The national dish of Saint Vincent is roasted breadfruit and jackfish. Captain William Bligh delivered breadfruit plants from Tahiti aboard HMS Bounty in 1793 to the Botanical Gardens in Kingstown, which were established in 1765 and are the oldest botanical gardens in the Western Hemisphere. The breadfruit was intended as cheap food for enslaved laborers on sugar plantations. Today Vincentians roast breadfruit whole over open flame or in earth ovens until the skin blackens and the interior becomes soft and starchy. Jackfish, a regional name for several species of carangidae caught in Caribbean waters, is pan-fried or grilled with seasoning including thyme, garlic, and scotch bonnet pepper. The combination appears on restaurant menus and home tables throughout the island, served with no sauce or with a simple butter melt.
Arrowroot starch production on Saint Vincent once supplied a significant portion of the world market. Maranta arundinacea grows well in the volcanic soil of the Mesopotamia Valley and other interior regions. Farmers harvest the rhizomes, which are crushed and washed to extract the fine white starch. Local bakers use arrowroot to make biscuits with a distinctive crumbly texture and a mild flavor. The starch also thickens sauces and puddings. Saint Vincent's arrowroot industry declined sharply in the late twentieth century due to competition from synthetic starches and cassava, but small-scale processing continues. Arrowroot biscuits remain available in shops in Kingstown and other towns, packaged in simple plastic wrapping, and some households still purchase the raw starch for home cooking.
Provision refers to starchy root vegetables and ground tubers that form the carbohydrate base of Vincentian meals. Dasheen, tannia, cassava, yam, eddoe, and sweet potato grow in backyard gardens and on hillside plots across Saint Vincent. Cooks boil or roast provisions and serve them alongside saltfish, fresh fish, or meat stews. The term provision distinguishes these traditional staples from imported rice and wheat flour. Markets in Kingstown sell provisions by the pound, with prices fluctuating based on harvest cycles and hurricane damage to crops. Cassava is also grated, pressed, and baked into flatbread, a technique with both Amerindian and African roots. The bread is dense, slightly sour, and sold in rounds wrapped in cloth or plastic.
Callaloo soup is a green soup made from the leaves of the dasheen plant, known elsewhere as taro. Vincentian cooks strip the leaves from the stems, chop them finely, and boil them with coconut milk, okra, pumpkin, crab or salted meat, garlic, onion, thyme, and pepper. The dasheen leaves contain calcium oxalate crystals that cause itching if eaten raw, so prolonged cooking is necessary. The finished soup has a thick, slightly mucilaginous texture from the okra and dasheen. Callaloo appears on home tables several times a week and is served in local restaurants as a starter or side. The soup is sometimes called Creole soup. Dasheen bushes grow readily in damp soil across Saint Vincent, and the leaves are harvested continuously rather than in a single season.
Saltfish and bakes is a breakfast and street food combination. Saltfish is cod that has been salted and dried, a preservation method dating to colonial trade routes when Newfoundland salt cod was shipped to Caribbean islands to feed enslaved populations. Cooks soak the cod overnight to remove excess salt, then flake and sauté it with onions, tomatoes, sweet peppers, and hot peppers. Bakes are fried dough rounds made from flour, baking powder, salt, and water, mixed to a soft dough, formed into discs, and deep-fried until golden and puffed. The combination is sold from roadside stands and bakeries in Kingstown, Calliaqua, and other towns, wrapped in paper for takeaway. Vendors prepare bakes throughout the morning, and the smell of frying dough is a marker of market areas.
Pelau is a one-pot dish of rice, pigeon peas, meat or chicken, coconut milk, onion, garlic, thyme, pepper, and browning, which is caramelized sugar that gives the dish a dark color. The ingredients are layered in a heavy pot, covered, and cooked slowly until the rice absorbs the liquid and a crust forms at the bottom, which is considered the best part. Pelau is a weekend and celebration dish, prepared for family gatherings, church events, and birthdays. The pigeon peas, also called gungo peas, are grown locally or imported dried from other Caribbean islands. The dish has roots in both African and South Asian cooking traditions brought by enslaved and indentured populations. Indo-Vincentians, descendants of laborers who arrived in the nineteenth century after emancipation, also prepare versions of pelau with slightly different spice profiles.