Belize

Nestled between Mexico and Guatemala and bordering the Caribbean Sea, Belize has a cuisine influenced by its neighbors with rice, beans and corn playing a prominent role as well as local seafood including grouper, conch, lobster, snapper and wahoo.

Traditional Belizean cuisine includes lots of tapas and sauces such as tamales, panades (a corn-bean-fish patty with a tangy onion sauce), sweet potato fritters and handmade pepper sauce with habaneros, onions, lime juice and vinegar.

A more substantial meal might be snapper simmered in coconut milk served with green plantains and a fiery hot sauce, a handful of meat tacos or a “Boil Up,” literally a boiled mixture of eggs, fish or pigtail with ground yucca, yams and plantains. For those up for unusual offerings, wild game and meat is available including iguana, boar, armadillo or sea turtle.

Desserts include banana cake or bread pudding with rum, while beverages such as fresh lime juice, seaweed shakes, fruit wines and the local beer, Belikin, are popular.—Leska Tomash

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