Belizian cuisine

Belizean cuisine is an oxymoron.   Belizean food is rice and beans or beans and rice, with stewed chicken, pork or beef included.   The lobster and conch are interesting when in season.   Shrimp are farmed within the country so those are available and generally excellent.   There are some curries available occasionally.   The "Chinese" food is heavy on cabbage and carrots and some noodles.   we do have a local entrepreneur who is making sushi, using cooked fish (for safety in our climate.)     I  do not care for the local beef as the flavor is off putting to me.   Pork is ok if you eat red meat.  I do not like fish, which is generally coated in corn meal and deep fried and served with the head on it.   gag.   on the weekends BBQ pork ribs and chicken are offered.   It is customary to include a shredded cabbage/carrot cold slaw, usually with a nasty salad cream dressing.  also the Belizean version of potato salad which features canned pea and carrots, boiled potatoes and more salad cream, with the meal of stewed meat and rice and beans.    Belizean food is limited by the available vegetables.  Generally this is green peppers, tomatoes and onions.   garlic is mostly imported from china.   over the border in Mexico, which is only 7 miles from us it is possible to get everything: however generally it is illegal to bring any dairy, meat or fruit and vegetables into the country at any price.   Butter is available from new Zealand and local Mennonites.   I dislike the local cheeses, which all taste like cow manure smells to me.   The Chocolate is outstanding..   When we are not having drought, the sweet oranges are the best tasting and worse looking oranges I have ever experienced.   Only a few gringos have grown lemon trees from smuggled seeds.   The local sour oranges taste much like lemons even though the appearance is not similar.   The local limes are luscious.  mostly limes are imported from Jamaica, and are what most people from No America are accustomed to.  The local limes, are like Key limes and have a delicate flavor.   Most of the flour here is not suitable for bread making.   All of the seasonal fruit is excellent and flavorful.    Local baking is mostly of the cake mix and canned frosting variety.   Locals offer a lime meringue pie, which is good and would be better with 2x filling.  there is one restaurant locally that makes pizza  and has a pizza oven.    We have found some excellent Indian food in Belmopan.   there is more variety  over the border in Mexico.    Every district is somewhat different in availability of food stuffs.   Belize City has the most variety but it is 2 hr drive for us.   Belmopan is 3 hrs.   If you wish to eat out often, choices are limited.

Mzcalifornia. Is pork red meat? Cause I think they got it wrong on the commercials in the US.They call it "the other white meat". Food is what you make it, if you can't cook then variety is short. Beef fed off the land vs some feed mixture does taste different. Smugglers. I guess I just can't find do- holders no matter where I search. Sure, I'm not flawless, but I do comply. I don't know, so I will ask you. Is gardening allowed? Sounds like I'm destined for beans and rice or kimshi. Yum! Thanks Uncle Sam. :-)  I only make light of what was said, because it sounds like I'm in for a challenge. Thanks for the heads up. :-)

I think the question using the word 'cuisine ' leads to answers about outside dining. a lot depends on where you are in Belize. If you like indian foood and are in the Belmopan area then the himalayan resterant near the bus station is hard to beat. pizza seems available everywhere along with burgers of variable quality and taste. if you home mainly cook then most ingredients can be found, some may be at a higher cost than you are used, to but I cook what the family like and have few problems Never seen Kimchi available that i know of, but never been looking.
P S
dont knock the rice and beans with whatever stewed meat of the day its usually very good and available most everywhere

We live in Hopkins Village and love the food.  There are plenty of restaurants here to choose from with a wide variety of food.  The grocery stores carry everything we need.  There are some things we do without but have found substitutes or didn't need it anyway.  We love Placencia where there are even more choices.  We have begun doing some baking and have no problem with the flour.  Yesterday I made a banana coffee cake and banana nut bread both of which were excellent if I do say so myself.  The joy of living here far outweighs any inconvenience.

We love homemade peach cobbler.  As you know, peaches are not grown in Belize.  But they do have mangoes.  We substituted mango for the peaches in my recipe and it was every bit as good if not better.  The taste was very similar and my mother-in-law cannot tell the difference.  We tell her it is Belizian peach cobbler because at 87 she is not willing to try "strange" fruits.  Being from Texas they do not have what we consider is salsa so we make our own.  It is easy and all the ingredients are fresh.  We have a veggie truck that stops at our house on Tuesdays and Fridays.  You can't get service like that back in the states.  I grew up on Velveeta and they don't have that here.  But they have an Austrian processed cheese called Happy Cow and it is just as good.  With bananas being so inexpensive here (we get them 8 for 50 cents US) I wanted to make a banana pudding.  But they don't have vanilla wafers at the grocery store.  I looked up a recipe for them and made them myself.  They were great.  My mother-in-law wants me to make more.  My mother-in-law drinks a lot of milk, like at every meal.  Back in Texas, we were going to the store 2 or 3 times a week just to get more milk.  Here we buy it by the case.  It sits on the shelf until we open it and she actually thinks it tastes better.  Life is what you make of it.