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 boiled fish or saltfish, 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, and forms part of the dish widely described as the national dish of both territories.

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 dough, 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

Five more to recognise across the US Virgin Islands:

• Callaloo — a thick stew of callaloo leaves (often replaced by

spinach), okra and various meats, common across the wider Caribbean.

• Johnnycake — a fried dough, a popular snack and side.
• Paté — fried dough filled with beef, chicken, conch or saltfish, a

popular snack similar to an empanada.

• Saltfish — salted, preserved cod, a colonial-era staple still

eaten today.

• Conch — a large sea snail from local waters, prepared as fritters,

salad and in other forms.

Drinks

Rum, distilled and widely enjoyed across the islands, and fresh tropical fruit juices are common everyday drinks. Maubi, a drink made from tree bark and sugar and traditionally fermented, is a popular cold drink, alongside sorrel, soursop and passion fruit.

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, though much of it is desalinated or collected in cisterns and many people drink filtered or bottled water. Visiting Market Square in Charlotte Amalie, where local farmers still gather at times to sell produce, 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.