With its rich local culture and sophisticated visitors, it’s no wonder Barbados has developed a cosmopolitan approach to food.
From the beginning of time, people have been searching for the elixir of youth. Barbados may not have a potion for eternal life but it has all the ingredients for a long and healthy one, as a significant number of Barbadians live to be well over 100 years old.
Eating yams and sweet potato, known as ‘ground provisions’, is given by locals as the reason for this longevity, but who can beat a diet of fresh fish caught daily - flying fish, barracuda, mahi mahi and king fish are all caught in the seas around the island.
Citrus fruit is delicious here, starting with gloriously juicy limes and enormous local lemons used to make the infamous Barbados rum punch. On our drive from the airport we saw refreshing coconuts sold by the roadside and banana plants in abundance.
Friday and Saturday nights are barbecue nights at Oistins Fish Fry. An avenue of street food vendors grill fish while live reggae music plays from a central stage. Situated right next to the large fish market, there is no doubting that this is ‘sea to plate’ cuisine. Locals throng to the place and we joined them on long wooden benches in the open air, choosing from a range of menu options chalked on the blackboard.
My freshly grilled and succulent lobster was delicious served with the homemade local favourites rice and peas (chickpeas, surprisingly) and macaroni cheese. No prices are displayed on the menu board as the waiter judges what he thinks you can afford to pay and charges accordingly!
Fine dining is a must on Barbados, with a great range of options offering very sophisticated cuisine. Nestled on a cliff with magnificent views of the sea from any table, the setting at The Cliff is breathtakingly stunning. Dramatic plumes of flame rise from metal conches and light up the beach and the ocean. Chef Paul Owens and his team of twelve chefs produce amazing dishes and we were recommended to try the seven-course tasting menu.
This included such delights as spicy tuna tartare with a wasabi yogurt sauce, local Caribbean shrimp in a coconut sauce and pan-roasted salmon with grilled shrimp and saffron mash. Gressingham duck breast flown in from Suffolk followed by prime Argentinian beef tenderloin were both exquisitely cooked, and the pastry chef excelled himself with a selection of wonderful desserts.
The following day we were invited to the Lonestar restaurant, which was formerly a garage built in the 1940’s. Not knowing quite what to expect, we were greeted by waiters dressed as garage mechanics in homage to the original owner, mechanic Jeremy Reid, a great fan of Hollywood movies and nicknamed “Lone Star of the West” A favourite for lunch, you need to book well in advance in high season.
The restaurant extends onto the beach and the enticing water is metres away. I enjoyed grilled fish of the day, which was sautéed flying fish with christophine, tomato, black olives and capers – the fish was light and a good choice, the dish summery and fresh but I couldn’t help keeping my eye on my companion’s tuna tartare with mango salsa, which was declared the best he had ever tasted.
Impromptu entertainment was provided by a family of turtles who were swimming about in the surf. They were quite happily partaking of a simpler but rather similar lunch to ours: local fish.
With a couple of hours to spare we decided to head to the hills of Barbados in search of an award-winning rum that had been highly recommended to us. Described by expert David Broom as: “a rum with absolute classic Bajan balance and finesse,” we were determined to taste it.
A twenty-minute drive from the coast sits St Nicholas Abbey, an original 17th-century sugar plantation, bought in 2006 by the Warren family who are on a mission to develop the Abbey as self-supporting and to produce rum using traditional methods. At the heart of it is the original Jacobean house, beautifully decorated and furnished in traditional style so that you feel as though you’re stepping back in time to a Gone With the Wind era.
The rum is distilled in the traditional way favoured 350 years ago, using a pot still brought over from Germany, and part of the self-guided tour includes a rum tasting room where you can buy 10-year-old in beautifully hand-etched bottles. We were determined to sample the rum and were thrilled by its elegant smoothness, sweet spice, juicy tropical fruits and just a hint of crème brûlée.
As part of our stay at Royal Westmoreland, we had access to the beach facilities at Mullins Beach Bar and Restaurant, apparently favoured by pop star Rihanna. Nestled on a beautiful palm-fringed, crescent-shaped beach, the setting is perfect and we enjoyed the sunset while dining on local deep- fried crab cakes with tomato salsa followed by fillet of dolphin fish (a local name for mahi mahi, not the popular mammal!) on a summer vegetable ratatouille.
The rum punches at Mullins Beach are potent, the best we had tasted on the island. What better way to finish a trip to one of the most beautiful foodie havens on the planet, than following in Rihanna’s footsteps, settling back, sipping punch and gazing out over the sun sinking into the Caribbean sea?
