Photo courtesy of Anse Chastenet
Raise your hand if you call yourself a foodie. Even if you’re not in the running to be the next Iron Chef, chances are you’ve been Instagramming your meals or clicking out some posts about your favorite dishes on your iPhone — there are more than 40,000 food blogs these days. So it stands to reason that honeymooners are looking for something to bite into when they’re booking their trip of a lifetime. One of the world’s most popular regions for romance — the Caribbean — is also an international hub for a cornucopia of fabulous food.
St. Lucia
Photo courtesy of Rendezvous
Just a sleepy speck a decade ago, St. Lucia is now a honeymoon magnet. A variety of resorts, many set between the Pitons, emerald-carpeted twin peaks, and an impressive roster of international chefs entice any visitor. French-born Xavier Ribot heads up The Coal Pot and Chef Xavier Restaurant and Bar, whose sunny, art-filled ambience and refined menu marry French technique with West Indian flavors. Choose your fish and your sauce: Creole, curry, island pesto or garlic butter.
Sweden’sBobo Bergstrom of The Edge, Fire Grill and Starfish is locally beloved for his light, colorful fusion creations like tropical sushi and island-spiced duck with peppered pineapple jelly. Traditional island eats include cassava “bread,” made from an indigenous root vegetable that’s more like a loaf cake, with fresh fruit. Green bananas and salt fish, which features the local fruit with codfish, is considered the island’s official dish. Another favorite is St. Lucia crab back made of local land crab meat and, typically, lemon-garlic butter.
Photo courtesy of Anse Chastenet
Where to Eat: Weekly dining events draw visitors as well as locals. On Fridays at 8 p.m, there’s the Anse La Raye Fish Fry on the village’s main street. The Dennery Seafood Fiesta resounds each Saturday at 4 p.m. on the beach. Here, local seafood is grilled up over fire pits while bands play. Castries Market, in the island’s capital is the Caribbean’s oldest and flaunts a variety of crafts and local foodstuffs; pick up some banana ketchup, St. Lucia’s ubiquitous condiment.
More Foodie Finds: Cacao is a top crop on St. Lucia. Island Routes’ Chocolate Decadence tour is a favorite way to explore the local cacao farms, called estates. Beware: St. Lucia’s breakfast drink, cocoa tea, may prove addictive. The Saint Lucia Distillers’ Rhythm of Rum excursion highlights award-winning labels like Chairman’s Reserve and Admiral Rooney.
Photo courtesy of Anse Chastenet
Where to Stay: Beautiful Anse Chastenet perches on a peninsula overlooking the Pitons. Hillside deluxe rooms, at around 1,300 square feet, offer the best views with an open balcony fourth wall. Gourmet offerings include the property’s own organic farm’s produce, cooking classes and surfside candlelit dinners for two. Three eateries (one of which is a tree-house dining terrace) feature a wealth of menu options—veggie, Creole, St. Lucian-East Indian fusion menu and a not-to-be-skipped chocolate dessert selection (room rates start at $345 a night; ansechastenet.com).
Rendezvous, an adults-only, all-inclusive boutique hotel, sits on a two-mile beach backed by gardens. A romance concierge arranges activities for two including mixology classes. The resort’s signature restaurant, The Trysting Place, specializes in French-Caribbean cuisine, with fresh fruit garnishes and sauces, in a romantic setting (room rates start at $370 per person, per night and are all-inclusive; rendezvousstlucia.com).
Anguilla
Photo courtesy of Cap Juluca
Maritime Anguilla was visited and settled by adventurers from all over — England, France, Spain and Africa. Therefore, the island’s cuisine is, by nature, multicultural and multifaceted. Today, international chefs push the envelope of this fusion cuisine. Top dishes include fritters (savory with seafood or sweet with coconut and allspice), callaloo stew (a thick soup with spinach-like greens), allspice dusted seafood bisque and a variety of fresh-from-the-sea delights.
Where to Eat: Locals love On Da Rocks, known for its tropical-fruit rum punch, johnnycakes (cornmeal flatbread), whelk soup (sea snail) and the Sunday crayfish special, which costs only a few bucks and includes fries. Da’Vida, with spectacular water vistas, memorable seafood chowder and an early evening Anguillan tapas menu, is a favorite spot for sundowners. Some barefoot spots include Tasty’s, celebrated for grandma’s stew chicken, and Mango’s Seaside Grill, which serves fresh, simple seafood and house made tropical ice cream.
More Foodie Finds: A popular time to visit Anguilla is in late July for the Summer Festival, which showcases all manner of cuisine. Take a tour of the Old Salt Factory and Pumphouse to see how salt was farmed. KoalKeel, set in a historic plantation house, has a rum cellar, as well as shopping, elegant island dining and high tea service. KoalKeel also operates island tours and tastings.
Where to Stay: The first and last name in luxurious food-centric experiences is the CuisinArt Resort & Spa, a pioneer of the farm-to-table resort concept. Here, the dining is as global and sophisticated as the clientele. Five restaurants include Tokyo Bay, for Japanese sushi made from exquisitely fresh fish and Italia, for artisanal pasta. Le Bistro at Santorini offers private, customized Chef’s Table dinners with wine pairings. For swashbucklers, there’s a Pyrat Rum Tasting of Anguilla’s best-known spirit brand (room rates start at $425 a night; cuisinartresort.com).
Private villas dot Cap Juluca’s exquisite Maundays Bay beach. The posh resort’s 18-hole championship golf course was designed by Greg Norman, and its dining is overseen by Caribbean-raised chef Dean Samuel. The restaurants include Pimms, considered one of the Caribbean’s best, with light French-Asian-Anguillan cuisine. Spice offers seductive Moroccan dishes and equally sultry ambience. Blue is more casual, with panoramic views, tropical recipes and beach-party dinners on Monday and Friday (room rates start at $495 a night; capjuluca.com).
Next: Discover Jamaica and Puerto Rico ►
Jamaica
Photo courtesy of Rockhouse Hotel
The reggae island is the home of jerk cooking and the blazing Scotch Bonnet pepper, which fuels Jamaican hot sauces. Expect liptingling spicy eats and, these days, some refined kitchen wizardry. The island is also home to a collection of Ital restaurants. Painted red, yellow and green, these eateries offer Rastafarian meatless cuisine. Menu highlights include jerk tofu, ginger juice and bubbly stew with root vegetables and peanut.
Where to Eat: The Jamaica Jerk Trail, an island-wide foodie route, showcases dozens of the best jerk joints and their secret marinades. Favorite stops include Bourbon Beach in Negril, Supreme Jerk Centre in Green Island and Blueberry Hill near Port Antonio. Served at most resorts, the true Jamaican breakfast is saltfish and ackee. It combines cod with local ackee fruit (its yellow flesh fries up like scrambled eggs).
More Foodie Finds: Blue Mountain coffee, hand-picked and grown in central Jamaica’s highlands, is celebrated for its full-bodied, smooth flavor. Jamaican Rum is made the old-fashioned way, from molasses. Appleton Estate Rum offers tasty tours of its South Coast distillery. Resident donkey Pax demonstrates how juice was extracted from sugarcane 200 years ago.
Photo courtesy of Rockhouse Hotel
Where to Stay: Rockhouse is all about drama with its setting atop Negril’s rocky beach, its spectacular pool and its thrillingly romantic thatched-roof, ocean-view villas. Rockhouse’s Pushcart restaurant resembles a village plaza, with a rum bar, a fishmonger selection, and street-food treats like bammies (cassava flat bread) and spiced-stuffed pastries called patties (room rates start at $240 a night; rockhousehotel.com).
Jamaica Inn has no TVs or even clocks in its 47 rooms, just an inviting bed and a balcony overlooking the sea. The remote resort is so romantic that decades apart, Marilyn Monroe and Kate Moss stole away here. The meals are just as dreamy — a breakfast of Blue Mountain coffee and sliced mangoes leads to a light seafood salad lunch. Dinner is on a candlelit open terrace with a canopy of stars. Your entrée could feature a snapper you caught (room rates start at $310 a night; jamaicainn.com).
Puerto Rico
Photo courtesy of La Concha
Puerto Rico is an easy sell for all kinds of travelers. There’s no passport required, U.S. dollars are the official currency, and English, the language. The island sizzles with a salsa beat and a spicy attitude that extends to the cuisine. Puerto Rico’s signature spice, adobo, intensifies the island’s traditional comfort food: hearty rice and beans, roast pork and croquetas (deep-fried rolls of mashed potatoes and ground meat). There’s also a new guard in town — today’s hottest local chefs have kept the adobo, but lightened up recipes to create a cosmopolitan cuisine.
Where to Eat: Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan, teems with cultural attractions, high-end hotels and restaurants. Chef Juan José Cuevas helms 1919 Restaurant, with sophisticated prix fixe and à la carte menus. A highlight is the classic Tres Leches cake, done with dark chocolate. Sataella, a modern spot set beside the farmers’ market, showcases fresh ingredients delivered in inventive concert with each other. And Old San Juan’s Verde Mesa excels at Caribbean fish and vegetarian dishes. Traditional Puerto Rican fare — sancocho (rustic beef stew), caldo gallego (white bean soup), mofongo (mashed, fried plantain) — is served at Kasalta.
More Foodie Finds: Summer’s SoFo Culinary Festival offers traditional tastes and trendy treats served in the colonial streets of Old San Juan. Just outside the city is the Bacardi Rum Factory. A tour, which provides an in-depth look and taste of the famous brand, is free.
Where to Stay: Conrad Condado Plaza Hotel offers a pretty beach, a fun casino and Pikayo restaurant, helmed by local legend and Top Chef Wilo Benet. Of his tapas. we especially love the truffle cheese-filled oversize, dumpling-like empanadillas (room rates start at $225 a night; condadoplaza.com).
At La Concha, San Juan’s Condado neighborhood’s 1950s architectural masterpiece, dining options include Komakai Sushi Bar, Voga for trattoria dishes, Solera for poolside tapas and Aroma for a healthy breakfast buffet. The fine-dining Perla features chef Dayn Smith’s take on surf and turf (room rates start at $199anight;laconcharesort.com).