Aruba and Curacao

[gagit]

Spending a few nights in both of these Islands, any local choices that would attract Bourdain?

[JasonZ]

Spending a few nights in both of these Islands, any local choices that would attract Bourdain?

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Well, a year later, and a slightly different request.

SO and I will be going to Curacao, staying at a resort for 9 days. At least one meal should be an authentic Rijsttafel, but after that I'd like to sample local ingredients and culinary styles, rather than the standard Italian, French, American fare.

Any suggestions on either:

specific dishes to order; and/or

specific restaurants to go to

We're leaving early August and I've already read one guide book, but it had more info on shopping and diving than on diving ...

Regards,

JasonZ

(edited to correct spelling of "Rijsttafel.".)

Edited July 15, 2009 by JasonZ (log)

[markemorse]

hey jasonz,

I've never been to curacao, but almost went, and did some research at some point...

some local things i had my eye on were jambo (or giambo, sort of a light gumbo), sopa di yuana (iguana soup), and keshi yená (some sort of Gouda wheel stuffed with spicy chicken). i'd also look for bakiyou (bacalau) and scabechi (escabeche), probably on sandwiches or with rice.

here in amsterdam there's an interesting habit of taking food from the former colonies (indonesia, suriname) and putting it on crisp baguettes for sandwiches (broodjes). i'd be interested to see if this tendency has extended to curacao as well.

if i were you, i'd definitely try to find some surinamese food, it's an interesting mix of chinese, indian, indonesian, and creole cooking. it's not normally a table service kind of deal, you order at a counter and grab a table....i would try to find a lamb roti, a broodje pom (a sandwich filled with a malanga-chicken casserole, great), and bloedworst (blood sausage).

there's so little good information out there, it'd be great if you could document your eating a bit....

[lambretta76]

I'm looking for the same info; there's some good avice over on TripAdvisor.com.

For the Rijsttafel question, I found this and believe it's a branch of a location in Amsterdam. I believe it was around US$25 for 21 dishes.

http://www.tempodoeloe.an/en/restaurant.phphttp://www.tempodoeloe.an/en/restaurant.php

Let us know if you find anything interesting; I'll do the same.