I’m sitting in a shady bar called Friday, overlooking the race track.Maurice Bishop Airport and over the Caribbean Sea, suspiciously close, I’m going to try a Grenadian shot called “under the counter”, all before breakfast.

It’s a welcome drink often given free to regulars, and as the mixture burns my throat, I decide the herbs and spices are more for beauty than taste.

Residents of the island claim that Rivers Rum, organically produced in River Antoine Estate, Grenada’s oldest rum distillery, won’t cause a hangover no matter how much you drink because it contains no chemical additives. I’m not convinced yet.

Afterwards I am served a hearty Caribbean breakfast of curried eggplant, salt fish, amber, fried plantain and a fluffy fried cake the consistency of a donut.

Chocolate is popular in Grenada, with its abundance of cocoa fields, six chocolate companies offering tree-to-bar offerings, and an annual chocolate festival.

Casual hospitality and casual restaurants dot the rolling hills from the capital of St. George in the southwest, where most of the low-rise hotels are located, to chic Silversands at one end of long-established Grand Anse Beach 2.5 miles away. , to a calm and spacious boutique hotel Mount Cinnamonwhere we were staying, at the other end.

Some offer all-inclusive packages, but if you’re looking for quirky restaurants and bars in one of the six parishes that make up the island’s regions, you won’t have to look far.

Spice Island

Measuring 21 by 12 miles, Grenada, known as the “Isle of Spice” due to the abundance of spices grown in its fertile volcanic soil, is slightly smaller than the Isle of Wight.

The lush mountain landscape offers a wealth of delicious food, while the sea offers lobster, lionfish, mahi-mahi and kingfish, which are as popular in luxury hotels as they are in Grenadian homes. Nobody is starving.

Village communities trade surpluses: avocados for soursop, jackfruit for star fruit. Nothing is wasted. Calabash shells serve as food bowls and dried coconut shells provide fuel for outdoor cooking.

“If you use everything that comes from the earth, you should get everything you need,” guide Achelle muses about Grenada’s ethics as he walks us through the chocolate-making process in Three Islands of ChocolateGrenada’s smallest chocolate factory and one of the stops on the Spice Foodie Tour, which takes you through the island’s culture, cuisine, local restaurants and street food.

Favorites include butter pooh, Grenada’s national dish and most famous gourmet food, widely available from street vendors and inexpensive eateries.

This hearty, flavorful stew of bread, squash, sweet potatoes, meat or fish, dumplings, callaloo (like spinach) and spices is soaked in fresh coconut milk, which is cooked leaving behind the butter from which the dish takes its name. bottom. It’s filling, satisfying, savory and delicious.

Credits: PA; Author: PA;

Grenville

After an hour’s drive through the countryside and winding roads criss-crossing Grand Etang Forest Reservearriving in Grenville, Grenada’s second largest city, located to the east and overlooking the more rugged Atlantic coast.

During the tour, we stop at the Boogie Buss Up Shot Joint, a popular eatery that serves “buss upshot,” a roti-based street food brought to the Caribbean from India in the 1830s during the abolition of slavery.

This nickname literally means “torn shirt” due to the way the paratha flatbread is served, almost like a torn shirt. It is served with chicken, pork or lamb, which is a curried conch, accompanied by perfect sauces including chickpeas and potato aloo, and mango amchar, a type of chutney.

There’s just enough room for the rich, sticky dark Grenada sweet potato pudding, a mixture of sweet potatoes, ginger, coconut milk, dark sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and bergamot, which Daniela Thomas serves in her home garden and cooks in metal barrels filled with charred coconut shells on top and coals on the bottom.

Vegan dishes

Vegans are also catered for given the abundance of fruit on the island. Joachim Joseph, an aspiring entrepreneur and vegan, created three years ago Vulcan Veganwhich offers farm-to-table activities.

“There are six people in my family, and I always cooked for them. I have become more creative, but I always cook with love,” he says.

He joins us in the forest next to the famous Annandale Fallsin the St. George Hills, where he cooks our lunch in a wok over an open fire fueled by nutmeg branches.

Credits: PA; Author: PA;

I take a quick dip in the cool pool under the waterfall and then head back into the forest, where, in the shade of a giant bamboo, he has prepared a delicious stir-fry with cabbage, peppers, tomatoes and spices, including turmeric, which gives the mixture its yellow hue.

The dish is served in calabash bowls, accompanied by pieces of coconut and crispy fried and fried breadfruit, which tastes like potatoes.

“80% of my clients are non-vegan,” he says proudly. As a carnivore, I’m impressed by its vegetarian offerings.

Gourmet food

You can enjoy gourmet cuisine even outside the tourist routes, as I was convinced of when I sat at a table on the white veranda nearArmadilloa small guest house and restaurant in Mount Rodney, St Patrick, North, run by Swiss chef Bernie Hass and his wife Andrea Nyack.

I refresh myself with lionfish ceviche before Bernie shows me his garden, which looks more like a wild tropical arboretum with banana palms, coconut trees and other exotic plants.