Grenada
The Spice Isle's one-pot oil down, nutmeg in the ice cream, and the Caribbean's chocolate capital.
Grenada is the Spice Isle, and you taste it everywhere. The national dish, oil down, is a whole meal in one pot — breadfruit, salt meat, chicken, dumplings and callaloo slow-simmered in coconut milk until the oil renders to the bottom; it began as a communal dish among enslaved West Africans and is still cooked at family 'cookups'. Nutmeg, introduced in the 1800s, made this small island the world's second-largest producer, and it scents everything down to the nutmeg ice cream sold at beach stands.
Cocoa runs just as deep — Grenada was once the British West Indies' biggest exporter, and a bean-to-bar revival at estates like Belmont has made it the Caribbean's chocolate capital. Chase lambi conch and pelau with a spiced cocoa tea, or brave the up-to-75% overproof rum from River Antoine, the region's oldest working distillery. The best night out is Fish Friday in Gouyave.
- Oil down (coconut-milk one-pot)
- Lambi (stewed conch)
- Callaloo (dasheen-leaf soup)
- Pelau (browned rice with pigeon peas)
- Roti
- Nutmeg ice cream
- Cocoa tea (spiced hot chocolate)
