My third morning in Guyana dawned bright and early and kicked off with an unforgettable Caribbean food tour of iconic Guyanese favorites!
My guide Stacey from Visit Guyana and I started at Sunny & Sweetie Roti Shop, which is known for having some of the best Creole food in Georgetown, Guyana. It’s a nice, open-air shop that offers saltfish and bake, chicken curry with coconut choka, dal, provisions, okra, and more. We ordered a bit of everything!
At Sunny & Sweetie Roti Shop, we had a mix of breakfast and non-breakfast Caribbean food dishes, including pachownie (curried sheep belly) with roti, saltfish and bake, fish choka, baigan choka, and chicken curry with dal and rice.
We started with the bake & saltfish. The fish is fried with onions and tomatoes and you eat it with the bake, which is a fluffy bread. It’s the perfect breakfast on the go. I could eat it every day!
The baigan choka is a smoky roasted eggplant. It was amazing! Eggplant is my favorite vegetable in the world. I loved the pepper in it! Next was the fish choka with roti, which contained a splash of lime juice. I tried a wiri wiri pepper with it, which added a nice kick. I loved the green onions and diced fish!
The pachownie was so meaty, tender, and soft! You pair it with roti. I loved Guyanese roti, which is flakier than the roti I was used to having everywhere else. It had a very organ-like flavor.
Next was the chicken curry with the dal and rice. Everything was incredible together. I loved the coconut choka mixed with the dal and rice. It was perfect together. Adding a bit of pepper sauce gave it a kick, but not too much! My favorite of all the dishes was the pachownie. It’s a fantastic example of Caribbean food in Guyana!
Next, we drove 15 minutes to the most famous bakery in the country, Maggie’s Snackette. Inside, they were making tons of Caribbean food dishes and pastries, including pine tarts (pineapple pastries). Simon showed me how to fold one properly! They also made cheese rolls with a cheese spread inside. They make between 1000-1200 pastries per day here!
Then, I attempted to make a cheese roll before it was time for us to try them. This place has been around for over 20 years and they’ve perfected their recipes.
The pine tart was flaky and buttery, with the incredible pineapple filling adding a nice sweetness and acidity. I loved it! The cheese roll had the same dough but the filling was hot and cheesy. It had melted right into the pastry! I liked that it was fresh and piping hot, but I liked the pine tart better.
The chicken patty was basically a little pie containing shredded chicken, corn, and other vegetables. It was small but overloaded with filling!
After that, we headed to our final stop of the morning, German’s Restaurant, which is a buffet-style Caribbean food restaurant. They’re famous for their soups. They had three: chicken soup, cow heel soup, and beef soup. You can also have dumplings and provisions, or you can mix the cow heel and beef soups if you want.
I started with mauby, a drink made from tree bark. It was fragrant and refreshing. I followed it with their cow heel soup. It’s a thick, hearty soup containing potatoes, cassava, duff, and cow heel. It’s a great pick-me-up! I really liked the gelatinous cow heels.
Finally, we ended with metemgee, which contains fried fish, duff, plantains, steamed onions, and coconut broth on the side. We added the broth, which blew my mind. The duff was nice and soft, and I loved the cassava. This was real, heartwarming Caribbean food!
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