Island cooking primarily consists of fish, lobster, breadfruit, sweet potatoes, fruits and vegetables, chicken, pork and well-seasoned beef. We suggest trying some Bajan specialties: flying fish, jug-jug (green peas and corn flour), fishcakes, cou-cou (okra and corn flour or cooked and pounded breadfruit), crane chub, pepper-pot soup, puddin' and souse (pigs entrails stuffed with grated sweet potatoes, pigs feet and ears), roti (curried chicken or beef and mashed potatoes wrapped in pastry) and conkies (made from corn meal, raisins, spice, pumpkin and sweet potatoes).

Do try some of the local fruit: Barbados cherries, dunks, ackees and soursop (known in other parts of the Caribbean as ginops) -- a small, green-skinned fruit with a sour-sweet gelatin inside that surrounds a seed. Attend a West Indian barbecue if the opportunity arises, and be sure to sample the island's rum punch. A popular local soft drink is the molasses-based Tiger Malt, and mauby is a bittersweet local drink made from tree bark and sugar. If your palate is partial to sizzle, drown everything in the local hot pepper sauce (and take some home for your friends with fireproof mouths). Wash it all down with the local award-winning Banks beer.

Visitors should note that breakfast is usually served 7-10 am and lunch noon-3 pm. Dinner is the main meal of the day and is served 7-10 pm.