Bermuda: Food and the National Dish

A small island shaped by the sea and the British table

Bermuda's food sits at a crossroads of British colonial cooking, American influence from the nearby East Coast, and a Caribbean and West Indian inheritance carried over by early settlers. Fish and other seafood, drawn from the reefs and deep water surrounding the island, sit at the centre of most of what is considered distinctly Bermudian, alongside a handful of dishes tied so closely to specific days of the year that they are almost appointments rather than recipes.

The national dish: Bermuda fish chowder

Bermuda fish chowder is the dish most closely identified with the island: a rich, tomato-based soup built on local fish stock, vegetables and seasoning, traditionally finished tableside with a splash of dark Bermudian rum and a few drops of sherry peppers sauce, a local hot condiment. The combination of rum and pepper sauce stirred in at the last moment is treated as essential rather than optional — a chowder without them is considered incomplete.

Dishes tied to a day of the year

Bermudian food is unusually calendar-bound. Good Friday means fish cakes — salt cod fritters — served inside a hot cross bun rather than on their own, a specific pairing found almost nowhere else. Sunday mornings traditionally call for a codfish breakfast: boiled salt cod and potatoes served with bananas, avocado and a tomato-onion sauce. And Christmas belongs to cassava pie, a savoury pie of grated cassava root layered with seasoned chicken or pork and egg, baked until firm and traditionally cut into squares.

Dishes to know

Five more to recognise in Bermuda:

• Fish cakes on a hot cross bun — salt cod fritters served inside a bun,

specifically a Good Friday tradition.

• Codfish and potatoes — boiled salt cod with potatoes, banana, avocado and

a tomato sauce, a classic Sunday breakfast.

• Cassava pie — grated cassava layered with meat and egg, baked for

Christmas.

• Hoppin' John — rice cooked with black-eyed peas, eaten for New Year, a

tradition shared with the American South.

• Bermuda spiny lobster — a local delicacy in season from September to

March, when it can legally be caught and served.

Rum and a trademarked cocktail

Rum swizzle, a sweeter mix of dark and gold rum with fruit juices, is the other signature Bermudian drink, associated above all with the Swizzle Inn, whose motto — "Swizzle Inn, Swagger Out" — is a well-known local joke about the drink's strength.

Eating as a traveller

Seafood, especially the chowder and in-season spiny lobster, is the highlight and reliably fresh. Vegetarians will find the island's calendar dishes challenging, since most are built around fish or meat, though standard international vegetarian options are available in restaurants aimed at visitors. Tap water is generally safe, much of it collected as rainwater from distinctive white stepped roofs built for exactly that purpose. Bermuda is an expensive place to eat by almost any standard, reflecting its cost of living generally.

What to take from the table

A proper bowl of Bermuda fish chowder, rum and sherry peppers stirred in at the table, is the one dish every visitor should have — and if you happen to be there on the right day, Good Friday's fish cake on a hot cross bun is worth timing a trip around.