Traditional Martinique Food: Our Favourite Creole Dishes

When you call yourselves Voyageurs Gourmands (food-loving travellers!), you obviously try everything! And in Martinique, let’s just say we were spoilt for choice… Accras with our aperitif, boucané chicken bought at the roadside, freshly caught grilled fish, a Creole lunch on a tiny islet and even a peanut sorbet eaten on the beach: it was a very, very tasty trip!

Martinique food is a joyful mix of Amerindian, African, European and Indian influences. Fish in every shape and form, spices, fruit we had never even heard of… and rum, of course!

New to Caribbean food? Here are the traditional Martinique dishes you have to try, our favourites (spoiler: the chatrou fricassee!) and the best places to eat them. Come on, let’s dig in!

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Martinique food at a glance

Savoury Martinique food: our favourite dishes

Salt cod accras

Nothing like the codfish cakes we know so well back home in Portugal… These ones are made with a batter of flour and water. They’re puffier and lighter than their Portuguese cousins, and they’re served as a starter or with drinks.

Féroce d’avocat

Avocado, salt cod and cassava flour, all mashed together and seasoned… and you’ve got a delicious starter! By the way, don’t miss the avocados in Martinique. I didn’t like them before, but after tasting these… I changed my mind!

Boucané chicken

OK, I’ll admit it’s not the prettiest dish to look at… But once you’ve tasted it… it’s a real treat! The chicken is grilled, but the secret is that sugar cane is mixed in with the charcoal, which gives it a lovely smoky flavour… Here it was served with yams! It’s a street food staple: we regularly saw small vendors selling it, even at the roadside!

Chatrou fricassee (octopus)

Chatrou is actually octopus! It’s the Creole name for the small octopus caught around the island. Cut into small pieces, it’s boiled and then simmered “en fricassée” in a sauce with spices: onions, chives, garlic, tomato, thyme, bois d’Inde (West Indian bay leaf) and a hint of chilli. It’s usually served with rice and red beans. It’s one of the dishes I ate the most! Well cooked, it’s tender and not rubbery at all… If you only try one seafood speciality in Martinique, make it this one.

Lambi (conch) fricassee

Lambi is the big pink conch shell you see all over the Caribbean… and above all the mollusc that lives inside it! The meat is tenderised, chopped and seasoned to make a fricassee. You’ll also find it on skewers or in black pudding. Apparently the taste is quite strong; we didn’t try it.

Grilled fish

Fish from the day’s catch grilled on the barbecue, here red mullet, with a delicious Creole sauce, rice, plantain and yam. You can’t get any fresher!

Fish court-bouillon

During our day exploring Josephine’s Bath and the nearby islets, we also enjoyed a typical Creole lunch. We had a tuna court-bouillon and it was simply exquisite: tender and full of flavour… A real treat! It’s nothing like a French court-bouillon: here, the fish (tuna, snapper…) simmers in a tomato sauce spiced with onions, garlic, chilli and annatto, which gives it its lovely colour. It’s served with white rice.

Colombo

You can’t talk about Martinique food without mentioning colombo! It’s both a spice blend (turmeric, coriander, cumin, fenugreek…) and the stew named after it, brought over by workers from India in the 19th century. It’s made with chicken, pork, goat or even fish, along with local vegetables.

Blaff

Blaff is fish poached in a broth flavoured with lime, chilli, chives and bois d’Inde. Its name supposedly mimics the sound of the fish dropping into the boiling water… “blaff”! Light and fragrant, it’s the perfect dish when the fish has just been caught.

Matoutou crab and stuffed crab

Matoutou is THE dish of Easter and Pentecost in Martinique: land crab cooked with rice, spices and chilli. All year round, you’ll also find crabe farci (stuffed crab): the meat is mixed with breadcrumbs, spices and herbs, then put back in its shell and browned in the oven. Perfect as a starter!

Creole black pudding

Thinner and much spicier than the black pudding you may know, boudin créole is eaten as an aperitif, often with a ti-punch. Careful, it can be hot! There are also versions made with conch or fish.

Dombrés

These are small flour dumplings cooked in a sauce, often with red beans or ouassous (giant freshwater prawns). A simple, hearty and very comforting dish.

Christophine gratin

Christophine is chayote: a green vegetable with tender flesh that’s often baked as a gratin. It’s the star side dish of Creole meals, along with yams, plantains and rice with red beans.

Sweet treats, fruit and drinks in Martinique

Sweet pâtés

These are little jam-filled turnovers, absolutely delicious! Shortcrust pastry filled with all sorts of flavours: guava, pineapple, coconut or banana, we loved them! Our favourite: guava… Yum!

Pain au beurre

This is a local plaited brioche, usually eaten at big family celebrations (christenings, communions…), together with a good cup of hot chocolate. We made both one evening… a truly indulgent moment!

Pomme cannelle buns

These little buns are very similar to brioche, and even to pain au beurre. Perfect for breakfast with homemade jam, of course!

Blanc-manger coco

The ultimate Creole dessert: a coconut milk pudding flavoured with vanilla or cinnamon, served nice and chilled. Soft and light… the perfect way to end a meal after a spicy dish!

Rum

Rum is a real institution in Martinique, tied to the island’s culture since the very first sugar cane plantations. Martinique’s rhum agricole, made from pure sugar cane juice, is actually the only rum in the world with an AOC (protected designation of origin)! There are plenty of ways to drink it! There’s ti-punch (white rum, cane sugar and lime, which everyone mixes to their own taste) or a “décollage”, or flavoured punch: rum, sugar and a flavouring or fruit… For those with a sweet tooth, there’s the planteur, mixed with fruit juices, and at Christmas, shrubb, a rum liqueur made with orange peel. We tried quite a few, especially during our visit to Habitation Clément.

Sorbets and ice cream

Obviously, heat and tropical fruit mean sorbets and ice cream in every flavour! My little guilty pleasure was the peanut sorbet. I love peanuts, but I’d never tried them as an ice cream flavour!! Yum! The great classic is coconut sorbet, made the old-fashioned way in a hand-cranked ice cream maker. Go for the ones sold on Martinique’s beaches, they’re usually homemade!

Fruit and fruit juices

There are loads of fruits we didn’t know, some we’d never even heard of… But it wasn’t really the season, so we have a slight regret about not being able to try everything… We made up for it with fruit juices, coconuts and delicious pineapples!

Where to eat Creole food in Martinique

No need to look for fancy restaurants to eat well in Martinique! We often found the best plates in the simplest places:

• Lolos: these little beach shacks serve grilled fish, accras and fricassees with your toes in the sand. Ideal for lunch after a morning on one of the best beaches in Martinique.
• The Fort-de-France covered market: spices, unfamiliar fruit, homemade punches… and a few stalls for a quick lunch.
• Roadside stalls: this is where you’ll find the best boucané chicken, grilled right in front of you.
• Islets and boat trips: on our boat trip to the Baignoire de Joséphine, a Creole lunch was part of the programme… and what a programme!

To plan the rest of your stay between meals, take a look at our things to do in Martinique and our day in the north of Martinique, for distilleries and stunning scenery.

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I loved the octopus, so I treated myself to chatrou fricassee whenever I could. Alcino, for his part, couldn’t get enough of the boucané chicken! A big favourite ❤: the homemade peanut sorbet we had on the beach, my mouth is still watering! As you can tell, Martinique food is incredibly varied, and delicious in our opinion! We recommend trying everything, even things you don’t usually like… For example, I never eat avocado, but over there, I found it tasted completely different… a real treat!

Have you ever tried Creole food from Martinique? What was your favourite from this selection? What do you fancy trying? 😀

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