What’s the food like in the markets in Belize?
Therese Jonch - Programme for Belize
You will be able to find a lot of fruits and vegetables in the markets in Belize. You can spend Belizean $1 dollar (US 50 cents) and buy eight big bananas, which are freshly picked. (Banana sorting, pictured.) You can walk around the market eating the bananas. Everything is just fresh here. You can get oranges, limes, pineapples, etc.There are also places in the market where you can get local meat. Everything in the markets of Belize is fresh, not processed food. There...
You will be able to find a lot of fruits and vegetables in the markets in Belize. You can spend Belizean $1 dollar (US 50 cents) and buy eight big bananas, which are freshly picked. (Banana sorting, pictured.) You can walk around the market eating the bananas. Everything is just fresh here. You can get oranges, limes, pineapples, etc.There are also places in the market where you can get local meat. Everything in the markets of Belize is fresh, not processed food. There are places, especially in the Cayo district, where you will find freshly picked produce because the produce comes from just around the corner.
The markets here in Belize are not like the supermarkets that you are used to in the US. The markets here are open-air markets with just wooden stalls and boxes and tarps that serve as a roof. Others are more organized, wherein they have shelves and they have everything custom made for their stall. These markets are basically comprised of outdoor vendors.
We also have supermarkets where you can get vegetables, fruits and imported items like Doritos, Miller beer, etc., but shopping there is more expensive than in the open-air markets. Everyone that comes from the US knows that. Our import duties are a bit high, so buying Doritos in a supermarket here in Belize is going to cost more than buying it in the US.
Posted January 25, 2015
Belize Bobbi - Belize Paradise Tours
The food in the markets in Belize is awesome! Fresh fruits, veggies and meats daily. If you live in a country such as the U.S., you are probably used to seeing green bananas and other unripe fruits and vegetables in the grocery stores. There's no telling how long ago it was picked to be shipped to the store or how green it was when picked.
When you shop at the markets in Belize, everything is fresh. Depending on the part...
The food in the markets in Belize is awesome! Fresh fruits, veggies and meats daily. If you live in a country such as the U.S., you are probably used to seeing green bananas and other unripe fruits and vegetables in the grocery stores. There's no telling how long ago it was picked to be shipped to the store or how green it was when picked.
When you shop at the markets in Belize, everything is fresh. Depending on the part of the country you are in, you can get bananas for as little as 10 for $1.00 Belize (50 cents U.S.) There are also some foods that are only found in Central America, so there are some wonderful new foods for you to try! In this picture and the one at the end, you can see some of the fruits and vegetables available daily in Belize.
Many of the markets also sell meats and seafood daily. Often times when visiting the markets we see people waiting in line for fresh seafood just brought in from the ocean! This picture shows some locals doing just that.
Posted January 26, 2015
Kristin Lamoureux - Blue Tang Inn
I love shopping at the FRESH markets in Belize. In every city, there is a market day where the community gathers to shop. Here are photos of the Punta Gorda Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Tourists enjoy coming to market to be part of the Belize culture, see and smell the local foods and watch the people.
The Mayan farmers will bring in many fresh vegetables, grains and spices. The root vegetables are always interesting...
I love shopping at the FRESH markets in Belize. In every city, there is a market day where the community gathers to shop. Here are photos of the Punta Gorda Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Tourists enjoy coming to market to be part of the Belize culture, see and smell the local foods and watch the people.
The Mayan farmers will bring in many fresh vegetables, grains and spices. The root vegetables are always interesting and different than what you see in North America.
Posted February 3, 2015
Macarena Rose - Rainforerst Realty
Holy cow! The food in Belize is bar none amazing.
When I first came to Belize over 12 years ago, a friend of mine who was traveling with me was vegetarian. Everybody kept saying in St. Petersburg, Florida (where I am from), that my friend would be hungry and that she wouldn't be able to eat anything. But my friend said that she had never ever eaten vegetarian food that was so good.
The market is open...
The market is open...
Holy cow! The food in Belize is bar none amazing.
When I first came to Belize over 12 years ago, a friend of mine who was traveling with me was vegetarian. Everybody kept saying in St. Petersburg, Florida (where I am from), that my friend would be hungry and that she wouldn't be able to eat anything. But my friend said that she had never ever eaten vegetarian food that was so good.
The market is open seven days a week. You can get fresh fruits and vegetables daily, especially if you are inland. If you eat the salads with the vegetables and fruits from the Belizean market, and then you go to North America and you want to eat a salad there, you will be able to tell the difference immediately. It is bar none amazing how much better food tastes when it is fresh- picked, brought to you locally, and was actually picked when it was ripe, as opposed to being gassed, dyed and colored- treated to make it look different than it is, etc.
My best analogy is when we first moved here to Belize, I gave my daughter a pineapple, and she said, “Mom! This pineapple tastes so much better than what we ge
The market is open seven days a week. You can get fresh fruits and vegetables daily, especially if you are inland. If you eat the salads with the vegetables and fruits from the Belizean market, and then you go to North America and you want to eat a salad there, you will be able to tell the difference immediately. It is bar none amazing how much better food tastes when it is fresh- picked, brought to you locally, and was actually picked when it was ripe, as opposed to being gassed, dyed and colored- treated to make it look different than it is, etc.
My best analogy is when we first moved here to Belize, I gave my daughter a pineapple, and she said, “Mom! This pineapple tastes so much better than what we ge
t in Florida.”
I told her,"That is what it tastes like when you eat it fresh, as opposed to having it delivered thousands of miles to a store before it gets to your table."
Certain brands, however, may be difficult to find in Belize, which may make a difference to you, especially when you first come here. When we first moved to here, my daughter liked Dr. Pepper. But Belize is a Coke country. She was very disappointed: “Oh… there’s no Dr. Pepper.”
Certain brands, however, may be difficult to find in Belize, which may make a difference to you, especially when you first come here. When we first moved to here, my daughter liked Dr. Pepper. But Belize is a Coke country. She was very disappointed: “Oh… there’s no Dr. Pepper.”
Well, I found Dr. Pepper one day. I bought a six-pack, which made me a hero during that six-pack period time. But I never found Dr. Pepper again. What happened with my daughter, however, was that she shifted her taste to like fresh juices instead. You cannot compare the fresh juices from anywhere else in North America to here in Belize, because of how fresh they are and the actual taste of them; you can taste the healthiness of them.
If you are a beef-eater, you may not be so happy with the beef in Belize, other than the ground sirloin. A lot of our beef is from Brahman cattle, because they are heat and tick resistant, and there is not any marbling in that meat. A lot of places do not age th
If you are a beef-eater, you may not be so happy with the beef in Belize, other than the ground sirloin. A lot of our beef is from Brahman cattle, because they are heat and tick resistant, and there is not any marbling in that meat. A lot of places do not age th
eir meat, either. It is hard to get a good cut of beef. However, I have a friend that has a the butcher shop that actually does a combination, which we call Brangus – Brahman with Angus beef. And it actually is much better. And he does age the meat. So you can find it. Once you live here in Belize, you get to know these things.
If you are a pork eater, you are going to absolutely love the pork in Belize. The bacon is actually meat. It’s not white, fat, and curly. It is actually meat. It is phenomenal. The pork chops are just… you would never want to be a vegetarian, but if you are, there’s lot of good fruits and vegetables. However, the pork is amazing.
If you are a pork eater, you are going to absolutely love the pork in Belize. The bacon is actually meat. It’s not white, fat, and curly. It is actually meat. It is phenomenal. The pork chops are just… you would never want to be a vegetarian, but if you are, there’s lot of good fruits and vegetables. However, the pork is amazing.
I have a friend who is a vegetarian, and she says, “I am a vegetarian, except for the pork in Belize.”
If you like seafood, that is a whole other story. We have a dish called ceviche, which is fresh caught seafood with lime and cilantro, and salt and pepper. Almost every restaurant in Belize has some form of ceviche. Because we are on the Caribbean Sea, we get all this beautiful lobster very inexpensively. We have fish and we also have a lot of conch here. People love the conch because it is very fresh.
You won’t go hungry in Belize. The food here is not processed food. It is not something that comes out of a box. You actually go to the market and you pick your fruits and vegetables, and you go to the butchers to get your meat, or you can go to a grocery store and you can get your meats there, too. Most people here in Belize do not buy instant or just add water meals. They are actually buying our local food, which makes sense. It is much cheaper than the processed foods because processed foods are imported, so there is more cost needed to deliver them. People in Belize eat healthier. We have organic chocolates and organic coffee. I just got a pound of organic coffee recently and it was just amazing. The coffee beans to me, tastes different in comparison to coffee beans that I get in the US.
If you like seafood, that is a whole other story. We have a dish called ceviche, which is fresh caught seafood with lime and cilantro, and salt and pepper. Almost every restaurant in Belize has some form of ceviche. Because we are on the Caribbean Sea, we get all this beautiful lobster very inexpensively. We have fish and we also have a lot of conch here. People love the conch because it is very fresh.
You won’t go hungry in Belize. The food here is not processed food. It is not something that comes out of a box. You actually go to the market and you pick your fruits and vegetables, and you go to the butchers to get your meat, or you can go to a grocery store and you can get your meats there, too. Most people here in Belize do not buy instant or just add water meals. They are actually buying our local food, which makes sense. It is much cheaper than the processed foods because processed foods are imported, so there is more cost needed to deliver them. People in Belize eat healthier. We have organic chocolates and organic coffee. I just got a pound of organic coffee recently and it was just amazing. The coffee beans to me, tastes different in comparison to coffee beans that I get in the US. (Guanabana or soursop fruit, pictured.)
Posted February 11, 2015
Irma Quiroz-Yuque - Belize Vacation Homes
In Belize, you have all organic fruits and vegetables.We can find almost everything that we need. You do have to change your recipes a little bit here based on being at sea level and other things such as humidity.
There is a lot of poultry here. There’s a huge Mennonite community and they’re the ones that supply the eggs, the chickens, and the cheese to the Belizeans. You can also go to the farmer’s market, where you can buy most of...
In Belize, you have all organic fruits and vegetables.We can find almost everything that we need. You do have to change your recipes a little bit here based on being at sea level and other things such as humidity.
There is a lot of poultry here. There’s a huge Mennonite community and they’re the ones that supply the eggs, the chickens, and the cheese to the Belizeans. You can also go to the farmer’s market, where you can buy most of your items.
We do have our meat available for purchase from local butchers. The beef I’m not going to say is like in the States. You can find beef like in the US, but mainly in the Cayo area (which is the western part of Belize) and you’ll pay a higher price for that. There’s a huge farm there, and I think they brought the cattle in from Texas, so you can get good beef from them.
Mainly we do chicken, as opposed to beef. We have a lot of seafood because there’s a lot of fishing villages here throughout Belize. You can get lobster for relatively low price of maybe BZ $20 (US $10) for one big nice lobster. You can get shrimp, and a lot of seafood.
In Belize, we don’t have the big supermarket chains like Albertson’s, Ralph’s, etc., that we have in California. We have Mom and Pop’s stores here. A lot of them are owned by the Chinese because Taiwan is the sister city of Belize and so there are a lot of Chinese that are here.
Everything’s fresh—no pesticides that I know of. It’s totally different. Your body gets adjusted to eating completely different from the States and to here in Belize. We don’t eat a lot of canned foods.
For items such as canned goods and items like soaps, we pay probably the same price as in the States. The produce is a lot less than in Belize than in the States. For example, I can buy a watermelon at BZ $2 (US $1). I can buy a pumpkin for BZ $1 (US 50 cents). We buy beautiful potatoes here. I can get 6 potatoes for BZ $1 (US 50 cents). So it’s very inexpensive. You can eat very well here. If you were to get the natural organic, brown eggs in the States, it would cost you like maybe $6 for a dozen. We get those here in Belize, because they’re of course they’re from chickens direct, from the Mennonite community for BZ $6 (US $3) for a carton of 20 eggs.
In the States, we would spend about $200 a week for two people for food, and here in Belize we spend maybe $200 for the entire month.
(Huge fish caught from the Uprising Fishing tour boat off the waters of San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize,pictured.)
Posted October 28, 2015