Aruba
Baked keshi yena, fresh Creole snapper and fried pastechi, chased with a cold island-brewed Balashi.
Aruba's national dish tells its whole history in one bite. Keshi yena — a hollowed shell of Gouda or Edam cheese packed with spiced chicken or beef, olives, capers and raisins, then baked golden — began in colonial kitchens, where enslaved and household cooks turned the cheese rinds their Dutch employers threw away into a feast. It still anchors the Sunday table. Around it sits a cuisine of corn and sea: soft funchi polenta and sweet griddle-bread pan bati, hearty stoba stews and sopi soups, and the ever-present breakfast snack, the deep-fried pastechi turnover.
Being an arid island ringed by rich water, Aruba leans hard on seafood — red snapper, wahoo, mahi-mahi and conch, usually in a bright Creole sauce — seasoned with the herby island staple, pika hot sauce. Wash it down with a cold Balashi, the local lager brewed on the island, or an Aruba Ariba at sunset. For the full picture, head to a Papiamento-speaking family kitchen or the food stalls of San Nicolas.
- Keshi yena (spiced meat baked in a cheese shell)
- Pastechi (fried filled turnovers)
- Funchi (cornmeal polenta)
- Pan bati (cornmeal griddle-bread)
- Stoba (goat or beef stew)
- Sopi di piscá (fish soup)
- Fresh Creole snapper
- Keri keri (spiced shredded fish)
