Caribbean dishes — where to eat what

From the charcoal grill or stewed (ribs di smoor) — with BBQ glaze or Curaçao pika.

Grilled tenderloin, usually with batata, salad and a Curaçao sauce. The premium pick at every truk'i pan.

Fries buried under chicken, steak or shrimp, cheese and sauces. The street-food icon of the new Caribbean kitchen.

Steak or tenderloin with shrimp or conch on one plate. The celebration plate of the Curaçao grill.

Fries, meat, cheese and salad in one tray — the Rotterdam invention has become a fixture on Caribbean menus, with chicken, steak, conch or shrimp.

Queen conch, the large sea snail of the Caribbean. Stewed, fried or as ceviche — a delicacy you will almost only find at Curaçao kitchens.

Rice cooked with beans and spices — the default side in Curaçao and the Dominican Republic.

Salted, dried cod — bakijou or bakkeljauw in the Antilles. As a salad on a johnny cake, in croquettes or as a main with tutu.

Green plantain, fried twice and flattened. Crispy, lightly salted, with a dip or as a base under meat (patacón).

Brazilian rump cap with its fat cap, grilled over charcoal. Popular on Curaçao grills and in the Netherlands.

Fresh limeade, the national thirst-quencher of Curaçao. Sour, sweet, ice cold.

Antillean beef stew, slow-cooked in a sauce of tomato, onion and Curaçao spices. The heart of Krioyo cooking, usually served with funchi, rice or potatoes.

Oxtail stewed slowly until the meat falls off the bone. Rabu di baka in the Antilles, oxtail stew in Jamaica — both with rice and beans.

The Curaçao pastry: a half-moon of fried dough filled with cheese, minced beef, chicken or tuna. The island's breakfast and snack in one.

Venezuelan corn bread, split and filled with chicken, steak or cheese. In miniature (arepitas) as a side.

Crispy fried pork or chicken — fatty, salty and addictive. From the grill or the fryer.

Ripe plantain fried until it caramelises. Sweet, soft and present on almost every Caribbean plate.

Firm cornmeal porridge, the Antillean answer to polenta. Served alongside stews or fried in cubes (funchi hasá).

Curaçao flan: creamy caramel custard of milk, egg and sugar. The dessert every grandmother makes differently.

Filled tortilla roll with chicken, steak or shrimp, salad and sauce. Often "Bo Bo Bo Borrito" in Curaçao.

Fried rice with chicken, ham, shrimp or all at once. The Chinese-Antillean staple of every toko menu.

Cassava: boiled, fried as chips or baked (telo). Firm, slightly sweet, gluten-free.

Curaçao cake with ground cashew nuts — sweet, rich, with a layer of buttercream.

Raw fish or shrimp cured in lime juice, with onion and coriander. Fresh, sharp and light — perfect in the heat.

Fried noodles with meat and vegetables. Chow mien in Curaçao, bami in the Netherlands.

Chicken in yellow curry sauce — Surinamese, Jamaican or Antillean, each with its own spice blend.

Filled fried pastry from the Latin-Caribbean kitchen — beef, chicken or cheese. The pastechi's cousin.

Jamaican chicken marinated in jerk spices (allspice, scotch bonnet, thyme) and grilled or smoked. Hot, smoky, unmistakable.

Fried Antillean bread without yeast, crispy outside and soft inside. Filled with cheese, ham, egg, salt fish or grilled chicken.

Stewed goat — the celebration dish of Curaçao. Tender, spiced and often mildly hot; classically served with funchi or rice.

Fried or stewed chicken leg, usually with batata (fried potatoes). The staple of every Curaçao toko.

Stewed pig tail, often with cabbage or beans. A true Krioyo dish rarely found outside Antillean kitchens.

Antillean egg liqueur with rum — as a drink, in cake or over ice cream.

Chicken or pork satay with fried potatoes and Curaçao peanut sauce. The Antillean take on chips-and-sauce.

Stir-fried vegetables with chicken, pork or shrimp in a light sauce. The veg option on the Chinese-Antillean menu.

Airy cake soaked in three kinds of milk. Latin-Caribbean, moist and sweet, usually topped with cream.

Cornmeal cooked with black-eyed peas, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sweeter and richer than funchi; often served with fish.

Thick okra soup with fish or meat, served with funchi. One of the island's oldest dishes.

Soup made from the kadushi cactus, with meat or fish. Slippery, spiced and unique to Curaçao.

Hearty Dominican stew-soup with several meats, yuca, plantain and corn. A meal in itself.

Dark fruit cake with rum and candied fruit, made weeks ahead. Essential at Curaçao weddings and holidays.

Dominican fried chicken marinated in lime and oregano. Crispy, juicy, with tostones.

Thin flatbread filled or served with chicken or beef curry, potato, egg and long beans. A Surinamese-Caribbean classic.

Fries with sliced sausage, sauces and cheese — Colombian street food that has settled in Curaçao.

Beef tripe soup, simmered for hours. The Antillean hangover cure.