Saint Helena: Food and the National Dish

A remote island with fish, coffee and little else grown at scale

Saint Helena, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, has no single codified national dish. What genuinely defines Saint Helena's food is its reliance on the ocean around it and one small but internationally recognised export crop.

Fishcakes and the island's tuna

Fishcakes, made from local tuna, are widely considered the island's most emblematic everyday dish, a reflection of Saint Helena's genuine fishing economy in waters far from any other landmass. Fresh tuna, caught locally, appears across the island's home cooking in various forms, alongside a range of imported staples that supplement what the island's small farms and fishing boats can provide.

Dishes to know

What is actually eaten on Saint Helena:

• Fishcakes — made from local tuna, the island's most widely

recognised everyday dish.

• Fresh tuna — caught locally and a genuine daily staple.
• Saint Helena coffee — grown from Green Tipped Bourbon plants

descended from beans brought to the island in 1733, among the rarest and most expensive coffees in the world.

• Imported staples — rice, flour and tinned goods, supplementing what

the island grows and catches itself.

Drinks

Saint Helena coffee, grown on small farms including Rosemary Plain, is the island's most distinctive drink and a genuine point of international recognition despite the island's tiny production volume. Tank rum, distilled locally, and imported tea and soft drinks round out the island's everyday drinks.

Eating as a traveller

Saint Helena receives very few visitors given its remoteness, and dining options in Jamestown are limited but genuine, often family-run. Tap water is generally safe to drink. Trying a fishcake and a cup of Saint Helena coffee in Jamestown is a genuine, low-key way to taste what the island actually produces itself.

What to take from the table

Saint Helena's food story is shaped almost entirely by its isolation: tuna from the surrounding ocean and one of the world's rarest coffees from a handful of small hillside farms, rather than any single signature dish.