Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

In Barbados, Chabad Turns To Local Cuisine

Nestled in Worthing, Barbados, is a Chabad House run by Rabbi Eli and Sterna Chaikin since 2017 —the 11th Chabad center in the Caribbean to date.

There aren’t a lot of Jews living in Barbados. There aren’t even a lot of Jews passing through Barbados. In 1929 the last Jew in Barbados left, ending 300 years of the island’s Sephardic Jewish presence. In 1931, a Jewish peddler from Lublin became enchanted with the island and decided to stay, reviving a Jewish presence in Barbados. Today, there are about 80-100 Jewish people living in Barbados, according to Jewish News.

Yet the Chaikins dedicate themselves to providing kosher food to the Jews passing through — and to offer local cuisine while they’re at it.

Sterna Chaikin greeting visitors to Barbados Image by Chaikin family

“We are in the process of developing menu items featuring authentic local flavors while, obviously, keeping to the parameters of kosher; particularly the many favorite fish-based dishes such as the famous ‘Flying Fish,’” Rabbi Eli Chaikin told me over email.

Barbados has long been known to Barbadians and people in the know as ‘The Land Of The Flying Fish.’ These flying fish, also known as etinurdichthys affinis, are silver and blue creatures that have been known to soar from the sea into the air distances of 70 feet or more, sometimes hundreds of fish at a time. This Barbadian dietary staple can stay in the air for ten seconds at a time, often taking to the skies to avoid larger, predatory fish.

“Over the years, the locals have perfected the art of filleting the flying fish,” Chaikin wrote me. “It is then traditionally served in a rich tomato gravy over rice or cou-cou, a corn-meal pudding of sorts, or seasoned, battered and fried.”

Image by Chabad of Barbados/Facebook

Then there’s the ‘Breadfruit,’ with its slightly nutty flavor, which Chaikin is also looking to incorporate into the kosher meals he and his wife serve. “This strange looking fruit can be found growing all around the island and can be prepared in a number of different ways; boiled, baked, crushed or made into chips,” he wrote.

But it’s not just about the food. Many opportunities for connection with other Jews come about as a result of offering a kosher food service. Just recently, when an older Israeli couple visited Barbados, and were forced to stay for a few extra weeks because of an unexpected health incident, the Chaikins were them to provide them with food and moral support in a foreign country.

By mixing local specialties with kosher cuisine, the Chaikins hope to show their visitors that keeping kosher while traveling needn’t come at the expense of a culinary experience.

Shira Feder is a writer. You can reach her at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.