Food

When visiting Benque Viejo you can enjoy the traditional Belizean and International gourmet, comfort, deserts, or fast food. Also, there are a variety of yearly and seasonal fruits and vegetables that can be savored accompanying your dish, as a desert or the fruit alone.

Traditional Food

  • Rice & Beans
  • Tamales, Bollos, or Tamalitos
  • Bar-B-Q
  • Pibil. Pork is cooked in a hole dug in the ground, filled with firewood and hot stones. Traditionally it is served with corn tortillas and accompanied with a spicy onion preserve.
  • Escabeche (Onion Soup). A traditional Mestizo soup cooked with sliced onion rings and chicken. Traditionally served with hand-made corn tortillas but you may ask for white rice.
  • Chirmole (Black Dinner). A soup cooked with a traditional black pepper paste, with chicken, ripe plaintain, boiled eggs, potatoes, and other ground food.
  • Cow Foot Soup
  • Maja Blanca
  • Atol (Thick Delicious Drink) Corn/Macal
  • Coshan
  • Chipilin

Other authentic food and drinks you can find in Benque Viejo include Chaya, palmito, Flor de Izote, Ishpasha

Fast Food

Benque Viejo residents have enjoyed a variety of fast food such as:

  • Tacos. Chicken or pork stew rolled in a corn tortilla with diced onions, cabbage, and cilantro with a dash of lime juice. Some add tomato sauce or pepper for additional spice.
  • Panades. Your choice of meat stuffed in “masa” which is deep fried and served with an onion and/or cabbage lime preserve.
  • Salbutes.
  • Fajitas
  • Burritos
  • Pupusas
  • Tostadas
  • Meat Pies
  • Patties
  • Pizza

Fruits

    • Local fruits include caymito (star apple), anona (custard apple), oranges, guava, Melon (cantelope), watermelon, lime, soursop, chico zapote, plum, mango (manila, #11, #5, Tomy Atkins), banana, black berry, avocado, pienapple, pumpkin, craboo, grapefruit, mandarin.

    Pastries

    • Lemon Pie
    • Bread Pudding. If enough packed-bread is leftover, with butter, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, evaporated and sweet condensed milk can be converted into this delicious pastry.
    • Banana Bread
    • Black Fruit Cake. Traditionally baked during the Christmas celebrations.

    Sweet Treats

    Benque Viejo’s tradition is to convert any fruit into a sweet-tooth’s craving.

    • Craboo (“Chi” in Maya or “Nance” in Spanish) of many colors and sizes can be fermented with sugar for months making it a nice sweet treat and beverage.
    • “Coco-bruto”
    • Bocadillo
    • Pumpkin sweet
    • Milk fudge
    • “Choco-Banano”
    • “Fruit Chamoyada” Diced fruits glazed with chamoy which will make a sweet and savory delicious snack.
    • Sweet preserves (Plum, pumpkin,etc)

    Snacks

    • Pepita (Pumpkin seed). Toasted with a mild flame and seasoned with salt, pepper, and lime make a delicious snack.
    • Roasted Peanut.
    • Plantain chips.