COPPERWhat is the national dish of Antigua and Barbuda?
The national dish of Antigua and Barbuda is fungee and pepperpot. Fungee (say "foon-jee") is fine cornmeal cooked in okra water, beaten stiff and shaped into balls; pepperpot is a thick stew of salted meat, spinach, eggplant, okra and squash. No law or decree makes it official, but it is the pair consistently named as the country's national dish.
What are fungee and pepperpot?
The national dish of Antigua and Barbuda is a pair, not a single plate. Fungee is the starch: cornmeal cooked in the water okra was boiled in, then beaten until it pulls away from the pot. Pepperpot is the stew served beside it, cooked down until it is thick enough to hold a spoon upright.
The names mislead many visitors. Fungee has nothing to do with mushrooms, and pepperpot is not a stew of peppers. The one scotch bonnet goes into the pot whole and is fished out before it bursts, so it perfumes the stew rather than burning it.
Fungee belongs to a family of cornmeal-and-okra dishes found across the eastern Caribbean. It is called fungee in the Leeward Islands and Dominica and cou-cou or coo-coo further south, and it forms part of the national dishes of Antigua and Barbuda, the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and Barbados.
How fungee is made
Fungee needs only okra, cornmeal, water, butter and salt. The method is what matters:
- Okra first. Eight pods are sliced into thin rings and boiled 5 minutes in salted water. The okra is lifted out and the cooking water kept: okra is what makes this fungee and not plain polenta.
- A cold slurry. The cornmeal is stirred into cold water first so it stays free of lumps.
- Hard stirring. The slurry goes into the hot okra water and is stirred without stopping for 8 to 10 minutes, until the mass comes away from the sides of the pot. Cooks traditionally use a fungee stick, a flat wooden paddle shaped like a small cricket bat.
- Butter and okra back in. Both are folded through and beaten 2 minutes more, until the fungee turns glossy.
- Shaped in a bowl. A small bowl is wetted with cold water, a scoop of fungee goes in and is swirled quickly into a smooth ball, then turned out onto the plate.
What goes into pepperpot?
Pepperpot is built on cured meat. In our pepperpot recipe, salted pigtail or salt beef is soaked overnight with two changes of water, then boiled 45 minutes before anything else goes in. That meat is where the depth of the stew comes from.
Pumpkin, eggplant, onion, garlic and thyme follow and simmer for 20 minutes until the vegetables collapse and thicken the pot. Then come the greens and the dumplings:
- Spinach, about 500 g for a family pot, chopped.
- Okra, sliced, which adds body.
- Spinners: little cigars of stiff flour dough rolled between the palms and dropped into the stew.
- A whole scotch bonnet, for aroma rather than heat.
How the stew is finished and served
After the spinners go in, the pot simmers uncovered for another 20 to 25 minutes, until the stew is thick and sticky. Recipes vary from family to family: one widely shared version from the DBE recipe collection uses corned beef brisket and ham, with yam, acorn squash, tomatoes and black-eyed peas.
The fungee balls go on the plate next to the stew, and the two are eaten together. Fungee is never sliced like polenta, and it is also eaten with saltfish. You can make the starch on its own with our fungee recipe.
Is fungee and pepperpot official?
We found no law, decree or government declaration naming it. What exists is consistent usage: Wikipedia's articles on Antigua and Barbuda and on its cuisine both name fungee and pepperpot as the national dish, and recipe collections abroad present it the same way. The honest answer is that there is no official act, but this is the dish everyone names.
Other dishes to know from Antigua and Barbuda
Ducana is the other dish visitors hear about. Raw sweet potato and fresh coconut are grated, mixed with flour, brown sugar, raisins, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger, then tied in banana leaf parcels and boiled 40 to 45 minutes until firm. It is usually eaten with saltfish and chop-up, a mix of spinach, eggplant and okra, or cold the next day, sliced and fried.
Antiguan butter bread, a soft loaf sold from small bakeries built onto homes, is eaten with cheese for breakfast. Barbuda is known for its lobster, and the small Antigua black pineapple grows on the main island.
You will find all three dishes, with ingredients and step-by-step methods, on our page about the food of Antigua and Barbuda. For the neighbouring islands, see our guide to Caribbean food and the national dish of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
The recipes
- Pepperpot🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda · 13 hours and 55 minutes
Fungie🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda · 30 minutes
Ducana🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda · 1 hour and 35 minutes
Questions people ask
How do you pronounce fungee?
Fungee is pronounced "foon-jee". Despite the sound, it has nothing to do with mushrooms: it is cornmeal cooked with okra.
Is fungee the same as cou-cou?
They are the same family: cornmeal cooked with okra. It is called fungee in Antigua, the Leeward Islands and Dominica, and cou-cou in Barbados, where it is served with flying fish.
What is served with fungee?
Pepperpot is the classic partner, which together form the national dish. Fungee is also eaten with saltfish.
Is there meat in pepperpot?
Yes. Antiguan pepperpot is cooked with salted meat such as pigtail or salt beef, along with spinach, eggplant, okra, pumpkin and small flour dumplings called spinners.
Is ducana the national dish of Antigua?
No. Ducana, a boiled sweet potato and coconut dumpling, is a well-known Antiguan dish, but the national dish is fungee and pepperpot.
Keep reading
- Traditional food of Antigua and Barbuda: 11 dishes to know
- What is the national dish of the Bahamas?
- What is the national dish of Barbados?
- What is the national dish of Cuba?
- What is the national dish of Dominica?
- What is the national dish of the Dominican Republic?