The 8 best islands for food

Jersey, Channel Islands
We know that everyone’s island dream is unique. If yours is to eat, then start planning a trip to Jersey where nearly 200 restaurants, four annual food festivals and regular farmers markets make eating a year-round sport. Go there at your fighting weight and let your hedonistic impulses run free: Never skimp on the rich butter and cream from Jersey’s eponymous cows, always take a helping of the delicate Jersey Royal new potatoes, say yes to your third round of Royal Bay oysters, and order lobster tail for lunch.

This southernmost English Channel Island is nearer to France than England, and its position in the path of the warm Gulf Stream creates an abundance of seafood, particularly shellfish. Hence, a favorite saying in Jersey French: Du paisson dait nagi trais fais: dans la me, dans l’beurre et dans l’vin.” Fish should swim three times: in the sea, in butter and in wine.” A great time to visit is during the Out of the Blue Maritime Festival (July 7-8) for a weekend of seafood, sea shanties, street theater and alfresco dining, plus a special-edition farmers market featuring the neighbors’ Norman-French products, such as foie gras, honey, cheese, candles and Calvados. It’s also a good place to try des mervelles, better known as “Jersey wonder,” deep-fried twisted-shape cakes that, in accordance with custom, are never made on a rising tide. www.jersey.com

Penang, Malaysia
Warning: If you love noodles but want to watch your carbs, tread carefully in Malaysia. There you’ll find a noodle dish called mee goreng. It’s a melting pot of flavors made spicy with chili peppers and seasoned with garlic, onion and curry powder. It’s highly addictive and ubiquitously available, mostly from the hawker stalls along the roads of Penang, the epicenter if Malaysian cuisine that is a fusion of Chinese, Indian and Malay – all groups represented on the island.

At these stalls, graze your way through dozens of dishes, sometimes served on banana-leaf plates: Taste satays, thin slices of skewered charcoal-cooked meats whose flavors explode in your mouth; char kway teow, stir fried rice noodles with egg, spring onions and shrimp prepared with curry paste in hot oil; popiah, a fresh spring roll filled with raw and cooked vegetables; and roti canai, a chewy Indian flatbread served with lentil curry. Don’t miss the pasar malam, or night market, in George Town where you can shop and eat, or the fishing village of Kuala Jalan Bahru for a bowl of assam laksa, a tangy fish soup with noodles topped with shredded pineapple, sliced green chilies and fresh mint. www.tourismpenang.gov.my

St. Martin, French West Indies
Who says you have to cross the big pond for authentic French cuisine? We say go south to the French West Indies in the Caribbean, including St. Martin and Guadeloupe. Half of St. Martin is a property of the French government. And though the island’s other half, St. Maarten, is a Dutch holding, dining a la mode francais is very much alive on both sides of the island. An evening-long, five-course meal is par for the course. French creole specialties intermingle with local fish and vegetables, including taro, pumpkin and coconut, but traditional Old World fare like boudin sausage (blood sausage) and rack of lamb is widely available.

Try the lamb in brik, a North African Arab-inspired dish of lamb cooked in spices for seven hours then tucked into a turnover. It’s known as Shank of Lamb at Sol’E Luna in Mount Vernon on the French side. As in Europe, bistro dining is popular here, but like the many haute eateries around the island, they can be expensive. The best bet for quick, cheap (yet skillfully prepared) food is one of the many lolos, or food shacks, lining the beaches, where you can eat grilled fish and jerked meats. The best lolos are on the piers at Grand Case on the north shore. www.st-martin.org; www.st-maarten.com

Guadeloupe, French West Indies
Cooking traditions run deep on Guadeloupe, where Gallic colonists first arrived in 1815. One of the best ways to sample Guadeloupe’s superior French technique is at the Fete des Cuisinieres, a festival celebrating the island’s traditional women cooks, held each August since 1916 on the Saturday closest to the feast day of the patron saint of cooks, Saint Laurent.

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Among the delights are bountiful seafood towers of crawfish and lobster as well as foods demonstrating strong culinary influences of East Indian, Arab and African migrants to the region, influences that include the prodigious and sometimes painful use of hot pepper and colombe, the local name for curry, which was brought here by East Indians and is a staple ingredient in island cooking. In fact, colombe de poulet, or chicken curry, is often considered the island’s “national” dish. Try it at Pipirite’s in the heart of Basse-Terre’s jungle. If you want to try to recreate the flavors found on the island, then don’t miss a visit to the Marche des Epices, the spice market in Point-a-Pitre. www.lesilesdeguadeloupe.com

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