Guyanese prepare three full meals every day. Breakfast usually consists of homemade bread with eggs, cheese, butter or a cooked vegetable and tea or coffee. Rice is a staple of the midday meal. It is eaten with beans, vegetables and meat. Poultry and seafood are popular. Traditionally, Hindus do not eat beef and Muslims do not eat pork.
The evening meal is more elaborate. The staple may again be rice, roti, which is a flat bread, or root vegetables such as cassavas and yams. Other vegetables, meat or seafood are also eaten with the evening meal. Fresh cow's milk may be part of the morning or evening meal. Guyanese cuisine is enriched by traditional foods from every ethnic group in the country: East Indian, African, Native, Chinese and Portuguese. These dishes have been adapted to Guyanese tastes, often by the addition of spices.
Another favourite dish is pepper pot, a stew made with bitter cassava juice, meat, hot pepper and seasoning. Other popular dishes are roti and curry, garlic pork, cassava bread, chow mein and "cook up", a one-pot meal which can include any favourite meats or vegetables. Popular homemade drinks are mauby, made from the bark of a tree, sorrel, made from a leafy vegetable used in salads, and ginger beer from the ginger root.
Here is a recipe for a popular dish. Garlic Pork Ingredients 2 kg boneless butt pork thickly sliced 2 cloves of crushed garlic 2 tbs crumbled dried thyme 2 chopped chili peppers 750 ml white vinegar 4 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar Preparation Mix the garlic, pepper, thyme, salt and sugar with 500 ml vinegar. Pour into a clean, dry jar. Reserve 250 ml vinegar. Rinse each slice of pork in the reserved vinegar with a fork. Marinate in garlic mixture for two days. Drain pork slices, place in a single layer in baking dish and bake for 60 minutes in medium hot oven. Serve with bread.