ISLELANDER TRAVEL-WWW.ISLELANDER.COM 2009

Dinning in St. Lucia St. Lucia's cooking is West Indian, hearty and filling, and heavy on the Creole. Spicy roasted or fried chicken, beef (not usually very tender), fish, crayfish or land crabs are accompanied by cooked breadfruit and other squashlike vegetables such as dasheen and christophene. Curry goat is a tasty variation of beef stew, and rotis—Caribbean burritos of East Indian origin—are a soft tortilla-type crepe filled with curried chicken, beef or goat and local vegetables. Dals are similar to rotis, but they're wrapped in dough and deep fried or baked. Dals usually contain a mixture of curried lentils, local vegetables and saltfish.

The national dish is green fig (a boiled, unripe banana) and saltfish. Make it a point to try banana cake, pumpkin souffle, callaloo soup (similar to spinach soup, made with leaves from the dasheen, or taro, root), lambi (conch), lobster Creole, spiny lobster or any other seafood or fish dish (kingfish, dolphin fish, dorado, flying fish and lobster are all caught locally). And always ask for the local juice of the day (such as tamarind, guava, passion fruit, mango and grapefruit). Heineken beer is brewed on the island. Piton, a local beer, is made in the same brewery as Piton Shandys, which is a blend of beer and fruit juice in a lighter, less-alcoholic drink. Bounty is the local rum, distilled near Roseau in the Cul-de-Sac Valley southeast of Castries.

Except for the larger hotels and better restaurants, St. Lucia's restaurants are informal (T-shirts and shorts are often worn at dinner). General dining times are 7-9 am for breakfast and 11 am-2 pm for lunch. Dinner is often served at dusk. Restaurants located in hotels and tourist areas occasionally stay open later, but don't expect to dine past 9 pm.

Expect to pay within these guidelines for a meal for one, not including drinks, tax or tip: $ = less than US$10; $$ = US$10-$20; $$$ = US$21-$50; $$$$ = more than US$50. Remember that the cafes may not accept credit cards.

Make you next vacation a memorable one. Vacationers book with Islelander. www.islelander.com