The food of Belize is very different from the rest of Central America. Belize food culture has had been influenced by many sources, including the English colonial, the West Indian Caribbean and the Central American – resulting in a unique and very interesting blend. This is barbecue country too, chicken is mainly on the BBQ, but fish can often be found too. Seafood is plentiful as Belize is on the coast and has plenty of islands where fishing is a major industry.
These food notes from Belize were made during a week-long trip to the country in March 2005. These are just our food experiences and you may have a totally different experience depending on your budget, where you travel and where you eat.
Some Belize Dishes & Drinks
Rice and beans – this basic dish of Central America is back in fashion, though the beans and rice are often served separately, not in a mix as in Costa Rica for example.
Conch – a type of seafood, which tastes and looks like squid but is flatter and more tender. It is found in the ocean in a huge conch shell.
Caribbean food – a great influence from across the Caribbean sea, resulting in many stew type dishes with Creole flavours.
Ceviche – with all the seafood around this dish was on every menu. It is a cold dish made of small pieces of fish, or conch, mixed with lime juice, tomato, capsicum, and onion, served with corn chips.
Marie Sharp Habanero Pepper Sauce – a local famous chili sauce made from the very potent Habanero Chili plant. The sauce is found in every restaurant and shop in Belize. It comes in mild, hot and fiery hot! Of course, we had to buy some to bring home as most tourists do.
Rum – There are loads of local varieties of rum, which are cheap, and often drunk mixed with fruit juice as a punch.
Cashew wine – A wine brewed from cashews, a very strong, syrupy wine that tastes vinegary. We mixed it with soda which made it sweeter and tolerable.
Ginger beer – homemade, ginger, orange and lemon juice, and spices, very tangy, tasty and refreshing.