US Virgin Islands: Food and the National Dish

A cuisine shared across a genuinely divided archipelago

The US Virgin Islands, purchased from Denmark in 1917, share a food culture closely tied to the neighbouring British Virgin Islands and the wider Caribbean, a reminder that the region's cooking traditions were shaped by geography and community long before modern political borders were drawn across the same waters.

The signature dish: fungi and fish

Fungi, a stiff cornmeal and okra dish similar to polenta, served alongside stewed or fried fish, is the US Virgin Islands' most widely recognised signature dish. Genuinely shared with the neighbouring British Virgin Islands under the same name, fungi reflects a broader Caribbean cornmeal-cooking tradition found under different names across many islands in the region, adapted locally with the addition of okra.

Cornmeal, fish and a genuinely shared Caribbean pantry

Cornmeal, okra and fresh fish anchor much of everyday cooking across the US Virgin Islands, alongside plantain, callaloo and a range of tropical produce. Johnnycake, a fried or baked cornmeal bread, and saltfish, salted preserved cod introduced through colonial-era trade, round out a pantry closely shared with the wider English-speaking Caribbean.

History behind the dish

The US Virgin Islands passed from Danish to American control in 1917, but the islands' food culture developed independently of that colonial transfer, shaped instead by the same African, European and Indigenous Caribbean influences found across the wider Lesser Antilles. Fungi's cornmeal base reflects that shared regional history directly, a dish genuinely common to the whole area rather than specific to the islands' particular colonial administration.

Dishes to know

Four more to recognise across the US Virgin Islands:

• Callaloo — a leafy green stew, often with crab or saltfish, common

across the wider Caribbean.

• Johnnycake — a fried or baked cornmeal bread, a common side dish.
• Saltfish — salted, preserved cod, a colonial-era staple still

eaten today.

• Conch — prepared in various forms given the surrounding reef

waters.

Drinks

Rum, distilled and widely enjoyed across the islands, and fresh tropical fruit juices are common everyday drinks. Maubi, a fermented drink made from tree bark, is a genuine traditional Caribbean beverage found across the islands.

Eating as a traveller

Vegetarians will find cornmeal, callaloo and vegetable-based dishes manageable, though fish is central to the islands' signature dish. Tap water is generally safe to drink on the main islands. Visiting Market Square in Charlotte Amalie on a Saturday, still used as a produce market, offers a genuine link to the islands' food history.

What to take from the table

Fungi and fish, shared closely with the neighbouring British Virgin Islands, shows that the US Virgin Islands' food story is really about a Caribbean cooking tradition that predates, and outlasts, the region's shifting colonial borders.