5 of the Best Local Foods of Grenada

Don’t leave the island without trying out 5 of the best local foods of Grenada. As with all Caribbean foods, you’ll find fresh and vibrant dishes that will make your mouth water.

This is our top pick of the best local foods of Grenada that you really should savour:

Breadfruit

Our favourite way for serving this popular dish is in the style of fried wedges, similar to potato chips/French fries. It doesn’t have a strong flavour and works well with more powerful foods and best of all, with fried fish. Be sure to add a sprinkling of salt to it to bring out the flavour.
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Oildown

As the national dish you can find ‘Oildown’ at many eateries, in particular around carnival time. It’s a one-pot dish with local vegetables such as breadfruit, carrot, peppers, yam, dasheen (a root vegetable) and green bananas with spices and coconut milk. Most often flavoured with a meat such as pigs’ tails, chicken or beef, the pot is boiled until it leaves just the oily residue from the coconut milk. It may or may not contain dumplings.

Nutmeg

The story goes that nutmeg was first brought to Grenada from Indonesia in the early 1800’s. Since then it’s taken to growing very well on the island and there is an abundance of it. There are a number of different ways that it’s enjoyed such as ice cream (possible to purchase this from sellers on the street), nutmeg syrup, in drinks, puddings and soups. Having it freshly grated is a completely different experience to what is inside of a spice jar. If you don’t want to eat it, you can use it for pain relief purposes on your skin with locally made NutMed creams and ointments.

Roti

Influenced by migration arrivals from East India, curry is a popular spice in the Caribbean. A roti is a flat bread cooked on a griddle and filled with curried meat, fish and/or vegetables. Just bursting with flavoursome taste, they are available from a number of eateries, you might want to ask for a boneless one if you opt for chicken.

Callaloo

The leaves of the dasheen (a root vegetable) make up this delicious soup. Cooked just as spinach leaves are, this soup is delicious and should not be missed. It’s sometimes served with crab-backs – an open crab that has had its meat removed, spiced and flavoured and then re-stuffed.

Grenada’s local foods are well worth exploring. Let us know how you get on. Oh, and one more tip –try the tamarind balls too. They will certainly make your mouth water.