Michael Steinberg is a professor in New College and Geography at The University of Alabama where he runs the Natural Resources Conservation and Mapping Lab. His research and interests focus on wildlife, fisheries, and sporting conservation, human-wildlife conflicts, and conservation mapping.

 

Michael Steinberg chose Belize. A masters student in science charged by his fiancée to choose a honeymoon location, he looked for somewhere tropically exotic and untraveled that had environmental promise for research.

Among his first impressions of the country, two stand out: Slight surprise and dismay at having brought his new wife to honeymoon in a third world country.  One of his first meals, shared with the Lions Club at one of their meetings.  It was his first foray into Belize’s culture and social sphere and it centered around the food.

Food carries meaning to Belizeans. Eating provides an impetus to gather, both to prepare the food and share it. To be given food is an honor, and to receive it is to enter the social world of Belize, and experience firsthand one of its national symbols.

If you go to Belize and are the lucky recipient of a home-cooked meal, it will probably look a lot like Dr. Steinberg’s. Stewed chicken served with rice and beans is Belize’s national dish, although depending on where you are it may be augmented with regional specialties that are in season—heart of palm, purple yam, or jackfruit among them.

Yet apart from this dish, Belizean food also stands out for its remarkable diversity, one that matches its multicultural population. People of Mayan as well as East Indian, Chinese, and Afro-Caribbean descent call Belize home and their individual culinary traditions augment and diversify Belize’s classic dish, adding curries to the rice and more seafood to the plates. Some other sides commonly served have been added more recently. Tortillas are a result of the Hispanic influence that permeated Central America, and vinegar-based coleslaw something brought home from Belizeans living in North America.

Since that first visit to Belize twenty-six years ago, Dr. Steinberg has continued to return periodically, carrying out research in the Mayan villages and in the fisheries of Belize, as well as organizing the annual study abroad trip for undergraduates that I was lucky enough to find. Throughout that time he has been able to watch Belize grow and change from the point of view of

The best of these that he has attended are the local lobster cook-offs, that occur each year during the Spiny Lobster’s season. Families and friends gather to both cook and consume the day’s catch in one event. A more recent development has been the chocolate festival, which occurs in May each year to celebrate the cacao harvest. The self-proclaimed and ubiquitous beer of Belize, Belikin, releases a special chocolate stout just for the occasion.

One of the most interesting culinary developments that is continuing to evolve is Belize’s restaurant scene. Until the last decade or so, restaurants outside of tourist areas were small and extremely scarce, and to Steinberg it seems to have grown out of this industry. Most serve a strange mix of Southern American and Tex-Mex with a menu heavy with fried foods. As the Chinese population has grown, the number of Chinese food restaurants has also increased. These are occupied mainly by young people, for whom they have become an independent place to socialize.

In between trips, Steinberg and his wife continue to start their day with the Belizean breakfast they became accustomed to—papaya and coffee, for tradition’s sake. Lunch more often incorporates beans and is always better topped with Marie Sharp’s hot sauce.