If you’re a globe-trotting gourmet, you’ll love Turks and Caicos food. This tiny island paradise comprising some 40-low lying islands is surrounded by coral reefs, meaning seafood is both plentiful and fresh.
Catch of the day, whether lobster, grouper, or the ubiquitous conch is marinated with tasty Caribbean spices before being lovingly sliced, fried or boiled, and served alongside a range of staples.
While seafood and al fresco dining steal the spotlight, traditional dishes like hearty stews bring their own unique island flair. And with local hoppy ales and spicy rums on offer, there’s always a taste of the islands in your glass as well as on your plate.
Conch Ceviche
Conch ceviche
When it comes to food in Turks and Caicos, nothing is more quintessential than conch—a large sea snail that’s harvested from the waters around the island group.
In fact, conch is such an icon here, it’s actually a symbol of the islands and part of the nation’s flag, alongside a lobster and a Turk’s head cactus.
There are many ways of serving this delicacy but the most authentic is as a ceviche. Fresh queen conch is harvested and tenderized, usually with a mallet, and then diced and “cooked” by marinating in citrus juices, usually lime or lemon.
The resultant acid reaction offers a slightly tender but slightly chewy texture to the conch, while a mix of onions, tomatoes, peppers, and fresh herbs add extra flavor.
Jack’s Shack Beach Bar & Grill in the capital Cockburn Town is a great place to pick up a ceviche, but don’t be surprised if the waiter gives you a cheeky wink as the dish is placed on the table. Local legend has it that conch meat is a potent aphrodisiac.
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Boiled Fish & Grits/Hominy
Boiled fish & grits
Forget toast, fruit salad, yogurt, and cereals. When it comes to breakfast in Turks and Caicos, boiled fish and grits is the way to go.
The fish—always locally caught and often grouper, snapper, or grunt—is gently simmered in a broth with potatoes, onions, peppers, lime juice, and herbs. Some people like to add a dash of pepper sauce for extra spice.
The grits, or hominy—a type of porridge made from coarsely ground dried maize common in the American South—has been adapted into Caribbean cuisine over the years.
This is the kind of dish that was born of necessity, with the fish typically whatever is freshest and most available from local waters, and the grits made from local Guinea corn to add a basic staple.
Grilled Lobster
Grilled lobster
If you’re visiting the islands between August 1 and March 31, there’s no contender for the first Turks and Caicos food you should sample. It simply has to be lobster.
Now, lobster in the Caribbean is distinctly different from its cold-water counterpart found in the northern regions in the USA. Unlike Maine lobsters, Caribbean spiny lobsters have no large front claws, but they are no less tasty.
Fishing for lobster here during the season is more than a livelihood for the fishermen; it’s a cultural tradition. Many of them use handmade traps and free-diving techniques for the catch, a nod to skills passed down over generations. Lobster is one of the prime drivers of the economy, hence its presence on the flag.
Grilled lobster
Given the absence of claws, it’s the tender tail meat that stands out when it comes to Turks and Caicos lobster. The tail is often pre-split and brushed with a mix of melted butter and garlic before hitting the grill, which imparts a smokiness but also brings out the sweetness of the meat. It’s usually paired with simple accompaniments such as rice and peas or grilled veg to let the lobster shine.
If you want to see fishermen bring their catch to shore, head to the seafood market at West Road, Grand Turk. Even when it’s not lobster season, it’s fascinating to watch snapper, grouper, and conch come off the boats and onto the stalls.
Cracked Conch
Cracked conch
This dish could easily be called “Caribbean calamari” as it closely resembles fried squid. That staple favorite conch is again tenderized with a mallet to soften the texture before being sliced into thin strips.
It’s then coated in a mix of flour, breadcrumbs, or cracker meal, as well as seasonings such as paprika, garlic, and cayenne pepper before hitting the deep fryer.
This simple dish, a long-standing favorite on the islands, is usually served with fries, alongside dips such as ketchup, hot sauce, and mayonnaise, and accompanied by a wedge of lemon.
Cracked conch
Cracked conch is best eaten close to the water, while a glass of Island Hopping Ale from the Turk’s Head Brewery on Providenciales takes it to another level.
Head to Sandbar restaurant, a low-key shack-style bar right on the water in Cockburn Town, to try it with a side of gorgeous sea views from the outdoor covered dining area. Feeling fruity? Forgo the beer and pair your cracked conch with a glass of Sandbar’s legendary Caribbean rum punch.
Johnny Cake
Johnny cake
If there’s one type of food in Turks and Caicos that graces the menu of every dining establishment worth its salt, it’s the humble Johnny cake. This staple of Caribbean cuisine is much-loved in Turks and Caicos, served with everything from boiled fish to breakfast, and often accompanying chicken souse.
The recipe is fairly simple: cornmeal, salt, and water are the main ingredients, while some add in baking powder, milk, butter, and even a touch of sugar for extra sweetness. The ingredients are then combined into a batter which is divided into smaller pieces and cooked in a skillet, or baked in the oven.
The result is a biscuit-scone-cake hybrid with a golden crust and a soft, fluffy interior, perfect for dipping into soups and sauces, or enjoying with a touch of butter and jam as an on-the-go snack.
Turks and Caicos Souse
If you’re looking for something to dip your Johnny cakes into, souse, pronounced sowse is a great traditional option. This tangy soup-cum-stew is a favorite comfort food here, an elixir praised for its properties as a cure-all dish for every ailment from a long night out to a remedy for colds and flu.
The dish is made with a base of water/broth, lime juice, and vinegar which combine to give it that distinct tangy taste. To this, onions, celery, peppers, and spices are added, as well as some form of meat.
These days that can be prime chicken, pork, or turkey, but in the past could easily have been those cuts less desirable but which are said to add more flavor, such as chicken feet, pigs’ feet, or tongue.
Other Caribbean islands often add a starchy vegetable like potatoes or carrots but in Turks, it’s more like a clear broth with no thickening agents added, so allowing the flavors to shine through.
Peas & Rice
Peas and rice
The staple of choice for the indigenous peoples of Turks and Caicos would have been peas and hominy grits. The advent of the salt trade and workers arriving from Jamaica changed all that.
What’s known as “rice and peas” in Jamaica is now known as “peas and rice” here. But whichever way you arrange the words, one thing is for sure: peas and rice is the ultimate sidekick to almost every main course served in the islands’ restaurants.
The simple name belies a cooking process where care is the main ingredient. Peas and rice may be basic, but the addition of spices and the fact that it’s often cooked in coconut milk add a distinctive T&C note to proceedings.
The other thing to note is that the term “pea” is not solely restricted to green peas in the Caribbean—instead, it can refer to any small legume. As such, don’t be surprised to find your peas and rice made with kidney beans, black-eyed peas, and yellow split peas.
Conch Fritters
Conch fritters
If there’s a food in Turks and Caicos that can be found everywhere from on-street vendors to high-end restaurants, it’s the delightfully simple conch fritter. These show off conch in a whole new way, a strong contrast to tangy ceviche and crispy cracked versions.
In this dish, meat from the queen conch is sliced and diced and added to flour, eggs, herbs, and spices before frying in hot oil until puffed up and golden brown. The fritters are typically served with some kind of tangy dipping sauce, whether that be a spicy mayo, a zesty lime aioli, or local hot sauce to add another layer of flavor.
The food stalls at the seafood market are a great place to sample conch fritters, typically eaten by hand, while looking out over the Caribbean for a unique island experience.
Hot Sauce
Turks and Caicos native Delano Handfield had one of those sliding doors moments when he came up with the idea for PeppaJoy Hot Sauce.
Following a stint in the US military, he returned home to join the local police force but paid a visit to the renowned Da Conch Shack restaurant on Providenciales. That meal inspired a dream, to create a locally made hot sauce to accompany the conch on offer.
Handfield went through a period of experimentation before blending locally grown scotch bonnet peppers with guava—and the rest, as they say, is history.
The sauce has taken off so much that production has now been moved to the U.S., but it remains a Turks and Caicos company at its heart. The sauce, with its distinct island branding, can now be found almost everywhere that serves conch on the islands.
Lionfish
Lionfish
Lionfish may be beautiful to look at but they’re a major nuisance to ecosystems across the Caribbean. Originally from the Indo-Pacific, it’s thought they were introduced to the waters here when aquarium owners found them growing too big for their tanks and released them into the ocean.
Their aggressive temperament and strong appetites mean they’ve gone straight to the top of the food chain, causing damage to reefs and native species. As such, for environmental reasons they’re the only fish in Turks and Caicos that can be speared. They’re also the only fish that can be caught with scuba equipment, with the government actively promoting this activity.
Luckily, they’re great to eat once their toxic “spears” have been removed, and have a texture similar to grouper. As such, over the last few years they’re increasingly appearing on menus at local restaurants, often as a ceviche or shallow fried.
Rum Punch
Rum punch
Rum punch is as Caribbean as drinks come—and the classic cocktail gets its own unique Turks and Caicos spin with the addition of Bambarra Rum.
This local spirit, a unique blend of other rums, takes its name from the home of captured Africans who were aboard the slave trader Trouvadore. When it was wrecked off-shore here in 1841, those who survived made the islands their home.
When Bambarra is added to fruit juices such as pineapple, orange, and lime, and further sweetened with grenadine, the Turks’ version of punch is born. Jack’s Shack and the Sandbar, both on Grand Turk, are great places to sample this tasty treat but do take note.
The sweetness of the fruit juices can hide the potency of the rum itself, meaning if you’re not careful, a restorative bowl of souse may just need to come into play the next day.
Fish Tacos
Fish tacos
It’s thought that fish tacos originate from Baja California in Mexico, but this imported dish takes on a unique place in island life, given Turks and Caicos’ long history of fishing and abundance of Caribbean seafood.
Made from locally caught snapper or grouper, the fish fillets can be grilled, blackened, or lightly battered and fried, before being added to a soft taco shell and topped with shredded greens, diced tomatoes, and, occasionally, tropical fruits such as pineapple or mango.
Simple, delicious and pairing brilliantly with both rum punch or a local beer, they’re served almost everywhere on Grand Turk with Margaritaville and Jack’s Shack offering some of the best.
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Grand Turk
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