What's the food like in the markets in Placencia, Belize?
Frik De Meyere
Here in Belize, we don’t have huge supermarkets that a person can expect to be comparable to what they are used to back home in North America just because of the nature of the population and how everything is demographically organized. When we first came to Placencia, there was no supermarket. There was only one little shop and the only thing they were selling was canned foods. That was ten years ago. In the last four years, they built four big,...
Here in Belize, we don’t have huge supermarkets that a person can expect to be comparable to what they are used to back home in North America just because of the nature of the population and how everything is demographically organized. When we first came to Placencia, there was no supermarket. There was only one little shop and the only thing they were selling was canned foods. That was ten years ago. In the last four years, they built four big, brand new supermarkets. The reason is that now there is a population that is buying those products.
It is always a “chicken and egg story” down here because of the population or the demographics. We have a very spread out population across the county, so for anybody to make a big investment in a big supermarket, you have to look for a location that has enough people who will come to buy the products at their supermarket. Also, most of the local people do not have a substantial amount of funds to buy anything from the supermarket. This is why Placencia now has a bigger advantage in putting up markets, compared to other places in the country, because there is a larger concentration of people, a fast growing population, and more people moving in with the ability to buy more expensive items.
Here’s an example of how this works. Last year, here in Placencia, my kids wanted to buy a jar of Nutella for their sandwich, so we had to drive 4 hours to find a place that carried it. Since then, there have been a bunch of kids who went to the supermarket and told the owner to bring in some Nutella to sell. The owner bought a few boxes of Nutella and it is sold out in a day. That’s how new products come to the market here in Belize. The same process happens with everything else: cheese, meat, smoked salmon, etc. Up until three months ago, I never saw smoked salmon in the supermarkets, and now I notice that they started making smoked salmon available every month. Every week, the supermarkets try out bringing in more and more products.
Vegetables, fruits, meat, and fish are now widely available in Placencia. There are about five or six fruit and vegetables stalls here, where they get their products from the farms, and sell them fresh everyday. The same goes for meats. There are a few butchers from the mainland who come in once or twice a week. You can order meat from them. They kill the animal in the morning and in the afternoon, they’ll deliver it to your house.
Posted December 1, 2014
Veronique McKenzie - CTTBeliZe
One thing that I absolutely love in Placencia is the organic vegetables that you can get. We don’t have everything here like in the rest of the world. Most of the vegetables are from San Ignacio (in the Cayo District in Belize) and now they also buy from Mexico. The vegetables here are very nice. I do not generally like chicken but in my 17 years in Belize, I love the chicken because it is delicious. You cannot even compare it to the chicken that you...
One thing that I absolutely love in Placencia is the organic vegetables that you can get. We don’t have everything here like in the rest of the world. Most of the vegetables are from San Ignacio (in the Cayo District in Belize) and now they also buy from Mexico. The vegetables here are very nice. I do not generally like chicken but in my 17 years in Belize, I love the chicken because it is delicious. You cannot even compare it to the chicken that you get in America, Canada, or France. The chicken here is also organic. You feel the muscle and everything. The pork here is very delicious. To me, Belize has the best chicken and the best pork. It is not the same however when it comes to beef.
The fish and the seafood such as the conch is delicious. When you are in Placencia, what you might miss food with fancy spices that make it somewhat extraordinary, but as for me, I like the “slap slap” fish, which is just a boiled fish or nice piece of pig tail. “Slap slap” is a term that they use when you do not overcook the food. You just put it on the pan, sear it, and then turn it to the other side so that the outside is already cooked but the inside is still very soft. It is very good.
Other than Belize City and Placencia, I have lived in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and many other places, and by far, I found that Belize has the best food.
I love them all the grocery stores here in Placencia, but we already have way too many here. The majority are Chinese stores. After that, we have stores owned by the Wallens family, which were the first people who opened a market in Placencia. They were hippies when they came to Belize around 1971.
One of them is a pharmacist. We have a real pharmacy in Placencia because of Ms. Wallens. Ms. Wallens was so intense and determined that she succeeded in growing some tomatoes and vegetables. They also have a hardware store. I love them because they are a part of the history of Placencia Village. That’s how they started. That’s also how the markets in Placencia started. At the time, they were the only ones to sell wine, cream cheese, and other international products. Nowadays, their markets still exist but there are now many other markets and Chinese markets.
After you live in Belize, you will learn to buy a funky looking broom, which might last you only one month but that costs you only $1. You know that it won’t last long and that in one month you are going to buy a brand new one. It is the same with the food and everything else. You get accustomed to that kind of life. We do have everything that we need here in Belize, bukt perhaps not what you are used to.
Belize is a great place in many ways because it is off the beaten path and you are able to get by here in almost any circumstance. We can have another world war but if I am in Belize, I would still be able to catch fish, find red beans, I will eat rice and find my sugar. I might even find some rum and get drunk and forget about the war, but we will survive.
(Pictured: Belize rice and beans.)
Posted June 20, 2015
Larry France - Chabil Mar
There are two markets in Placencia in particular that opened up within the last 5 years that have a very nice inventory of goods. Anything from toiletries, to all your different fruits and drinks; they have it. Sometimes, you won't find the brands that you're looking for, so even though they have nice inventory, it’s not like a giant supermarket-type arrangement. It’s more like a large market but not a supermarket. They won't have a bakery department, but they'll just...There are two markets in Placencia in particular that opened up within the last 5 years that have a very nice inventory of goods. Anything from toiletries, to all your different fruits and drinks; they have it. Sometimes, you won't find the brands that you're looking for, so even though they have nice inventory, it’s not like a giant supermarket-type arrangement. It’s more like a large market but not a supermarket. They won't have a bakery department, but they'll just have aisles and aisles with everything you could need, but just not the variety of what we're used to here in the US and oftentimes not a particular brand that you might be expecting to see.Milk products come in two forms. We have the refrigerated kind, but my preference is to buy the milk that's not refrigerated. Meats are not as available here as they are in the US. Chicken a bit more available. They eat a lot of chicken there; it's pretty much a staple and part of their diet. But it's hard to find decent red meat there.
Fish is usually purchased at the fish cooperative or from the fisherman you meet when they come in with their catch for the day and we just buy fresh from them. They don't usually have fish in the traditional markets. While Placencia Village is traditionally a fishing village, not as many people can make a living out of just fishing any more, but some do. Even the ones who don't make a living out of it will go out fishing and sometimes bring back their fish to a co-op, which is where they can sell their fish to what is sort of a government entity. And then that government entity re-sells it to people who walk in. Most of the restaurants already have their connections with fisherman. The fishermen would come in and call out to the restaurants, "This is what I have for you tonight."
Vegetables and fruits are mostly sold on roadside stands. The most surprising thing to a lot of Americans when they go down to Placencia is the eggs are not refrigerated. They're stacked up on the shelf and you buy the eggs by the quantity of eggs you want. They're not packaged or sitting there in bulk; you just buy as many as you want. Those are the general differences. In general, they have everything that you can possibly need. It's the whole downsizing mentality, too, you just get used to living with fewer options.
Anything that comes out of the sea would be fresh for you to purchase. Lobsters are a huge staple down there except in the winter. Our lobster season closes in February and re-opens in June, by order of the government. Lobsters are very prevalent down there. Meats are not that easy to get and the fruits and vegetables tend to be on the truck for a long drive. It is difficult to find vegetables that do not have a rotten spot on it. The challenge to get good quality fruits and vegetables was more than I was expecting since they do grow so many fruits in the country. But they ship most of it out, so in the village it's more of a challenge to find the good stuff.
(Pictured: man gathering bananas for sale in Belize.)
Posted August 10, 2015
Wayne Robbins - The Placencia
The supermarkets in Placencia are very similar to the supermarkets that you are used to in North America. They are not AMPs or Food Towns but they are good-sized supermarkets and they generally have most of the things that one is used to such as soda, steak, chicken, seafood, etc. The seafood in the supermarkets of Placencia is very good but they also have their own seafood market that you can go to daily. In general, supermarkets in Placencia are very good. The...
The supermarkets in Placencia are very similar to the supermarkets that you are used to in North America. They are not AMPs or Food Towns but they are good-sized supermarkets and they generally have most of the things that one is used to such as soda, steak, chicken, seafood, etc. The seafood in the supermarkets of Placencia is very good but they also have their own seafood market that you can go to daily. In general, supermarkets in Placencia are very good. The restaurants are even better. We have three restaurants in our project right now, with several more coming. There are multiple restaurants in the village of Placencia. These restaurants have different ethnicities from Italian, Chinese, Indian, Continental, Mediterranean, to Belizean, etc. Pizza is also very good in Belize. It is a lot better than the pizza in Florida, where I stay occasionally, so I am very happy about that.
Overall, the food in Placencia is excellent. The portions are good and their prices are very reasonable. The beauty of Placencia is that you eat most of your meals right on the ocean. Whether you are eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner or just having a cocktail, I don’t think the view or the ambiance gets any better than that!
(Feast at The Placencia Residents and Resort, Placencia, Belize, pictured.)
Posted January 26, 2016