The following highlights some of the popular Traditional Ascension Island Foods. If you manage to be in an Ascension Island restaurant or you are visiting Ascension Island, I recommend the following:
1. Crab Soup
This soup consists of ingredients such as: crab as the main ingredient, coconut milk, wheat flour that helps to thicken the soup during cooking and at the same time with the wheat flour we can make a kind of tortillas known as dumplings. It also contains a wide variety of vegetables such as onion, paprika, celery, which help us to generate an even more delicious flavor when making this dish.
2. Fried Crabs with Butter Sauce Steamed
Crab meat is delicious on its own, but is especially tasty when served with melted or clarified butter. A few slices of lemon to really balance out those rich crab flavors. Once you’ve enjoyed some crab legs dipped in a little garlic butter (or added to your low boil), you may never go back!
3. Bread 'n' Dance
They are sandwiches with tomato paste, so called because they are always served at a dance, or at a social event. It sounds rather peculiar that a tomato paste is closely related to dancing and here are the stories of how it supposedly happened. A custom at saints’ weddings is the couple’s first dance around “the table”.
4. Coconut Fingers
Coconut fingers are a traditional celebration cake. They are usually frosted in pink and are a sponge cake covered in coconut. Every family has their own family recipe or their own way of making them. The general method is to dip the whole cake in the coloured icing before rolling it in the coconut.
5. Pilau
It is a traditional rice with vegetables, mutton or beef, chicken or sometimes fish, and spicy seasoning. There are stories that pilau rice was served to Alexander the Great in his conquest of the capital of Sogdian, and later his army brought it back to Macedonia where it was dispersed throughout Eastern Europe.
6. Tungi
It is a cactus pear liqueur. It is simply heavenly to drink, to add to coffee or pour into a cake. It underlines the flavour of coffee and cakes.
7. Boiled Pudding
It consists of a steamed sponge cake with golden syrup cooked on top of it, sometimes also poured over it and often served with hot custard.
8. Black Pudding
It is usually made from pig’s blood and a relatively high proportion of oatmeal. It can be eaten cold, as it is cooked in production, but is often grilled, fried or boiled in its skin.
If you found this list useful, here are some more Traditional African Foods to try out on my Pinterest channel.