The following highlights some of the popular Traditional Aruban Foods. If you manage to be in an Aruban restaurant or you are visiting Aruba, I recommend the following:
1. Siboyo Tempera
Made with pickled chopped onions and peppers, this versatile sauce combines spiciness and sweetness for everything from breakfast to a late-night snack. The beauty of this dish is that the onions are soaked in water, which reduces their spiciness, while the pepper strips add heat.
2. Keri Keri
Drier types of firm, white-fleshed fish, such as barracuda or shark, are ideal for preparing one of Aruba’s most popular seafood dishes, keri-keri. The fish fillet is boiled in salted water, removed and flaked, then sautéed in butter with tomato, onion, celery, pepper, fresh basil, black pepper and annato spices to create a tasty and satisfying meal.
3. Bitterballen
Dutch and Belgian ‘bitter balls’ are traditional minced meatballs. Creamy soft on the inside and crispy on the outside thanks to the dough. The croquettes were served warm, crispy and tasty, with a little mayonnaise-type sauce. Mustard or curry sauces also go well with them. This is a very popular snack.
4. Dutch Pancakes
Dutch pancakes are slimmer and larger than American pancakes. Sweet and savoury pancakes are served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sweet Dutch pancakes include apple, ginger, banana, pineapple and chocolate ice cream. The delicious pancakes can be served with bacon, salami, ham, cheese, mushrooms and onions. Typical Dutch poffertjes are traditionally served with butter and icing sugar and are ordered by the dozen. They can be eaten as a meal or as a snack.
5. Funchi
Funchi is Funchi’s own version of polenta, a thick corn porridge that is traditionally served as an accompaniment to rich stews and fish dishes. Funchi porridge can also be chilled, cut into flat slices and fried to a light golden brown colour as a crispy variation.
6. Keshi Yena
Keshi Yena means stuffed cheese. It is a traditional dish made since the 17th and 18th centuries by slaves in this former Dutch colony. It is made with the rind of Gouda or Edam cheese as a base, and the inside is filled with red meat, chicken or seafood and seasoned with spices. Finally, it is baked in the oven to heat and gratinate.
7. Kesio
Kesio (or quesillo) is Aruba’s version of flan or caramelised custard, made with eggs, condensed milk and caramelised sugar. It’s rich and incredibly smooth and caramelly, the perfect sweet ending to any meal.
8. Kroket
A croquette is a small fried, breaded roll, usually based on ground meat (beef, veal, chicken or turkey) or other toppings. After World War II, several suppliers started mass-producing veal-filled croquettes in the Netherlands. Croquettes (croket or kroketten in Dutch) have become more popular as quick snacks; breaded meat sauce that is then baked.
9. Pastechi
At first glance it looks like a pastry as it is commonly known in different countries, but it is actually the same thing, except that pastechi is made with a sweet dough. They are delicious sweet breads stuffed with various meats: beef, fish or prawns. Pastechi is one of the most popular foods in Aruba when celebrating important occasions or when having a fun picnic.
10. Pan Bati
This is a must-have side dish on Aruban tables. It is a sweeter and fluffier type of flour bread that is cooked like a pancake. It is ideal for eating with soups and stews. It can also be eaten with warm butter.
If you found this list useful, here are some more Traditional Caribbean Foods to try out on my Pinterest channel.