St. Lucia Food & Beverages

Best way to explore any countries’ culture is to start with their local food. The Island is not only known for attractions and adventures but for its unique foods and beverages. St. Lucia Foods and Beverages includes the national dish Green Fig Salad, One Pot Bullion, Casava Bread, Hot Bakes & Cocoa Tea and the list goes on! This post will educate you on many foods you should try in St. Lucia favored by most locals.

“Green Figs” (aka green bananas) and “Salt Fish” (aka Salted Cod) is known to be the national dish of the Island which screams out uniqueness. The figs are boiled, flaked and sautéed with local peppers, thyme, chives, onions and other herbs and spices. The salt fish is also boiled just enough to wash away the correct proportion of salt then added to the green fig to make a flavorful accompaniment. Served as a salad, taste our culture at its best.

This is one of the most nutritious meals you can find on the island. It is basically stewed meat, seafood or chicken with a combination of dumplings, coconut milk, spices, lentils, spinach, cabbage, orca, ground yams such as dasheen, green bananas, green plantains and the list goes on. For the ultimate experience these meals are cooked in clay pots with natural fire (wood fire surrounded by stones) to acquire an enriched creole flavor. This meal is perfect to cook on a family camp or beach hangouts.

An alternative to our national dish is breadfruit and saltfish. Breadfruit is a staple food that is very rich in starch which transforms to sugars when very ripe. Prefered by many, this dish has coconut curry source mixed with codfish and secret spices/sesononings. This tasty mixture is then spread over half-ripe breadfruit which completes the famous dish to give a burst of flavor.

Yes, these babies are fried, even though they are called Bakes. We also call them Float, which is probably a better name as they puff up and float to the surface once they hit the hot oil. Bakes are a very popular item among the food vendors on the island. You will find them being made at practically every festival, family gatherings, at the beach, in the market, or sometimes even randomly along the side of the road..

Ideal for any lucian breakfast is a healthy hot glass of Cocoa Tea. Although it is referred to as a tea, its characteristics are similar to milky hot chocolate, with a healthy twist. Its texture is less fatty and creamy, more fragrant with dark cacao nut and bitter sweetness, plus some warming spice such as nutmeg, cinnamon, star anise and bay leaf, simply magic in a glass.

Pemmie is a very unique dish which is a combination of cornmeal, grated coconut, grated pumpkin, sugar, essence and milk all wrapped up in banana leaves. The combination is then put to boil until it’s properly cooked which is notified by the desired texture. You will be amazed on how different and great St.Lucia pemmie taste!

Accras better known as fish cakes are very delicious treats perfect for parties’ events and family gatherings. The main ingredient is fish; commonly salted cod fish. Accras are prepared by firstly deboning and boiling the salted cod several times until the desired amount of saltiness, which is then mixed with a wide variety of spices and creole seasoning, egg, pinch of sugar and backing powder. Finally the Accras are shaped and put into a frying pan with vegetable oil for frying. The end result is a bit crunchy on the outside while soft in the inside in texture. If you haven’t tied these then you are missing out on some delicious treats!

Our avocado balls are made with the main ingredients avocado and ferine (fawinkasav). Farine is what remains after the juice has been removed from a cassava. The combination of the two with minor addition of salt and pepper gives a very unique taste way different from just having a slice of standalone avocado. This is a very quick and easy dish to prepare at home to enjoy with family.

With the many fishing villages and being an island, St.Lucia consist of a wide variety of seafood to enjoy. These include fish (blue marlin, sailfish, wahoo, king fish, yellow tuna, red snapper and dorado), octopus, lobster, Crabs and more! Whether grilled, baked, fried or stewed, you will be amazed on how we prepare our seafood here in St. Lucia. Our killer local spices, hot sources and cooking methods such as clay pot and wood fire, can’t make visitors stop talking about how good it taste. So if you are a seafood lover, St. Lucia is the ideal place to visit!

Before modern oven stoves were built stone ovens were one of the most popular methods of baking bread. Local Stone oven bread are still utilized in many towns and villages on the island. It is usually best consumed straight out of the oven with sunflower butter and cheddar cheese. Locals usually line up for these to prepare for breakfast for there families.

One of St. Lucia’s bizarre foods is the Blood Pudding. Taste better than it sounds is basically pork blood socked and cooked with island spices and seasoning prepared in a similar fashion as sausages. These are available at many road side restaurants and bars prepared locally from scratch.

Cassava bread is one of St. Lucia’s traditional dishes made in metal pots where it is heated and dried over a charcoal flame. It was known to be traditionally salty, however today many variations has been invented to incorporate sweetness with a combination of raisins and cherries. You really need to taste how awesome it is prepared here in St. Lucia.

Named after the major landmarks Gros Piton and Petit Piton, is the Island’s signature beer ‘Piton Beer’! This lager beer is a perfect refresher on a sunny day when served iced cold. It has an in-between taste from a Budlight and Heineken beer making it the ideal choice for all occasions. You could purchase Piton Beer in mostly every location on the island from grocery stores, restaurants and bars, food trucks even on the airports.

St. Lucia is filled with an assortment of homemade spice rums (usually called local Viagra). Spiced rums are made of various spices, fruits, tree backs and herbs which is left to ferment in alcohol for a specific period of time resulting in enriched and distinctive flavors. The longer the fermentation the stronger the percent poof. Definitely worth trying out which could be found at the Castries Central market, Bars and boutiques.

Two of the most innovative breweries in St. Lucia are St. Lucia Distillers and Antillia Brewery. St. Lucia Distillers being one of the biggest produces a wide variety of rums such as Chairman’s Reserve, Bounty Rum, Kweyol Spice, Crystal Lime Citrus Rum and some creamy rum versions also. Anitilla Brewery is a bit smaller but offers a special twist which brings out local island flavors to the bottle. Some Anitilla beverages are Naked (St. Lucian Idia Pale Ale), Admirable, Formidable and more!