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Belizean cuisine facts for kids

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Belizean food is a tasty mix of all the different cultures in Belize. Each group brings its own special dishes.

For breakfast, people often eat homemade bread, flour tortillas, or fry jacks. These are usually served with cheese, refried beans, and different kinds of eggs. Some people also enjoy cereal with milk, coffee, or tea.

Lunch meals can be light or hearty. You might find rice and beans, tamales, or panades (fried meat pies). Other popular choices include escabeche (onion soup) or stew chicken. Many lunches feature some type of rice and beans, meat, and a salad.

In the countryside, meals might be simpler than in the cities. The Maya often use recado and corn in their dishes. The Garifuna love seafood, cassava (especially as cassava bread), and vegetables. Belize has many restaurants and fast-food places where food is quite cheap. Local fruits are very common. Mealtime is important for families. Some schools and businesses even close at midday for lunch.

Mestizo and Maya Foods

Mestizo foodUploaded on August 4, 2007 by Jimmcclarty
Traditional Mestizo-Belizean foods.

Many foods that started with the Mestizo culture are now eaten all over Belize. These include garnaches, which are fried corn tortillas with beans and shredded cheese. Tamales are made from corn dough and chicken, wrapped and steamed. Panades are like fried corn patties filled with beans or seasoned fish, topped with pickled onions.

The most famous Maya dish is Caldo. Tortillas, cooked on a flat griddle called a comal, were very common. They are used to wrap other foods like meat or beans. Tamales are corn dough, often with a filling, wrapped in a corn husk and steamed.

The Maya also made liquid dishes from ground corn. Atole was a thick drink, and pozole was a chicken broth with whole corn grains. People added things like honey, chiles, meat, or cacao to these dishes for more flavor.

Many different beans were grown, such as pinto, red, and black beans. Other plants like tomatoes, chile peppers, avocados, papayas, and pineapples were also part of their diet. They used herbs like vanilla, epazote, and achiote for cooking.

Kriol Cuisine

Fry JackUploaded on August 4, 2007 by Jimmcclarty
A traditional Belizean breakfast.
Belize mealUploaded on August 4, 2007 by Jimmcclarty
A traditional Belizean dinner.

Kriol people usually eat a healthy mix of foods. The bile up (or boil up) is a special dish for Belizean Kriols. It mixes boiled eggs, fish or pig tail, with root vegetables. These include cassava, green plantains, yams, and sweet potatoes.

In Belize, cassava is often made into "bammy." This is a small fried cassava cake. To make it, the cassava root is grated, rinsed, and pressed into flat cakes. These cakes are lightly fried, then dipped in coconut milk and fried again. Bammies are often served with breakfast or fish. Cassava Pone is a traditional Kriol dessert, a cake made from cassava flour, sometimes with coconuts and raisins.

The Kriol fish seré is similar to a Garifuna dish called hudut. One type of hudut uses coconut milk and mashed plantain. Another type is a spicy fish soup without coconut milk. People sometimes add "Bos a pepa," a Belizean pepper sauce, for extra spice.

Every part of the coconut is used in Kriol cooking. The water is a refreshing drink. The grated coconut meat is used for milk in many dishes. It also gives a special coconut flavor to Kriol bread and buns. Dukunu is a sweet dish made from cornmeal, wrapped in foil or a banana leaf and boiled. Cahn Sham is sweetened, roasted, and ground corn.

Many Belizean desserts are made from dried, grated coconut meat. These include coconut pie, tarts, and coconut crust. Tablata is grated coconut mixed with ginger, sugar, and water, then baked and cut into squares. Cut-o-brute is similar but uses chunks of coconut. Trifle is a coconut cake. You can also find coconut fudge and coconut ice cream.

For breakfast, fry jacks or Johnny cakes are common, served with fried beans and sausage or eggs. Fry jacks are flattened and fried, while Johnny cakes are round, fluffy biscuits, often eaten with butter or cheese.

A typical Kriol dinner includes rice and beans with meat and a salad. Seafood like fish, conch, and lobster are popular. Some people also eat game meats like iguana or deer. Root vegetables such as cassava and plantains are also common. Fresh juice or water is usually served.

Desserts include sweets like wangla and powderbun, cakes, and potato pudding. Kriols have also started to enjoy foods from other cultures, just as others have adopted Kriol dishes.

Garifuna Dishes

Garifuna Hudutu by Ted Obermayer
A traditional Garifuna dinner.

The Garifuna have many unique dishes. One well-known food is ereba (cassava bread), made from grated cassava. This takes a long time to make. First, a special woven basket strains the cassava juice. Then, it dries overnight and is sieved to make flour. This flour is baked into pancakes on a large iron griddle. Ereba is often eaten with fish, hudutu (pounded plantains), or with gravy. Other Garifuna foods include Bundiga (a plantain soup) and Bimacacule (sticky sweet rice).

Popular Ingredients

Belizean meats like turkey and chicken taste different from those in other countries. This is because the animals eat local foods instead of imported grains. Many people say Belizean chickens have a very rich flavor. Belizeans eat a lot of chicken and fish, more than beef or pork.

Here are some common ingredients in Belizean cooking:

Popular Dishes

Here are some favorite dishes you can find in Belize:

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