Going to Guyana was absolutely not on my bingo card for 2025, but when a surprise engagement and subsequent wedding popped up (NOT MINE), I made my second trip ever to South America.

I will admit that in the grand scheme of travel bucket lists, I didn’t give Guyana much thought. I know a couple friends who have visited Guyana in the past, and they didn’t sing much of its praises—not that it was bad, more that it was “boring”. To be very honest, I even heard these sentiments from the people we were about to visit as our travel date inched closer. With all of that said, I didn’t plan much for Guyana—it was a short trip, the main attraction was the wedding, and I couldn’t find much on TikTok!

So, I planned to wing it.

And upon winging it, I was pleasantly surprised at all the flavours I encountered. So much for boring! Here is a peek at all of the wonderful food I enjoyed in Georgetown.

Guyanese Chinese Food

One of the few things that I came across on social media before heading to Guyana was that, “Chinese Food is to Guyana, as KFC is to Jamaica.” Now upon first notice, I didn’t fully understand this sentiment because… Have these people ever had Jamaican Chinese food? Dem know that Chinese restaurant in Jamaica simply can’t go out of business? But I quickly came to learn that the Guyanese affinity to Chinese food is on a different level.

Jamaicans love Chinese food, but it is not the first thing that comes to mind when a tourist enters the country. For Guyana, I cannot tell you the countless comments between Instagram and TikTok urging me to have Guyanese Chinese Food. Forget Pepperpot, forget cook up, forget eggball, “Have you had Chinese food yet?”

Now I will admit that I did not have authentic Guyanese Chinese food (according to the people of Guyana on my IG & TikTok)—I simply didn’t have the time. But I did enjoy dishes from Fusion, the premier Asian fusion restaurant at our hotel, Pegasus Hotel Guyana. Not only did I venture there during the night when my boyfriend went to the bachelor party and I hung out solo at the hotel, but the bride and groom’s rehearsal dinner was also catered by Fusion. After having various dishes on account of eating there twice, I can definitely say that Guyanese Chinese food is DELICIOUS.

And that wasn’t even the real thing. I have so many users telling me that Fusion is “uptown” Chinese food. Simply not the real thing. Someone even told me that I need to go find “ghetto” Chinese food. So if Fusion was the uptown sample, can you imagine what other incredible flavours live in Guyana under the guise of Chinese food? I simply have to go back for round 2.

Pepperpot

I stopped taking both Geography and History after third form (Grade 9) but it is engrained in my brain since GSAT Social Studies that Pepperpot is the national dish of Guyana. I could hardly contain my excitement when the groom told us that we’d be having it for breakfast the day before the wedding.

Pepperpot is a meat-based stew, typically beef forward, that’s flavoured with cinnamon, clove, thyme, wiri wiri peppers (a small red pepper native to Guyana) and its defining ingredient, cassareep.

There’s an internet theory that browning is the poor man’s version of cassareep—which sounds plausible as the closest thing that we have to cassareep in Jamaica is browning. Cassareep is a thick, black liquid made from the bitter juice of cassava, with the consistency of molasses. It produces an incredibly intense and rich flavour (think browning times 100) that still has a bitter undertone but compliments the other flavours of Pepperpot quite well.

Pepperpot is of Amerindian origin, and you can tell when you eat it. Something about it feels deeply ancestral and unrefined, despite my having it for breakfast while seated in a modern hotel. I enjoyed mine with bake—a fried dough that I fell in love with in Trinidad and yearn for all the time in Jamaica.

Now, I did get into a bit of trouble on the Internet because in my content piece about having Pepperpot, I shared that it’s “not like Jamaican Pepperpot.” I quickly learned that:

Guyanese people are incredibly sensitive over their ownership of Pepperpot.
Guyanese people don’t know that other countries may have foods named “Pepperpot” (this is another thing I remember clearly learning in GSAT Social Studies—the difference between Guyanese and Jamaican Pepperpot).
Some Jamaicans have never seen or heard about Jamaican Pepperpot Soup, which is also derived from our Taino ancestry and is absolutely delicious!

But this isn’t about Jamaican Pepperpot. This is about Guyana’s beloved national dish. And I hope I’m able to enjoy it again as it was superb.

Banks Beer

I wonder if you can tell by now that my trip to Guyana stirred up a lot of controversy in the social media comment section—and this is the biggest one yet.

On my second day in Guyana, we stopped by the GT Seawall and purchased Banks Beer from a local vendor on the road side. Before this, I had never heard of Banks. In fact, the groom just said, “You want to try Guyanese beer?” and I said, “Sure!”

We popped the tops and all had a sip together in the car, and it was very reminiscent of Red Stripe. I will admit that I’m not a huge consumer of alcohol, so I don’t know how well I can accurately describe the flavour differences, but I can say that if you like Red Stripe, you will definitely like Banks. I’m sure a true Red Stripe fan will tell you that Banks is not as good as Red Stripe, but this bottle was refreshing, and that’s all I needed in the moment.

Now onto the controversy.

Apparently Banks doesn’t solely belong to Guyana. Having been offered “Guyanese beer” and receiving a bottle that said Banks, I naively took to the internet to share my first time having Banks, a Guyanese beer. And then the Bajans appeared.

Like how Rihanna said Trinis and Bajans draw a line in the ocean over flying fish, Guyanese people and Bajans draw a line over Banks beer. You can head to that post on my Instagram AND Tiktok to see that debacle for yourself, but the crux of it is that Barbados also claims ownership of Banks beer.

Once I saw the intensity of the rivalry unfolding in my comments section, I had to seek the truth, and here it is:

Banks Beer is the brainchild of Peter D’Aguiar, a Guyanese entrepreneur whose family started a rum company in 1840 called D’Aguiar Bros Ltd. By 1934, the company was passed to Peter, and he was on a mission to expand (cue the idea of beer). In the 1950s, the Barbados government offered a tax concession to encourage the start up of a local brewery. Peter heard of the offer and decided to take action. By September 1961, Banks (Barbados) Breweries opened for business in Barbados, funded by both Guyanese and Bajan dollars. It didn’t take long however for the Guyanese and Bajan businesses to begin arguing over the Banks brand. After 40 years of verbal, financial and legal battle, they “came together” in 2005, bought shares in each other’s companies, and agreed to a joint export strategy.

Banks beer is now brewed in both Guyana and Barbados, and in my opinion, belongs to both of them (though I don’t know how much of an opinion I, a Jamaican, am allowed to have here). Either way, Banks beer has a similar flavour profile to Red Stripe, and the people of Guyana absolutely adore it.

KFC

I know people may judge me for this, but hear me out: I make a mission to try KFC whenever I travel to a new country. I think the Jamaican KFC experience is just so unique and flavourful, that I’m always curious about the experience in other countries. KFC to me also highlights the differences in “the hand” in the cooking. I’m yet to go to a KFC in a different country and say, “That tastes like Jamaican KFC,” and that fascinates me.

So, yes. I went to KFC in Guyana. On Emancipation Day at that.

The great equalizer of the Caribbean though? “We don’t have that.” I walked into KFC in Guyana and my eyes immediately darted to the Twister. We used to have the Twister in Jamaica, and it was the only thing I ate from the menu during that time period. It may very well be almost two decades since I’ve savoured the KFC chicken wrap that is the Twister, and so my eyes widened and tongue salivated at the thought of having one here in Guyana. But, “We don’t have that.”

I settled for the Meal Deal. They didn’t have any Original (my controversial go to, AFTER Jamaican Barbecue), and so I got Spicy. And it wasn’t bad! It was the closest in flavour profile to Jamaican Spicy that I’ve ever had, but even less oily (which is a good thing). I definitely enjoyed it more than the Spicy chicken I had this year in Trinidad (the oiliest I’ve personally ever come across). It can eat for sure.

Duck Curry

The day before the wedding, I wanted to have some authentic Guyanese curry. Jamaica has some wicked curry, but the countries with large Indo-Caribbean populations? We simply cannot compete with them. I learned this bad in Trinidad.

So we ordered some Guyanese curry from Shanta’s The Puri Shop in Georgetown. I decided to be extra adventurous and try the duck curry, because I had never had any form of duck curry before (and yes, I will continue to say ____ curry, because that is what they say in Guyana, and this is an appreciation post for Guyana), and I love duck. And it was nothing short of amazing. The duck was incredibly tender and not chewy at all, and the curry sauce just enveloped every crevice of it in the most flavour packed way for every single bite.

My only qualm was the white rice. I wished it had a little more flavour on its own—Jamaicans definitely flavour their rice with coconut milk, salt, pepper and scallion, and I could tell that some of that was missing from this rice. However, once you drench the rice in that curry sauce? I had no complaints.

The dish also came with a side salad and dahl, which is a split pea based gravy. I’m not the biggest fan of dahl (or split peas) in general, and so I opted to have my rice without it, but I did take a taste of it afterward and it was flavoured well, just not my cup of gravy.

Pine Tart

My cousin in law (big up Kadeem) has Guyanese roots, and is always raving about his favourite Guyanese food being Pine Tarts. Every time he talks about his last visit to Guyana, he brings up Pine Tarts, so naturally, I had to have a Pine Tart. And I do not regret it one bit.

A Pine Tart is simply a pineapple filled turnover pastry. Ours also came from Shanta’s, and it tasted almost identical to a Jamaican plantain tart, but with pineapple in the middle instead of plantain. It was sweet, flaky and delicious. The perfect after-meal “feel fi smtn nice” accompaniment.

Eggball

I had never heard of this before placing my two feet on the ground in Georgetown. But after the boys came back from a drunken bachelor party, they would not shut up about their midnight eggball escapade. I was overjoyed that they returned the favour for the girls at the wedding reception after party in the bride and groom’s apartment.

Eggball is a Guyanese street food delicacy, and proof that simplicity is all you need sometimes to make an amazing product. It’s a hard boiled egg, encased in a cassava based dough that is then deep fried and served with mango sour (a mango based runny chutney). Each eggball costs $300 Guyanese dollars, which is a little less than $1.50US, and is just about the best thing you could put in your mouth after a night out. It is best enjoyed hot and fresh, when it is incredibly delicate and flavourful with a punch of acid from the mango sour.

I would have these again and again and again.

Why did we order 60 eggballs? Who knows. Rumour has it, there are still about 25 eggballs sitting in the bride and groom’s fridge to this day.

Or watch the Guyana Series Playlist on TikTok

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