A Quick Guide to Garifuna Food
Bundiga © Rasheed Palacio
Garifuna cuisine is fantastic, yet it is often surrounded by mystery when it comes to actually knowing the dishes. Here is your quick guide to Garifuna food, so you know what to order next time. 😉
Mou Mou Ti (King Cassava)
King cassava is a very thick cassava bread that must be cooked to consume. It is usually prepared in a fish soup accompanied by a piece of fish served in the gravy it is cooked in.
Boil up
Boil up is a tomato-based sauce with flat dumplings served with fried fish (usually a snapper). It is accompanied by boiled ripe plantain, sweet potato, okra, white cocoa, cassava and pigtail.
Bundiga
Bundiga a thick green banana coconut milk soup (close to the consistency of a chowder) with various seafood such as conch, lobster or snapper and boiled cassava. Click here for the recipe
Watch a cooking show on Youtube where they make Bundiga!
Darasa
Darasa refers to banana tamales, a well-known Belizean snack. The ingredients include peeled and grated green bananas, orange juice, lime juice, coconut milk, salt, pepper, and banana leaves for wrapping. The ingredients are combined into a homogeneous mixture which is then placed in banana leaves.
Tapou
Tapou is a boiled green banana fish soup/stew with many other ingredients for taste. The fish is fried crisp before combined with the soup, and the meal is usually served with rice.
Sahou
Sahou is a thick cassava porridge, usually served at wakes or during the 9-night ceremony. Click here for the recipe
Sere
Some say it is a fish gravy and others believe it is a soup. Sere is essentially stew-like, thick savoury coconut and fish. The broth is often prepared with fresh coconut milk, okra, onions, cilantro and pan-fried fish. You can add potatoes or cassava too and serve it with coconut fried rice.
Written by Rasheed H. Palacio