Local Dishes

1. Kuminda krioyo

   Kuminda krioyo (Antillean creole home cooking)

   Usage

   The cover term a restaurant or menu uses for local home cooking. Mangusa is "kuminda krioyo tipiko di Kòrsou", and Trùk'i pan (food trucks) sell local food; at Dia di Rincon one also encounters "benta di kuminda krioyo". If a sign says this, it is local food rather than international tourist fare

   Grammar Note

   krioyo means "classic Antillean food of African origin" alongside "creole" and "Antillean". It comes from Portuguese "crioulo" / Spanish "criollo" but is not spelled as the Spanish word

2. Funchi

   Funchi (stiff cornmeal polenta)

   Usage

   The ABC-island staple. A polenta made from white or yellow cornmeal, water and salt, eaten in Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire in place of potato or rice. Salted water is brought to the boil, the flour stirred in gradually with a palu di funchi (the dedicated stick), then pressed flat and round between two plates. Once firm it is cut up and deep-fried as funchi hasá — a snack or a side, sometimes with a little cheese on top

   Grammar Note

   The dish is called fungi, fungee or funji elsewhere in the Caribbean and funche in Latin American Spanish, all probably borrowed from Angolan Kimbundu "funji" (cassava flour). Do not use the Spanish spelling "funche"

3. Pan bati

   Pan bati (beaten cornmeal flatbread)

   Usage

   Alongside funchi, the standard accompaniment to stobá (stew), sòpi (soup) and fish dishes. Its original name is pan di kasuela, after the flat earthenware pan it is cooked on, and it is denser and less sweet than an American pancake. White flour is sometimes mixed into the cornmeal

   Grammar Note

   pan means "bread" and bati "hit": "bread you beat". There is no c/k alternation, so Aruban and Curaçao spellings are identical. Cachapa and arepa, cooked on the same pan, are not called bati.

4. Keshi yená

   Keshi yená (stuffed Edam cheese)

   Usage

   It is originally a Curaçao dish. A hollowed-out red Edam is filled with meat or fish, the stuffing typically including kaper (capers), rasenchi (raisins), prùim (prunes) and oleifi (olives). The red wax is softened and peeled off first, then the cheese is cooked bain-marie or in the oven, left to cool a little, turned out onto a plate and cut like a cake. ⚠ Restaurants often depart from this and line an oven dish with Gouda slices instead of using a hollowed Edam

   Grammar Note

   "keshi" comes from Dutch "kaasje" / Portuguese "queijo", not from Spanish "queso" . The final accent in "keshi yená" is required.

5. Pastechi

   Pastechi (deep-fried half-moon pastry)

   Usage

   A culinary tradition of the ABC islands, eaten for breakfast or as a snack. Slightly sweet dough folded into a half-moon and deep-fried, most often filled with keshi (cheese), also ham, beef, chicken or fish. Sold in supermarkets, convenience stores and snack bars everywhere. Similar to an empanada, but empanada dough is cornmeal while pastechi dough is wheat

   Grammar Note

   Comes from Dutch "pastei" / "pasteitje", not from Spanish "pastel" — so do not spell it "pastel"

6. Stobá

   Stobá (braised meat stew)

   Usage

   A noun meaning "stew, a meat dish cooked by stewing, braizing or stoving". Despite the heat it is very popular across the ABC islands: meat, batata (potato), siboyo (onion), konofló (garlic) and chilli in a tomato-based sauce, served with funchi and pan bati. Goat is kabritu, beef is karni di baka, and there is a conch version too

   Grammar Note

   Comes from Dutch "stoven" (not Spanish "estofado"). The verb is unaccented "stoba" (to stew); the accented "stobá" is the noun for the dish. The Aruban goat-stew compound is cabrito stoba.

7. Sòpi di yuana

   Sòpi di yuana (iguana soup)

   Usage

   An example about iguana: "Sa traha sòpi di yuana, balchi di yuana i ta hasa yuana tambe" — iguana is made into soup, into balls, and fried — Plaza Bieu and Jaanchies in Curaçao serve iguana. A local delicacy and the dish most likely to surprise a visitor. ⚠ Ask what is in the pot before ordering if you would rather not

   Grammar Note

   "sòpi" comes from Dutch "soepje", not from Spanish "sopa". "yuana" comes from the Spanish form of the Taíno name "iwana"

8. Kadushi

   Kadushi (columnar cactus soup)

   Usage

   kadushi has two senses: first the columnar cactus Cereus repandus itself, then "soup made of the inside of the kadushi cactus". The cactus grows wild across the dry ABC islands and is an island emblem; the old spelling is "kadoesjie", with alternative names dato, breba and breebree. The soup is thick and green. ⚠ The bare word means the plant first, so pair it with "sòpi" when ordering

   Grammar Note

   Comes from Spanish "caduchi" and behind it to Venezuelan Wayuu (Arawak) "kadutsi" / "cadushi" — an indigenous word, not a European one

9. Sòpi mondongo

   Sòpi mondongo (tripe soup)

   Usage

   A traditional soup of tripe, spices, mixed vegetables and kalbas (bottle gourd). A heavy soup for Sundays and celebrations, sometimes served at breakfast. ⚠ mondongo means intestines / bowels / entrails, so avoid it if offal is not for you

   Grammar Note

   mondongo means tripe (tripa). The soup is sòpi mondongo in Curaçao spelling, contracted to Sop'i mondongo in Aruban spelling.

10. Aros moro

    Aros moro (rice cooked with beans)

    Usage

    A dish of aros (rice) and bonchi kòrá (red beans), widely eaten across Latin America, the Caribbean and their diaspora communities. On the ABC islands it turns up on the plate beside stobá or fried fish

    Grammar Note

    The name comes from Spanish (or Portuguese) "arroz" and "moro", after the Cuban name "moros y cristianos" (Moors and Christians) given to black beans with white rice for the colour contrast. ⚠ The spelling is "aros", not "arroz"

11. Mangusa

    Mangusa (peanut, bean and maize dish)

    Usage

    A typical Curaçao kuminda krioyo made with pinda (peanuts), bonchi (beans) and maishi (maize). An old dish built entirely from what the kunuku (smallholding) produced — more likely in a home or a local eatery than on a tourist menu

    Grammar Note

    pinda means "peanut".

12. Ayaka

    Ayaka (Christmas parcel steamed in banana leaf)

    Usage

    Venezuelan in origin, adopted through migration as an ABC-island year-end tradition. The island version: a white cornmeal dough with salt, sugar, aniseed, grated cheese, lard and milk, filled with stewed pork or chicken, ham, celery, parsley, sweet pepper, cashew, raisins, small onions, pickles, prunes, capers and olives, with pika (chilli) to taste; wrapped in banana leaf and boiled for about an hour. ⚠ Christmas season (Pasco) only

    Grammar Note

    The Aruban form is Ayaca; Curaçao and Bonaire use ayaka. The Spanish form is hallaca.

13. Reskuk

    Reskuk (Antillean arepa)

    Usage

    An Antillean arepa, originally from Curaçao, that takes its thin shape on the kasuela (flat earthenware pan). Made mainly with bread flour, sugar and raisins, with pumpkin or banana to taste. Good at breakfast with te, or alongside a main dish; an orange-peel and honey sauce is suggested

    Grammar Note

    reskuk has no c/k alternation and is spelled the same in Aruban and Curaçao orthographies. The dish originated in Curaçao.

14. Batata hasá

    Batata hasá (fried potato, chips)

    Usage

    Trùk'i pan (food trucks) serve batata hasá, hamburgers, stèk, seafood and barbecue plates as staples. ABC-island trùk'i pan open around 21:00 and run into the early hours, and are the standard place to eat after a night out. Big portions, accessible prices

    Grammar Note

    "hasá" is the final-stressed participle placed after the noun to mean "fried —" (compare funchi hasá, piská hasá). The same final-stress rule for Romance-derived verbs of three syllables or more

15. Tentalaria

    Tentalaria (traditional peanut or cashew brittle)

    Usage

    A traditional "kos di boka dushi" (ko'i dushi, sweet thing) of Curaçao, made with pinda (peanuts) or kashu (cashews). Served at weddings (fiesta di brùit) and other special occasions, and sold at the marshe in Willemstad and at roadside kioskos. Until the 1960s women carried it around on their heads in a makutu (basket)

    Grammar Note

    The cover term for these sweets is "kos di boka dushi", contracted to "ko'i dushi"

16. Kokada

    Kokada (coconut sugar sweet)

    Usage

    Traditional sweets include kokada, koi lechi, kakiña and panseiku as ko'i dushi alongside tentalaria. A bite-sized sweet of sugar and coconut, sold all over the islands — markets, roadside kioskos, supermarkets, even petrol-station counters

    Grammar Note

    From koko (coconut). Aruba spells it cocada; Curaçao spells it kokada. Both spellings circulate across the ABC islands.

17. Koi lechi

    Koi lechi (milk fudge)

    Usage

    One of the traditional ko'i dushi. A dense sweet of milk boiled down with sugar. The name is the same contraction as "ko'i dushi" (kos di dushi, sweet thing) and means literally "the milk one"

    Grammar Note

    lechi means "milk", unlike Dutch melk. Produkto di lechi means "dairy products".

18. Panseiku

    Panseiku (peanut and brown sugar sweet)

    Usage

    One of the traditional ko'i dushi. A peanut-and-sugar sweet close to tentalaria, sold beside tentalaria and kokada at celebrations and in the market

    Grammar Note

    The Aruban spelling is panseicu; the Curaçao spelling is panseiku.

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