FOOD & DRINK
Eating Out
The majority of restaurants in Martinique serve either Creole or French cuisine with local seafood being very high up on most menus. Typical seafood includes red snapper, kingfish, sunfish, soudons (small clams), lambi (conch), oursin (sea urchin) and langouste (clawless lobster).
Colombo which is a popular Creole style curry also appears on a lot of menus.
Generally only the large hotels and restaurants have menus in English, so it is worthwhile taking a phrase book if you are not confident with the language. To help you along, we’ve translated a few items that you may find on a menu:
Boudin: Black Pudding Sausage
Accras: Small battered cod cakes
Banane Jaune: Banana vegetable
Crabes Farcis: Stuffed crab
Chatrous: Octopus dish
Colombo: Creole style curry
Ecrevisses: Crayfish
Ignames: Yam vegetable
Lambis: Conch
Langoustes: Clawless lobster
Marlin: Swordfis
Orsins: Sea urchin
Poisson Tahitian: Raw tuna cooked in lime with tomatoes salsa
Soudons: Small clams
Drinking
As in France, water is safe to drink from the tap, and restaurants will happily serve this at no extra charge (l'eau du robinet).
Fresh fruit juices are also very popular on the island along with jus de canne which is a delicious sugar cane drink which is often sold in vans in lay-bys off the main roads. This juice does not stay fresh for long, so ask for it to be made fresh while you wait and drink it as quickly as possible with some ice cubes and a squeeze of lime.
Martinique is famous for its world class rums and the island today still hosts a large number of distilleries inviting tourist to explore its history. Please see the rum page to view a guide to the local distilleries.
Although rum is far more popular, the local beer in Martinique is Bière Lorraine.
Eating Out
The majority of restaurants in Martinique serve either Creole or French cuisine with local seafood being very high up on most menus. Typical seafood includes red snapper, kingfish, sunfish, soudons (small clams), lambi (conch), oursin (sea urchin) and langouste (clawless lobster).
Colombo which is a popular Creole style curry also appears on a lot of menus.
Generally only the large hotels and restaurants have menus in English, so it is worthwhile taking a phrase book if you are not confident with the language. To help you along, we’ve translated a few items that you may find on a menu:
Boudin: Black Pudding Sausage
Accras: Small battered cod cakes
Banane Jaune: Banana vegetable
Crabes Farcis: Stuffed crab
Chatrous: Octopus dish
Colombo: Creole style curry
Ecrevisses: Crayfish
Ignames: Yam vegetable
Lambis: Conch
Langoustes: Clawless lobster
Marlin: Swordfis
Orsins: Sea urchin
Poisson Tahitian: Raw tuna cooked in lime with tomatoes salsa
Soudons: Small clams
Drinking
As in France, water is safe to drink from the tap, and restaurants will happily serve this at no extra charge (l'eau du robinet).
Fresh fruit juices are also very popular on the island along with jus de canne which is a delicious sugar cane drink which is often sold in vans in lay-bys off the main roads. This juice does not stay fresh for long, so ask for it to be made fresh while you wait and drink it as quickly as possible with some ice cubes and a squeeze of lime.
Martinique is famous for its world class rums and the island today still hosts a large number of distilleries inviting tourist to explore its history. Please see the rum page to view a guide to the local distilleries.
Although rum is far more popular, the local beer in Martinique is Bière Lorraine.
