After years of wanting to visit the island, I finally arrived in my 91st country, the Caribbean island of Barbados, in 2022. My first order of business was trying a traditional Bajan breakfast in Christchurch, which is just south of the capital city, Bridgetown! Come with me as I get my first taste of authentic Bajan (Barbadian) cuisine!
Joining me on this trip is my good friend Craig, a local pilot and musician. He would be taking me around the entire island, from the iconic Rihanna Drive to the seafood vendors in Oistins and everything in-between!
For our traditional Bajan food breakfast, we’d be having saltfish, fish cakes, fried plantains, and corned beef hash at Surfers Café. It’s a really nice restaurant right on the Atlantic Ocean. Reggae bands often play there. The waves were crashing right below us. They even have a cool bathroom that has a cut-out window that looks right out at the ocean!
We started with mimosas, which is a mixture of orange juice and prosecco. Then, I also got some coffee before our breakfast arrived!
The bake was a fluffy, slightly sweet bread ball with cinnamon. I added some saltfish to it, which contained onion, peppers, and spices, and was really nice.
I loved the sweet fried plantains. The corned beef hash was a little different from the kind I’m used to in the United States, but still contained a nice mix of meat and potatoes. We added a bit of my David’s Been Here Hot Sauce (which contains real pineapple and guava), which added a nice sweetness and a hint of spice!
We dipped the fish cakes in the mayo pepper sauce, but honestly, we liked my hot sauce on it better. It was a great way to start our day, and reminiscent of other Caribbean foods I’d eaten. We finished with a couple more mimosas and my black coffee.
Three breakfasts cost $146 BBD, or about $72 USD. Then, we hopped in the car and drove through Christchurch on the southern part of the island. Barbados is small, at only 160 square miles, so it only takes about an hour or an hour and a half to drive around the whole island.
We stopped at a shop to buy an authentic Barbados soccer jersey. They sell out quickly, so I was lucky to get one. It cost $120 BBD, or about $60 USD. Then we drove on to get some coconuts from a vendor along the highway. Selling coconuts along the side of the road is commonplace everywhere from Barbados to Ghana to India!
The guys fill up bottles with the coconut water or you can drink straight from the coconut like I did. The water inside was so cool and refreshing. Then, if the coconut has some meat inside, you can eat it, too.
There was no meat inside mine, but I ate some out of Craig’s, which was young and sweet! You can find coconut vendors everywhere on the island, especially on Sundays!
From there, we continued on to Rihanna Drive, which is named after the superstar singer! She grew up in a small house on this street. You can take a picture in front of the house, which has a fence around it and a Rihanna sign and the colors of the Barbados flag on the ground. People live inside, though, so be respectful of the property.
Nearby is the Rihanna Drive Community & Tourist Shop & Eatery, a small shop where you can order rum, beers, and food. We ordered some Deputy Beer and continued on down the street. There’s a sign displaying all of Rihanna’s accolades, and all of her hit song titles are on the ground, from “Pon de Replay” to “Umbrella” to “Work!” What an awesome start to my time in Barbados!
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