🍽️ Cuisine
Antiguan cuisine reflects African, British, and Caribbean influences, centered on fresh seafood and tropical produce. The national dish is fungee (similar to Italian polenta, made from cornmeal) served with pepperpot — a spicy stew of spinach-like greens, okra, salted meat, and sometimes crab or lobster.
🥘 Fungee & Pepperpot — National Dish
Ingredients (serves 4): 2 cups yellow cornmeal · 4 cups water · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp butter · For pepperpot: 250g salted beef · 250g spinach (or callaloo) · 1 cup sliced okra · 1 onion · 2 garlic cloves · 1 hot pepper · 2 tbsp butter · salt and pepper to taste
Preparation: soak salted beef overnight, then boil until tender. Sauté onion and garlic in butter in a separate pot; add spinach, okra, and beef with its broth. Simmer 20 minutes with hot pepper. For fungee: bring salted water to a boil, slowly whisk in cornmeal, stirring constantly until thick and pulling away from the sides. Add butter. Serve fungee alongside pepperpot in separate bowls.
🍠 Ducana & Saltfish
Sweet dumplings made from grated sweet potato and coconut, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled, traditionally served alongside saltfish — a legacy of colonial trade routes, salted cod prepared fried, stewed, or "buljol" style with peppers and onions.
Johnny cakes: fried dough bread, perfect for breakfast or as a snack from roadside vendors. Black pineapple: Antigua's remarkably sweet pineapple variety (despite the name, a yellowish fruit) grown in the south — try to find it at local markets. Fresh seafood: lobster, conch, snapper, and mahi-mahi feature prominently; conch fritters at any local rum shop are not to be missed.
