Barbados Travel Guide

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Cuisine

A good range of restaurants offer an array of international and Bajan cuisines to suit every budget, from grilled meat joints and street-food markets to upscale diners. Replica British pubs are popular and serve genuine British bitter and stout – often with fish-and-chip bar snacks.

National specialties:
• Cutters (large flying fish sandwiches, often served with coucou (seasoned cornmeal topped with spiced tomatoes, onion and peppers)).
• Conkies (cornmeal blended with coconut, pumpkin, raisins, sweet potato and spices steamed in a banana leaf).
• Rice'n'peas (made from a local bean and usually flavored with coconut).
• Sea eggs (devilled sea urchin roe).
• Souse, or Pickled Pork (brawn with tomato).
• Other local specialties include crane chubb, grilled pigtail, conch fritters, plantains and breadfruit.

National drinks:
• All types of rum-based cocktails including rum punch, planters punch and pina coladas.
• Top rum brands include Cockspur’s Five Star and Mount Gay (the oldest rum blend on the island).
• The local beer is Banks.
• Falernum (rum, sugar, lime and almond essence).
• Mauby (non alcoholic, made from the boiled, strained and sweetened bark of a local tree), tastes like an extremely potent sarsaparilla.

Legal drinking age: 18.

Tipping: Allow for 10 to 15% in restaurants, round-up taxi fares and tip porters at around a dollar a bag.

Nightlife

West Indians love to party, be it in a nightclub, disco, bar or simply on the beach. Entertainment is everywhere, from limbo dancing, fire eaters, steel bands and live music. Most bands play calypso and reggae, but a few play excellent R'n'B. There is usually a small cover charge. As in all Caribbean countries, swinging nightspots tend to come and go with seasons. Twilight boat cruises with live entertainment, free-flowing rum and local food are very popular; most sail twice daily. Caribbean-style dinner shows are also well attended and typically feature steel pans and dancing men on stilts, BBQ food and free drinks until the early hours.