In recent years, the Caribbean culinary scene has – ahem – mushroomed into a cause for celebration. Whether you're interested in exploring myriad variations of a single foodstuff (conch, for example, or the oft overlooked yam) or prefer a bit more diversity in your epicurean adventures, there's a food festival on the calendar that's sure to please your palate while anchoring an appetizing vacation.
Puerto Rico Wine & Food Fest
San Juan, Puerto Rico
August 28-29, 2009
Local chefs shine alongside their international counterparts at this annual event, now in its third year. Held in San Juan's massive convention center, the festival is a wall-to-wall food extravaganza, its perimeter lined with booths serving up samples from more than 40 local restaurants and wine tastings from more than 350 vineyards and vintages. This year, local chefs will compete in cook-offs while international culinary celebs offer seminars. San Juan's Wine & Food Fest is crowded and exciting - like the city itself. prwineandfoodfest.com
Taste of Barbados
Island-wide - Barbados
October 7-11, 2009
One of the region's biggies, this festival features five days of tastings and events across the island. Expect an island sugar tour, dinners prepared by celebrity chefs, interactive Bajan cooking seminars and - our favorite - the Best Big Bajan Barbecue. Barbados is justly famous for rum, so consider it your culinary duty to partake in the festival's rum tastings and rum-shop tours. tasteofbarbados.com
Turks and Caicos Conch Festival
Blue Hills, Providenciales
November 28, 2009 
Seaside tents outside Three Queens Bar & Restaurant will be overflowing for the sixth annual celebration of this ubiquitous mollusk, which is farmed on the island. Local restaurants compete for salad, chowder and specialty prizes; your ticket gets you a taste of all the entries (last year there were 20 restaurants). Take part in conch-blowing and conch-knocking (removing from the shell) contests, and watch the Aqua Bar & Terrace Restaurant defend its three-years-running Grand Champion status. Younger conch-lovers have kids games and cartoon character appearances to amuse them. conchfestival.com
St. Croix Food & Wine Experience
Christiansted, St. Croix
April 13-17, 2010
What started a decade ago as the one-night Taste of St. Croix has since blossomed into a five-night festival. Thursday's Taste is still the highlight, with more than a thousand people crowding a beachside strip at the Divi Carina Bay Beach Resort, several bands playing, local restaurants dishing out specialties, and luminaries presenting "best of" awards in categories from appetizers to desserts. Round out the week with fancy dinners prepared by celebrity chefs at private estates and historic homes. Organized walking tours of restaurants in Christiansted provide the lay of the land for your return visit. stcroixfoodandwine.com
Trelawny Yam Festival
Trelawny, Jamaica
April 2010
Yam on it: This Easter-weekend festival (likely to be held on Saturday, April 3, and Monday, April 5) promises to be tuberrific. Founded in 1997, this festival takes place in various locations around Jamaica's biggest yam-producing parish, Trelawny, thirty minutes east of Montego Bay. It offers a uniquely yammy series of events, including yam hill-digging, hot-yam-eating competitions, a yam market and a culinary competition featuring yam recipes. Give the kids some yam-flavored ice cream while you sip yam wine and enjoy the fun. stea.net
Taste T&T
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
May 2010
If it's anything like last year's two-day event at Trinidad's National Stadium, you'll find a demonstration by winners of the Pot Spoon Throw Down competition, which has sparring island chefs preparing such Trini faves as shark 'n' bake (the island's version of fish and chips), doubles (a round sandwich made of fried bread filled with chickpeas) and corn soup. Stick around for the post-festival Restaurant Week and enjoy discount eats at the home bases of participating chefs. gotrinidadandtobago.com
San Pedro Lobsterfest
Ambergris Caye, Belize
June 2010
June marks the beginning of lobster season in Belize, and you can bet the folks on laid-back Ambergris, one of the country's most popular tourist destinations, will celebrate the occasion in style. Highlights of the 2009 festival included a lobster-catching competition, parties featuring a huge variety of lobster-based dishes, an all-you-can-eat buffet of lobster pizza and ceviche, and a closing-night block party with music, crafts, fire-walker demonstrations and, of course, the crowning of the Lobsterfest King and Queen. sanpedrolobsterfest.com
Portland Jerk Festival
Portland, Jamaica
July 2010 Sure, there's face-painting, carnival rides, and endless live music and dancing at this annual bash, held on the grounds of Folly Great House, near Port Antonio on the island's northeast coast. But you'll want to focus on the stalls offering jerk, the famously spicy barbecue that is the parish of Portland's claim to fame. Sample everything from jerk fish and lobster to jerk chicken and pork in this tribute to a distinctly Jamaican form of culinary heat. visitjamaica.com
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