From 1670 until 1962, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica were linked under British rule. So it’s no surprise that Cayman Islands food has many similarities to its bigger neighbor.
There are many dishes common to both countries, such as jerk chicken and braised oxtail. But Cayman also has its own unique tastes and flavors.
Among these are Cayman-style beef, rundown, and crab back. You’ll also find sweeter treats, such as custard top and heavy cake.
Scotch Bonnet
Scotch bonnet
Originating in the Amazon Basin, the scotch bonnet chili, or Caribbean red pepper, spread around the Caribbean with the indigenous people. Growing fast, it is an absolute staple of Cayman cooking.
Scotch bonnet has a heat rating reaching 350,000 on the Scoville Scale, whereas a Mexican jalopeño is a mere 8,000. They can be milder if all the seeds are removed and they are not chopped finely.
The pepper has a fiercely hot taste, with some sweet, fruity notes. Its name comes from a resemblance to the floppy Scottish Tam o’Shanter cap.
Pepper Jelly
Pepper jelly
Nothing sums up Cayman cuisine like pepper jelly, a hot condiment you’ll find in every restaurant. It’s a constant presence accompanying dishes such as cheese platters.
The most famous is made by local woman Carol Hay, whose hobby has become a small business. She grows her own scotch bonnet chili and seasoning peppers, to which is added a spicy mix of other ingredients.
Chopping and cooking it all in her home kitchen, she has to wear a swim mask and snorkel for protection from the fearsome pepper fumes. Thickened with pectin, the resulting jelly is hot, complex, and highly addictive.
Caribbean Lobster
Caribbean lobster
Warm water Caribbean or spiny lobsters don’t have the large claws of their Maine cousins; what you eat is the succulent tail. Their taste is also less sweet.
However, Cayman lobster is still a delicious treat when served up fresh. The short season runs from December to February, when local fishing boats head out to the reefs.
The usual method of cooking these tasty crustaceans is in a stew with scotch bonnet pepper, onion, tomato, and fresh lime juice. Sides are rice ‘n’ peas, vegetables, and some fresh bread to soak up the juices.
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Conch
Conch
Conch is a large mollusc, the meat of which is popular throughout the Caribbean. The white and pink shells don’t go to waste, as they are often turned into souvenirs.
Conch has a delicate, clam-like taste and you’ll find it cooked in stews, “cracked” or fried, or as fritters with a spicy dipping sauce. Another option is to simply marinate it with lime juice, peppers, onion, and tomato ketchup.
This marinated conch is a Cayman favorite, served on bread or salt crackers. You’ll see it everywhere during conch season, which runs from November through April.
Jerk Chicken
Jerk chicken
Jerk chicken, known as a Jamaican classic, is also the most popular street food in Cayman Islands. You’ll see jerk shacks everywhere selling the freshly grilled chicken, with its marinade of spices and seasonings.
That marinade is the key to the dish and everyone has a favourite recipe. Typical ingredients range from soy sauce and grated ginger, to nutmeg, and vinegar—but scotch bonnet is a constant.
After some hours of marinating, the chicken is grilled or smoked until it chars. It’s served with sides such as rice ‘n’ peas, cornbread, or plantain.
Plantains
Plantains
Plantains come from the same family as bananas but are firmer and more neutral in taste. Starch-heavy, they are used as a vegetable in much the same way as potatoes.
Unripe plantains are green and you need a knife to cut their skin. They are sliced and served up fried, boiled, or baked—often as a side dish.
Ripe plantains are much sweeter and will become mushy if left to ripen too long. In that state, they are perfect for baking into plantain bread.
Callaloo
Callaloo
Callaloo is a popular Caribbean dish traditionally made with green leaves such as those from the amaranth or taro plants. Slowly simmered with onions, garlic, and seasonings, the callaloo might also be flavored with meat or fish.
Besides being common as a side dish, callaloo can be added to soups or stews. Iron-rich, it has a taste and texture similar to spinach.
Using such plants to add variety and vitamins to a basic diet has roots in African and Indigenous culture.
Cayman-style Beef
Cayman-style beef
A traditional Christmas dish, Cayman-style beef has found its way onto everyday restaurant menus for good reason. It’s a wonderful mix of beef cooked with onions, ginger, and a touch of chili peppers.
Also known as “stewed beef”, the dish has roots in earlier times when poorer families killed their cow at year-end. This was a major event, with everyone taking part in the day-long cooking process.
After simmering for hours, the meat is tender enough to shred with a fork—real comfort food. It goes well with sides such as coconut rice, cassava, or fried plantain.
Turtle Stew
Green sea turtle was a really popular food in the Caymans until over-harvesting saw the turtle population collapse. Conservation efforts led by the Cayman Turtle Centre have put it back on the table.
It’s normally served as a stew, slow-cooked with vegetables and scotch bonnet pepper. Served with rice ‘n’ peas, it’s more popular with the older than the younger generation.
All of the turtle meat you’ll find on Cayman is from the Turtle Centre. As well as raising turtles for eating, it releases at least 500 into the Caribbean every year.
Breadfruit
Breadfruit
Breadfruit is common throughout the Caribbean, having been imported by the British from its original Pacific home. Captain Bligh’s HMS Bounty saw its famous mutiny during a voyage to acquire breadfruit in Tahiti.
Originally imported as a cheap way to feed slaves, breadfruit has a texture like bread. In taste, it’s very similar to potato or sweet potato and can be used in much the same ways.
It can be steamed, baked, boiled, or fried, and even juiced when it’s ripe and sweet. Breadfruit is now a staple in Cayman cuisine and you’ll see it in meals from breakfast to dinner.
Codfish and Ackee
Codfish and ackee
You might be familiar with this dish from Jamaica, where it’s best known as saltfish and ackee. It’s a combination of two typically Caribbean ingredients that’s good for breakfast, as well as lunch or dinner.
Codfish is white fish, normally cod, as the name implies, that’s heavily salted to preserve it. Before cooking, it’s soaked and rinsed several times to remove most of the salt.
Ackee is the fruit of the ackee tree and has an appearance—and taste—not unlike scrambled eggs. The salty fish and smooth ackee, spiced up with peppers and onion make a delicious pairing.
Saltfish Fritters
Saltfish fritters
Saltfish fritters are made with a batter of flour, onion, scallion, garlic, tomato, and scotch bonnet. To this is added preserved, salted whitefish that has been soaked overnight.
The batter is then dropped on a hot griddle like a pancake, flipped once and served hot. This quick cooking gives the fritters the food shack nickname of “stamp and go”.
A good fish fritter is a rich contrast of crispy exterior with soft interior, and hot peppers with sweeter fish. It’s a popular breakfast dish, appetizer, or quick snack.
Rundown
Rundown—usually made with fish and sometimes turtle—is a stew with a base of coconut cream and milk. Other ingredients might include tomato, pumpkin, onion, garlic, pimento or allspice, ginger, thyme, and, of course, scotch bonnet.
The name comes from the process of slowly cooking the coconut milk until it thickens. Dumplings, cassava, and plantain can also be added to make rundown even heartier.
Rundown with rice on the side is served for lunch or dinner, and even for breakfast. If it is allowed to cook much longer, you end up with a spicy soup called “fish tea”.
Lionfish
Lionfish
Lionfish are a nightmare on the Cayman reefs, an introduced species with no native predators. Local spear divers work hard to keep the reefs clear and you can help with your own fork.
Despite their fearsome appearance, lion fish have a firm, healthy white flesh. That works well with a simple marinade of lime juice, red onion, peppers, and cilantro.
The resulting lionfish ceviche is a good appetizer, often served with plantain chips. Cayman Island chefs have developed many other delicious recipes, from Thai-style fishcakes to lionfish tacos.
Crab Back
The rainy season in Cayman Islands is also the mango and land crab season. From May to October, land crabs emerge from their burrows after rainfall and are quickly harvested, often at night, by torchlight.
Captured crabs are fed on mango for a few days to flush out toxins and sweeten them up. After cooking, the meat is removed from the shell, then mixed with scotch bonnets, scallions, and fresh herbs.
That mix goes back into the cleaned shell—hence “crab back”—before being topped with cheese and breadcrumbs, then baked. The result is a delicious mix of Caribbean seafood with sweet, savory, and spicy tastes.
Braised Oxtail
Braised oxtail
Braised oxtail is another great comfort food, once the food of the poor. The meat is slow-cooked until it is tender and falling off the bone.
This is a dish commonly associated with Jamaica but Cayman Islanders love it too. You’ll find it on menus in restaurants and takeaways all over the islands.
It’s served with rice ‘n’ peas, whose blandness complements the flavors of allspice and scotch bonnet pepper. The stew is also rich with butter beans, carrots, and dumplings with a good splash of ketchup.
Heavy Cake
This is an intensely sweet dessert, not actually a cake, but made from grated cassava, brown sugar, spices, and fresh coconut milk. Often served at birthdays and weddings, heavy cake has warm associations for any islander. Many would call it the national dish.
The dish is heavy and sticky but should still quiver slightly on the plate. You might also find it made with sweet potato or breadfruit rather than cassava.
“Heavy cake” is the traditional contrast to “light cake” made with ingredients such as eggs, butter, and flour. Such relatively expensive goods didn’t find their way into Cayman home cooking until more recent times.
Custard Top
Custard Top Cornbread is a hearty traditional dessert that you will rarely find in restaurants. You might see it at a street festival or if invited to a local home.
It’s a mix of cornmeal and flour, flavored with nutmeg, cinnamon, and lime juice. Eggs, brown sugar, coconut milk, and evaporated milk are then mixed in before baking.
The result is a very sweet and more-ish taste of childhood for any Cayman Islander. Home cooks will all have their own recipes, so you will find variations featuring anything from corn kernels to Caribbean rum.
Tortuga Rum Cake
Tortuga Rum Cake
Tortuga Rum Cake is a delicious cake with a tin or two often finding its way home as a souvenir for visitors. It now comes in various flavors, from chocolate to pineapple, but the original Golden Rum remains a firm favorite.
Former airline pilot Robert Hamaty started making Tortuga Rum on Cayman in 1984. His wife Carlene used an old family recipe for their trademark Tortuga Rum Cake soon after.
Las Tortugas—“The Turtles”—was the name originally given to the Cayman Islands by Christopher Colombus in 1503. While uninhabited by humans, the islands were then home to vast numbers of sea turtles.
Where to Try Cayman Islands Food
Grand Cayman
The Cracked Conch in Grand Cayman’s West Bay is an upmarket place to try Cayman cuisine. It also has the Macabuca Oceanside Tiki Bar for a more informal experience.
Vivine’s Kitchen in East End is noted for seafood such as conch, Caribbean lobster, and turtle. The menu changes daily depending on what’s fresh, but jerk chicken, rice ‘n’ peas, and callaloo are regulars.
Peppers Bar & Grill is an institution on the iconic Seven Mile Beach, one of Grand Cayman’s best beaches. You’ll find everything from saltfish fritters to braised oxtail and jerk chicken.
Grand Cayman
Has this guide to the food of the islands fired up your taste buds for a visit? Browse Celebrity’s cruises to the Cayman Islands and plan your gourmet adventure.
