Belize, a tiny corner of the Caribbean wedged into Central America, has been a fast food nation since buccaneers and pirates first stole ashore. As early as the 1600s it was already caught in the great paradox of globalization: how can you stay local and relish your own home cooking, while tasting the delights of the global marketplace? Menus, recipes and bad colonial poetry combine with Wilk's sharp anthropological insight to give an important new perspective on the perils and problems of globalization.

THE GLOBAL SUPERMARKET * Fast Food Planet? * Thinking More Clearly about Globalization * The Caribbean at the Vanguard of Globalization * A Radical Proposal * Why Start in Belize? * GLOBALIZATION THROUGH FOOD * Food as a way to Understand Globalization * My First Taste of Belize * A Long Global History * RECIPE: Creole Buns * PIRATES AND BAYMEN * Buccaneers at the River Balise * The Buccaneer Diet * Were the Buccaneers Farmers? * A Taste for Fish and Fat * Drinking Men * RECIPE: Salamagundy
* SLAVES AND MASTERS AT TABLE * Trade and Empire Conflict, Dislocation and Slavery * Slave Society * Slave Food * Globalization at the Margins * Out of Diversity, A Common Culture * RECIPE: Pork and Doughboys * THE TASTE OF COLONIALISM * Migrants and their Ethnic Stews * Racism on the Menu * Spicing up the Colonial Pot * Rum, Dancing, and Sexual Pleasure * Luxuries and Rewards * Global Food in Barrels and Bottles * RECIPE: Saltfish and Plantains * GLOBAL INGREDIENTS AND LOCAL PRODUCTS * Making and Mixing Local Food * Creoles in the Kitchen * Recipes for a New Cuisine * Class Boundaries and the Meaning of Food * Ethnic Lumps in a Creole Stew * RECIPE: Chicken Tacarry * FOOD POLITICS AND THE MAKING OF A NATION * Problems that Won't Go Away * Why Can’t Belize Feed Itself? * The Real Problem is Global, Not Local * National Thinking in a Global World * What is a Poor Country to Do? * Food on the Political Battlefield * RECIPE: Winter Fruit Salad * MIGRANTS, TOURISTS AND NEW BELIZEAN CUISINE * A New Kind of Globalization * Post-Colonial Cookbooks * The Legacy of Colonialism: Cultural Ambivalence * The Royal Rat: Building Pride in Local Food * Migration and the return of the Belizean-Americans * The Peace Corps and More * Authentic and Natural, with a Touch of Thai: Cruise Ships and Ecotourists * Nouvelle Belizean Cuisine and Roots Food * RECIPE: Chilled Canteloupe Soup, Cayo Cuban Sandwiches * FAST FOOD OR HOME COOKING * A World of Fast Food Nations? * Variety on the Menu in the Global Village * Biodiversity And Culidiversity * Home Cooking * RECIPE: Rice and Beans * Bibliography * Index