Joe Post

Joe Post is the founder and editor of Belize News Post. He grew up in Corozal Town, Belize, on the Caribbean sea with a view across Corozal Bay to Cerro Maya. He has lived in Costa Rica, Kenya, England, Spain, and the United States. He grew up cooking alongside his mother and grandmother, and has personally tested the vast majority of the recipes on this site. He started BNP in the early 2000s as one of the few independent Belizean news sources online. Over the years, the food became the stickiest thing. News comes and goes. Food stays.

Scotch bonnet pepper, one of the main ingredients in Solomon Gundy
Jamaican Solomon Gundy Recipe Jamaica

Jamaican Solomon Gundy Recipe

Solomon gundy is Jamaica's smoked herring spread: salted red herring boiled out, chopped or blended fine with onion, pepper and pimento, then bound with oil and vinegar and left to mature. It is an appetizer, eaten on plain water crackers, and the smoke is the whole point of it. Ingredients Amounts here make about 2 cups. Red herring is not a substitutable ingredient: the dish is built on the two flavours it carries, salt and smoke. The fish 4 oz (115 g) dried salted or smoked red herring, about 2…
Joe Post
August 8, 2026
Mannish water, Jamaican goat soup, cooking outdoors over a wood fire
Jamaican Mannish Water Recipe Jamaica

Jamaican Mannish Water Recipe

Mannish water is Jamaica's goat head soup: head, feet and tripe boiled long enough to pull everything out of the bone, with yam, green banana and dumplings dropped in behind it. It is thin, not thick, and it is occasion food: wedding nights, wakes, and any gathering cooked outside over wood. Ingredients Amounts here serve eight, which is about the smallest pot worth making. This is a soup built for a yard full of people. The goat 3 lb (1.4 kg) goat head pieces, goat feet, and tripe, roasted or…
Joe Post
August 8, 2026
Salted mackerel, the fish in a Jamaican rundown
Jamaican Rundown Recipe Jamaica

Jamaican Rundown Recipe

Rundown is coconut milk boiled until it breaks into oil and custard, with salt mackerel or saltfish simmered in what is left. The name is the method: the milk runs down. Get that reduction right and the dish makes itself, because the sweetness of the custard against the salt of the fish is the entire flavour idea. Ingredients Amounts here serve four. Fresh coconut milk is what the cooks call the original way, and it is the ingredient that most changes the result. The fish and the coconut 1 lb…
Joe Post
August 8, 2026
Fresh okra, a signature vegetable in Jamaican steamed fish
Jamaican Steamed Fish Recipe Jamaica

Jamaican Steamed Fish Recipe

Jamaican steamed fish is whole snapper cooked in a covered pot with coconut milk or fish stock, pumpkin, carrot and okra, until the liquid turns to gravy and the fish flakes. It is the quick way of cooking fish on the island, and one of the cooks is honest that despite the name, it is closer to a gentle boil than a steam. Ingredients Amounts here serve four. Buy the fish with your eyes: clear eyes and red gills, straight from the sea if you have that option. The fish…
Joe Post
August 8, 2026
Salvadoran pupusas on a griddle
El Salvador Food: A Guide to What to Eat EditorialEl Salvador

El Salvador Food: A Guide to What to Eat

Short answer: Salvadoran food runs on the griddle and the masa. The pupusa is the national dish and the place to start, but the table is wider: fried yuca, stewed-chicken sandwiches, flat fried enchiladas, sweet cheese breads, and a morro-seed horchata that is nothing like the Mexican one. Two things turn up with almost everything, curtido and salsa, so make them once and keep them on hand. The indigenous roots here are Pipil (Nawat-speaking), not Maya, and it shows in the corn-and-comal heart of the cooking. Pupusas have become a…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Temple I rising over the Gran Plaza at Tikal, Guatemala
The Maya World: Food and Travel Across the Region EditorialMaya

The Maya World: Food and Travel Across the Region

Short answer: The Maya world is one cultural region spread across five countries: Belize, Mexico's Yucatán, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The borders are modern; the food, the corn, the recados, and the coast are older and shared. Belize is our home base, but the kitchen does not stop at the line on the map. This is the guide to eating and traveling across the whole region, country by country. We started as a Belizean food site, and Belize is still the heart of it. But the more you cook…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Mexican burrito with cream
Yucatán Food: A Guide to the Maya Kitchen of Mexico EditorialMayaMexico

Yucatán Food: A Guide to the Maya Kitchen of Mexico

Short answer: Yucatecan food is the Maya kitchen of southern Mexico, and it is the same tradition as northern Belize. This is where so much of the food we cook comes from: panuchos, salbutes, cochinita pibil, the recados, the achiote, the sour orange. If you have eaten in Corozal, you have eaten Yucatán. We cover a lot of this food already, because it is our food too. Below are 20 Yucatecan dishes worth knowing, each with a full recipe. The one thing worth saying plainly: the Yucatec Maya are a…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
A spread of Guatemalan typical food
Guatemalan Food: A Guide to What to Eat EditorialGuatemala

Guatemalan Food: A Guide to What to Eat

Short answer: Guatemalan food runs on the recado, the dry-roasted, ground sauce that carries the meat. The three to know are pepián (the national dish), kak'ik (the Q'eqchi' Maya turkey soup), and jocón (the green one). Around them sits a world of corn, tamales of every kind, and plantain sweets. The country cooks two traditions at once: Maya dishes like kak'ik and boxboles, and Ladino mestizo dishes like hilachas, revolcado, and chuchitos. For a Belizean this food is family, because the recado craft is the one we share across the…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Traditional Guatemalan breakfast plate with frijoles volteados, fried eggs, plantains, tortillas, and crema - San Juan la Laguna, Guatemala
Frijoles Volteados BreakfastGuatemala

Frijoles Volteados

Frijoles volteados are Guatemalan black beans that are cooked, blended smooth, then fried in lard or oil and folded continuously until thick enough to shape into a dense oblong log. The name means ‘flipped beans.’ They anchor the desayuno chapín — Guatemala’s traditional breakfast — served sliced alongside eggs, fried plantains, crema, queso seco, and tortillas. Why frijoles volteados are on every Guatemalan breakfast table The desayuno chapín is Guatemala’s morning institution, and frijoles volteados are its protein foundation. Chapín is the colloquial demonym for Guatemalans. The breakfast is named…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Hudut, a Garifuna coconut fish stew with pounded plantain
Hudut vs Sere vs Tapou vs Tapado: Garifuna Dishes Explained BelizeEditorialGarifuna

Hudut vs Sere vs Tapou vs Tapado: Garifuna Dishes Explained

Hudut, tapou, sere, tapado, bundiga. People mix these up constantly, and it is easy to see why: they share the same three Garifuna staples, plantain or green banana, coconut, and fish, and several of them look alike in the bowl. But they are not the same dish, and the difference usually comes down to one thing: how the starch is handled and whether everything cooks together or stays apart. Here is the whole family, sorted out, with a link to each full recipe. The Garifuna coconut dishes at a glance…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Pollo chuco, Honduran fried chicken over plantain tajadas with slaw and sauces
Pollo Chuco DinnerHonduras

Pollo Chuco

Short answer: Pollo chuco is Honduras's signature messy street plate: crispy fried chicken piled over a bed of fried green-banana tajadas, buried under tangy cabbage slaw, fresh chismol, pickled red onions, and a stripe of ketchup-and-pink-sauce. The name means dirty chicken, and the mess is the whole point. It is a full composed plate, not a snack — no tortilla anywhere on it. Honduras's tortilla snacks are easy to mix up. Here is how catracha, baleada, enchilada, and tustaca differ. The plate is built in layers, and each one earns…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Fried plantain tajadas, a fixture of the Honduran plato típico
Plato Típico Hondureño DinnerHonduras

Plato Típico Hondureño

The plato típico hondureño is not one recipe: it is the whole table on a single plate. At the center sits carne asada: skirt steak marinated overnight in naranja agria (bitter sour orange), cumin, garlic, and oil, then grilled hard over open flame. Around it: refried red beans, white rice, fried green plantain tajadas, a spoonful of chimol (fresh tomato-onion relish), crumbled queso fresco, a drizzle of Honduran mantequilla cream, and slices of avocado. Warm corn tortillas come on the side to pull it all together, bite by bite. Independence…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Aerial view of the Great Blue Hole on the Belize Barrier Reef
Belize Travel Guide BelizeEditorial

Belize Travel Guide

Short answer: Belize is small, English-speaking, and easier to travel than most of Central America, but it does not work the way a resort does. Most visitors come for the cayes and the reef, the jungle and the Maya sites, or both. Getting around means a mix of small planes, water taxis, and buses. This guide is the map: how to get here from Mexico or by air, how to move between the mainland and the islands, how to reach the Maya world across the Guatemalan border, when to come,…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
A plate of corn-tortilla tacos with lime, salsa, and onion
Belize Street Food: A Guide to What to Eat and Where BelizeEditorial

Belize Street Food: A Guide to What to Eat and Where

Short answer: The best food in Belize is rarely in a restaurant. It is on a cart at the corner, in a market stall, on a fold-out table outside a house at night. Start with the Belizean street-food trio: salbutes, garnaches, and panades. Eat fry jacks for breakfast, tacos in Orange Walk after dark, and barbecue in Cayo on the weekend. Look for conch and ceviche on the coast. Eat where the line of locals is longest. It is cheap, it is fresh, and it is the real thing. I…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
A small single-engine propeller plane in flight
Flying Within Belize: The Cayes, Flights vs. Ferries, and the Best Route BelizeEditorial

Flying Within Belize: The Cayes, Flights vs. Ferries, and the Best Route

Short answer: To get from Belize City to the islands you either fly or take a water taxi. The flight to San Pedro or Caye Caulker is about fifteen to twenty minutes on a small plane, on Tropic Air or Maya Island Air. The water taxi, run by San Pedro Belize Express or Caribbean Sprinter, is forty-five minutes to Caye Caulker, about ninety to San Pedro, and costs a fraction of the airfare. Fly if your time is tight or your international flight lands late, because the last boats leave…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Bowl of Honduran sopa de frijoles, a dark savory red bean soup
Sopa de Frijoles DinnerHonduras

Sopa de Frijoles

Sopa de frijoles is the everyday bean soup of Honduras: small red silk beans simmered whole with pork ribs, garlic, onion, and bell pepper until the broth turns deep and savory. Near the end, a ladleful of cooked beans goes into the blender, then back into the pot. That is the move that makes the broth creamy without cream. Each bowl is finished with ripe plantain, a soft-poached egg, and a spoon of crema, served with warm corn tortillas and queso fresco. Dried red beans and grains at a Copán…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Honduran nacatamal wrapped in banana leaf and aluminum foil, ready to steam
Nacatamales DinnerHonduras

Nacatamales

A nacatamal is a large Honduran tamale of nixtamal corn masa enriched with broth, lard, and achiote, filled with marinated pork or chicken, rice, potato, mint, and vegetables, then wrapped in banana leaf and steamed. Honduran nacatamales are Sunday morning and holiday food, heartier than a Mexican tamal and closely shared with Nicaragua. Why Hondurans Make Nacatamales for Christmas, Not Tuesdays A nacatamal is not weeknight food. It is a whole day, sometimes two, and it is rarely one person’s job. In Honduras the big batches come out at Noche…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Garifuna pounded plantain with coconut seafood soup (machuca/hudut)
Machuca (Honduran Garifuna Pounded Plantain with Coconut Seafood Soup) DinnerGarifunaHonduras

Machuca (Honduran Garifuna Pounded Plantain with Coconut Seafood Soup)

Short answer: Machuca is the Garifuna dish of pounded plantain served with coconut seafood soup — two separate things, eaten together. You pull a piece of the dense plantain mash and dip it into the broth. What Garifuna communities in Belize call hudut, the Garifuna of Honduras call machuca. Same people, same coast, two names for the same inheritance. The Spanish word machuca comes from machucar, to pound or crush: the pounding is the whole point. A coastal kitchen in Tela, Garífuna heartland, where machuca is pounded by hand. The…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Boxboles — Q'eqchi' Maya corn masa rolls with chipilín, served with toasted pepita sauce and crumbled white cheese
Boxboles GuatemalaMayaSnacks

Boxboles

Boxboles are a Maya highland masa roll from Guatemala — corn masa kneaded with chipilín herb, wrapped in squash or chayote leaves, steamed, sliced crosswise, and served with a warm toasted pepita and tomato sauce. The dish belongs to the Achi Maya of Baja Verapaz and the Ixil Maya of the Ixil Triangle, with related versions found across the Guatemalan highlands wherever squash grows and chipilín grows alongside it. What makes boxboles different from Guatemalan tamales? I came across boxboles not in a restaurant but in a market. Wednesday, early,…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Steaming cup of ponche guatemalteco — hot Guatemalan Christmas fruit punch with cinnamon sticks and dried fruits
Ponche Guatemalteco BeverageGuatemala

Ponche Guatemalteco

Ponche guatemalteco is Guatemala's traditional hot Christmas fruit punch — a spiced brew of dried and fresh fruit, panela, cinnamon sticks, and cloves simmered until fragrant and served steaming at Posadas and Noche Buena. The rum-spiked version is the adult holiday indulgence. Why Guatemalans simmer ponche on Christmas Eve The smell of ponche guatemalteco is the smell of December in Guatemala. A large pot goes on the stove, dried fruits and pineapple rind drop in, cinnamon sticks and cloves follow, and the kitchen smells like the holiday before anyone has…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Corn-and-cheese rosquillas, some filled with rapadura, the Central American baked ring
Rosquillas Hondureñas DessertHonduras

Rosquillas Hondureñas

Rosquillas hondureñas are small baked rings of corn masa mixed with dry, salty cheese, shaped by hand, baked until crisp, and eaten with black coffee. They are the definitive snack of southern Honduras, made year-round but reaching their peak during Semana Santa, when families in Sabanagrande bake them by the hundred in clay ovens fired with ocote pine. What Makes Rosquillas Hondureñas Different from Nicaraguan and Spanish Rosquillas? The first time I bought rosquillas on the highway south of Tegucigalpa, a woman at a roadside stand near Sabanagrande had a…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Fried tortilla cups filled with pickled beet curtido, a Guatemalan antojito
Guatemalan Fried-Tortilla Snacks: Garnachas vs Tostadas vs Enchiladas EditorialGuatemala

Guatemalan Fried-Tortilla Snacks: Garnachas vs Tostadas vs Enchiladas

Garnachas, tostadas, and enchiladas guatemaltecas all start from the same humble base: a fried corn tortilla. That is exactly why they get confused. Order one expecting another and you will be surprised. But each of the three carries a single feature the others do not, and once you can name that feature you will never mix them up again. The deciding signal is almost always the pickled-vegetable layer on top. This is the short guide to the three Guatemalan fried-tortilla snacks: what sits on each one, how big the tortilla…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026
Three molletes guatemaltecos in a bowl of dark panela-cinnamon syrup with raisins, one split to show the pale manjar custard filling
Molletes Guatemaltecos DessertGuatemala

Molletes Guatemaltecos

Molletes guatemaltecos are sweet bread rolls split, filled with manjar custard, dipped in whipped egg batter, fried golden, then steeped in warm panela-cinnamon syrup. They appear on the Guatemalan table twice a year: on the Day of the Dead (Día de Todos los Santos, November 1), where they sit alongside fiambre in cemetery ofrenda spreads, and during Semana Santa (Holy Week). They are not related to Mexican molletes, which are savory open-faced sandwiches. This is a Ladino colonial sweet — the mestizo, Spanish-influenced tradition — with no Maya antecedent. What…
Joe Post
August 4, 2026