Aruban food is what happens when a Dutch island sits fifteen miles off Venezuela in the Caribbean, and for a family on a resort week it is worth two dinners off property to find it.
Keshi yena is the national dish. A hollowed Gouda cheese rind stuffed with spiced chicken, olives, raisins and capers, baked until the cheese melts into the filling. It sounds odd and it is the best thing on the island, and every child eats it because it is chicken in cheese. The local restaurants in Oranjestad and the ones in the cunucu, the countryside, do it best.
Pastechi is breakfast. A half moon pastry filled with cheese, or ham and cheese, or chicken, fried, from a snack window or a gas station for a dollar. Every Aruban starts the day with one. The kids will want two.
Fish, Dutch things and the beer
Fish from the shacks at the fishing villages. Zeerovers at Savaneta, where the boats come in and the fish is fried in the order it landed, eaten at picnic tables on the water. Grouper, mahi, wahoo, with plantain and funchi, the cornmeal cake. Go early, it is the island’s best lunch and everyone knows it.
Dutch pancakes at the pancake houses, bitterballen at the bars, Gouda everywhere. Venezuelan arepas from the food trucks in San Nicolas. Pan bati, the Aruban cornbread pancake, with the stews.
Balashi is the beer, brewed on the island from desalinated seawater, which is a fact the kids will repeat. Aruba Ariba is the cocktail. Fresh juices, a coconut on the beach, and the tap water, which is desalinated and among the cleanest in the world, so no bottles needed.
Planning Aruba with kids? Start with the full Aruba family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.
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