cheap, and restaurants will charge around US$12-40 for a main course, but standards are high and the settings often special, maybe even a table on the beach. The majority of places to eat are clustered around Holetown on the west coast and St Lawrence Gap on the south coast, where there is a wide variety, allowing you to indulge in Italian, Mexican, Indian, French, Japanese or whatever takes your fancy. In Bridgetown there are several cheap canteens for office workers where you can get a filling lunch for US$6, and around the island there are beach bars for lunch, but what is lacking are Bajan restaurants serving cheap, local food in the evenings. A few rum shops sell fried chicken and there are some fast food places but nothing else at the budget end of the scale after dark.
Fresh fish is excellent and sold at the markets in Oistins, Bridgetown and elsewhere in the late afternoon and evening, when the fishermen come in with their catch. The main fish season is December to May, when there is less risk of stormy weather at sea. Flying fish are the national emblem and a speciality with two or three fillets to a plate, eaten with chips, in a sandwich or with an elegant sauce. Dolphin fish – also called dorado or Mahi Mahi on restaurant menus – and kingfish are larger steak-fish. Snapper is also recommended and sea eggs (the roe of the white sea urchin) are delicious but not often available as they are increasingly rare and in need of protection.
Other tasty specialties include cou-cou, a filling starchy dish made from breadfruit or corn meal, and jug-jug, a Christmas speciality made from guinea corn and supposedly descended from the haggis of the poor white settlers. Pudding and souse is a huge dish of pickled breadfruit, black pudding and pork.
Oistins on a Friday night is a major event for both Bajans and tourists. Lots of small shops sell fish meals and other food, dub music one end and at the other a small club where they play oldies for ballroom dancing. It continues on Saturday and Sunday, though a bit quieter, and some food places also stay open through the week.
|
