Guide Touristique Guadeloupe et Martinique

From multicoloured fruit and vegetables with exotic tastes to unexpected flavoured spices, markets in the West Indies are indispensable outings. Exotic new surroundings guaranteed!

"While supermarkets tend to replace small shops in the West Indies, markets remain an essential place for exchanges. In the center of town, markets mainly offer fresh and local produce that you won't find elsewhere. On the stalls of the merchants dressed in traditional costume, a large choice of fruit and vegetables with over seventy five different varieties is available!

Although the banana is practically the emblem of the West Indies, people do not very often realize the incredible richness of the fruit in our islands. Exotic fruit very often has shapes that are just as exotic as the fruit itself and it has exceptional taste palettes. The guava which has a sickly sweet taste is the opposite of the maracuja (passion fruit) with a more acid taste. The pineapple, and more specifically the bottle pineapple, a local variety developed by researchers of the National Agroalimentary Research Institute, is particularly appreciated for its sweet flavor. Many amateurs search for the slightly acid taste of the mango, the unexpected taste of the sapota or maybe the fresh water taste of the coconut. Surprisingly, the cherries of the country are mainly consumed in juice form. The same applies for the tamarinds particularly liked for their purgative virtues. Many other seasonal fruits are the delight of onlookers such as lychees, quenettes, surelles, carambolas, corossoles, the pomme de cythères, canelles and malaka, mapoux, cajoux, … none of which are distributed in metropolitan France can be discovered. As for the banana, a wide range of varieties exist, very different to the imported bananas one can find in metropolitan France: the ti-figues, the desert figues, the pink figues… But in the West Indies, the banana is also a vegetable that can be cooked in water and eaten like potatoes.

The stalls also offer a huge range of vegetables. Many tubercles, like dachines, sweet potatoes, madeiras, malangas and yams, which constitute the heart of creole food, but also papayas, cristophines, giromons, avocados, gombos, sometimes bread fruits, and of course spices, omnipresent in creole cooking.

Next to the fruit and vegetables, the creole women introduce passer-byers to the incredible aromas and tastes of the spices. Packaged in big bags, small sachets or bottles, these condiments are essential in West Indies cooking. Cinnamon and vanilla are the most well-known of these spices, indispensible in local desserts. Colombo powder and safron flavor the dishes of Indian origin. Cloves, star anise, corriander, ginger and nutmegs season the huge number of Creole specialities. The 4 spices, the bois d’inde, the green pepper or huile carapate (facial oil).

Next to the spices, you will often find honey, vanilla essence but also different rhum based preparations. These brews, infusions, or plant macerations, barks or various roots often bear suggestive names like love rhum, which is bark-based . Nowadays these are more rare, little capsules offering brews whose virtues are more like witchcraft and superstition.

Even if the Creole women are particularly welcoming and say chéri to all passer-byers, you must always ask their permission before taking photos or filming. Many spices are much cheaper than in metropolitan France. Prices can be the object of a little bargaining although this is rare in the West Indies who will actually only give small reductions.
It is important to wash the fruit and vegetables thoroughly before eating them and to ensure the solidity and watertightness of their packaging before transporting them.

For the atmosphere, the visual pleasure of these colorful stalls, the variety of the flavors and tastes, a trip to the market is an essential and initiating stopping place.
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