If you’re a thrill seeker at your core, Curaçao has plenty of adventures waiting for you. You can get your adrenaline pumping with activities like cliff diving, scuba diving, submarine exploring, traversing sea caves, standing on an ostrich egg and even swimming with wild sea turtles. But when you’re ready to wrap things up for the day and refuel with a hearty meal, the adventures don’t have to end there.
Ever tried goat stew? How about iguana or aloe or…ostrich? There are a variety of interesting and funky eats to go along with your adventurous itinerary in Curaçao. From uncommon to downright strange, you’ll find these foods on the island in a variety of local restaurants. Just don’t forget to grab a photo to show off to your friends!
Goat stew
Eating goat is a common practice in many areas of the world, though you won’t find it on many standard American menus. Still, in Curaçao, this meat is a popular item to have on the dinner table.
One tasty way to eat goat is in the form of a stew, mixed with other items to make for a warm and spicy meal. In Curaçao, goat is a popular main ingredient in the dish stoba, a hearty stew that’s common in many Caribbean countries. The goat meat is slow cooked for hours along with herbs and spices to make the meat tender and flavorful.
However, if you want to get even more creative, try a “Kabritu Burger” at Williwood. The goat burger is a newer way to consume the popular local food that’s growing in popularity, so be sure to give it a try during your trip.
Iguana
Are you brave enough to take a bite of this scaly, creepy reptile? Iguanas are pervasive in many tropical regions, so it makes sense that they sometimes end up on plates. In Curaçao, you can try iguana in a variety of forms, though it’s also often found in stew form.
Perhaps the best place to try iguana is Jaanchie’s, a must-visit restaurant in Curaçao. Come as you are and expect a laid-back, welcoming and open-air atmosphere behind a giant wall of bougainvillea. Here, there are no menus; instead, the owner, Jaanchie, walks around to greet each table and recites from memory the available dishes of the day. Iguana, in one form or another, is almost always one of them. According to locals, it tastes like chicken!
Aloe
While aloe drinks have grown in popularity in recent years, available for purchase even at gas stations and grocery stores, not many people have had the chance to bite into a gooey chunk of aloe fresh from the plant.
However, at the CurAloe plantation in Curaçao, you’ll have the chance to do just that. Take a tour and you’ll learn all about the benefits and effects of this healing plant. Your tour guide will cut a stalk right from the live plant and allow the bitter yellow liquid, sometimes referred to as the “blood” of the plant, to seep out.
The clear, slimy plant flesh left behind is what you’ll receive a slice of to sample. Yes, it’s gooey and wet, but take a bite and chew the whole thing! The texture and light, watery flavor may throw you off, but eating aloe is really good for you, so don’t be afraid to ask for seconds.
Ostrich
Another one of Curaçao’s quirks is that it is home to the largest ostrich farm this side of Africa. At the Curaçao Ostrich Farm, you’ll find many an adventure, not the least of which is trying a bite of ostrich for yourself.
If ostrich carpaccio doesn’t appeal to you, you can also opt to try an ostrich omelet (one ostrich egg is the equivalent to 80 to 100 chicken eggs!), ostrich steak, ostrich burger and more. The meat is tender and very flavorful, like a rich steak.
At the Curaçao Ostrich Farm, you can take an ostrich safari ride, feed an ostrich, learn about ostriches and stand on a real ostrich egg—they’re so strong, they don’t break under your weight! Admittedly, it may seem like a strange way to complete your visit, but it’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences you don’t want to pass up.
Orange Blue Curaçao
This may seem to defy logic, but not all blue Curaçao is blue! Believe it or not, Curaçao liqueur comes in a variety of colors. The famous blue Curaçao just happened to become the most famous because of its electric appearance that helps make any tropical beverage all the more photo-worthy.
Pay a visit to Landhuis Chobolobo, the original blue Curaçao distillery, and you’ll try a range of flavors and colors of Curaçao liqueur. Perhaps the most unique of the flavors is tamarind, a tropical fruit that’s popular in the Caribbean region, though the rum raisin is a close second! If you dare, try them all on your visit. There’s coffee and chocolate-flavored Curaçao liqueur available, as well as the other colors of “blue” Curaçao like orange, green and red.
