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Bermuda Cuisine and
Food Preparations
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Unlike the Caribbean islands, Bermuda has not developed a range of dishes or preparations that could be considered a distinctive cuisine.
But there are a number of items that you will find here that won't appear on your menu at home.
Bermuda Breakfast
If you are staying in a hotel, you may get a chance to eat a full Bermuda Codfish Breakfast. This once used to be the typical way to start a day for an islander.
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But for many, it's now a Sunday treat. The meal is a nutritionally balanced plate of boiled codfish with tomato and onion sauce, boiled potatoes, hard-boiled egg, and a banana on the side. Check out Bermuda Codfish Breakfast and Cakes to how to make them and the best restaurants in the island offering to try them out.
Bermuda Soups
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Bermuda fish chowder
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Bermuda fish chowder is a highly spiced, thick broth usually served with a dash of sherry pepper sauce and rum.
Other than the main ingredient which is ground fish heads, the cook uses fresh fish, onions, salt pork, tomatoes, and a garden of herbs.
Conch chowder is another Bermuda favorite. Aside from the mollusks, it contains celery, onion, tomatoes, potato, salt pork, herbs, and perhaps a dash of cream.
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Portuguese red bean soup, a local standby, sometimes comes as thick and spicy as Texas chili. It’s certainly a hearty soup, with kidney beans, potato, tomato, onion, garlic, kale, and chunks of ham and sausage.
Bermuda Fish and Seafood
Surrounded by miles of ocean with both deep-sea and shallow waters, Bermuda is a fish lover’s paradise. In many restaurants the catch of the day will be the tastiest and freshest option.
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Snapper is a very frequent choice but, depending on the season, you might also find tuna, wahoo, or rockfish. Served with butter or wine sauces, the fillets will always be superb.
Much of the other fish and seafood on the island is delicious but will often be imported: giant shrimps, scallops, Dover sole, and crab, among others.
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Another great option in Bermuda is the spiny lobster, similar to cold-water lobster except that it lacks biting claws. The local lobster season runs from September through March. It is served boiled with melted butter, baked in a cheese sauce, or sautéed in chunks with brandy and covered with a cream sauce.
Mussel pie is a favorite Bermuda seafood dish - a slightly curried, thick clam stew in a pastry shell.
Another island specialty might sound barbarous but tastes rich: Bermuda shark. It reaches the table after several transformations, arriving in tiny pieces cooked with onions, peppers, parsley, thyme, and mustard greens.
Bermuda Meat and Vegetables
If you are meat eater, you will find familiar cuts and items like steaks and chops, French-style baby lamb, veal scaloppine, and chicken cacciatore.
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In vegetarian dishes, there are some Bermuda specialties. You’re likely to encounter a great down-home entry known locally as peas ‘n’ rice. I
n some Bermuda circles this is called Hop ‘n’ John or Hoppin John, and it’s so good it can be stretched into a main dish.
Apart from the advertised peas and rice, it contains Bermuda onion, bacon or chicken, and a sliced Portuguese sausage. Those famous onions are featured in many dishes, including onions in cream and onion pie.
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Less familiar perhaps is the Bermuda pawpaw, known elsewhere as papaya and used on the island in a double capacity as both fruit and vegetable. Baked pawpaw comes out as a creamy, cheesy casserole. Pumpkin, plantain, and christophene (a kind of squash) are also dressed up for dinner.
Bermuda Desserts
Locally grown fruits are used in abundance in Bermuda. Fruit salads might contain a selection of strawberries, loquats, jumbo grapefruit, watermelon, and Suriname cherries. Bananas are also a popular choice, fried as fritters or flamed in rum for a great finale to a meal.
However, the British influence is probably most visible in Bermuda in restaurants dessert menu items. You will find such traditional puddings as jelly-roll or sponge cake drowned in sherry and laden with peaches or strawberries, bananas, chopped nuts, custard, and whipped cream. You will also get the lighter Bermudian syllabub: guava jelly, port or sherry, and whipped cream.
Christmas brings out Bermuda’s national dish, cassava pie. Cassava (also known as manioc) was imported from the West Indies in the earliest days of the colony. Here it is combined with chicken, pork, eggs, and perhaps brandy in a sweetish but meaty layered pie.
Sweet potato pudding - with cinnamon, cloves, and lemon or orange juice - is a favorite for Guy Fawkes Day (5th November).
Where to get the best Bermudian food and Drinks?
So after reading all the above, if you like to taste some of the authentic Bermudian food or like to take some of Bermuda's original produce back home, check out Bermuda Food & Drinks.
Do you know about Bermuda Cuisine?
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