Following his recent adventure to the remote island of Príncipe, acclaimed travel and food writer Paul Richardson (Financial Times, Conde Nast Traveller and The Daily Beast) dishes all on the island’s natural produce and unique cuisine.
*Header image courtesy of Scott Ramsay, www.LoveWildAfrica.com, and HBD Príncipe
By Paul Richardson
Marooned off the coast of West Africa, Príncipe was already a remote and inaccessible place when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But in March 2021, the island was plunged into even greater isolation. No planes landed at its minuscule airport; no boats brought goods from neighbouring São Tomé. Yet no one went hungry – there was plenty of fish in the pristine waters around Príncipe’s verdant coastline, and an abundance of fruit in the equatorial forests that cover it almost from end to end.
Measuring just 16km long and with a population of only 7,000, this magical island seems to exist in a parallel universe where time moves slowly, and nothing disturbs the placid rhythms of daily life. But tiny Príncipe is big on surprises. Not only do its pristine woodlands harbour a greater biodiversity than many places twenty times its size, but (partly as a result of this diversity) the island has a rich larder of ingredients and a fascinating traditional cuisine.
First Impressions of Príncipe’s Produce
Even as I headed across the island from the airport, I was struck by the cornucopia of local produce – the pineapples, mangoes and papayas, heaped up on rickety stalls along the roadside. Chickens, small brown pigs and miniature goats scampered under shack-like houses raised on stilts. Women (and it was always women) carried tubs of fish on their heads. This was a subsistence economy where luxuries were rare, but at least it appeared to be well supplied with good fresh food.
PICTURED: Fresh cacao. Photo Credit – HBD Príncipe
As I was to discover, Príncipe’s fertile volcanic soils and generous rainfall provide the perfect conditions for tropical agriculture. During the Portuguese colonial period, the island was divided into huge plantations called roças, where first sugar cane, then cacao, was produced on a large scale by indentured workers brought in from Cape Verde.
One of these roças is Sundy, now under the management of the sustainable development company HBD (Here be Dragons), which is currently replanting its extensive cacao groves and bringing them back into production. HBD has also opened two bijou hotels on the estate: Sundy Praia, a collection of luxury tented pavilions behind the beach, and Roça Sundy, the 1921 plantation house transformed into an elegant country retreat.
PICTURED: Roça Sundy aerial. Photo Credit – HBD Príncipe
On a guided walk through Sundy’s 1,700 hectares of woodland, I learned about the eccentric personality of the cacao tree, which hates direct sunlight and prefers the shelter of much taller trees. On the forest floor lay a pile of ripe pods, recently harvested, their autumnal colours a mixture of deep red and orange, tinged with pale green and purple. On a grassy square beside the plantation house stood the farm buildings where, in Sundy’s colonial heyday, cacao was dried and processed. HBD had recently built a new drying hall where the beans were spread out in the sun, giving off a haunting smell of fermenting fruit.
From Plantation Past to Sustainable Future
The next morning, I made an excursion to the nearby Paciência estate – headquarters of HBD’s agricultural project. Under the guidance of John McLea, its South African director, this roça produces all the herbs, fruit and vegetables used in HBD’s hotel kitchens and sells its surplus production into the local market.
PICTURED: Roça Paciência. Photo Credit – HBD Príncipe
McLea walked me through a vegetable garden where okra, yams, sweet potatoes and ‘turtle leaf’, a kind of tropical lettuce, rubbed shoulders with tomato, carrot and aubergine. The estate was hugely productive. Ginger, black pepper, vanilla pods and ylang-ylang flowers grew in the surrounding woods. Cold-pressed coconut oil was on sale in a farm shop, along with the products of HBD’s cacao-growing operation – not just a superb organic chocolate, but also a cacao vinegar and a ‘honey’ made from the white mucilage surrounding the cacao bean.
PICTURED: Chocolate being prepared at Roça Paciência. Photo Credit – HBD Príncipe
Staff at Paciência had recently discovered that the roça’s coffee plants belong to the rare Liberica strain, with a pure genetic line that has suffered no cross-contamination thanks to Príncipe’s remote location. “This is what I call a ‘food forest’. It’s such a generous ecosystem – I think that’s why people here have survived with so little for so long”, said McLea.
Tasting the Wild Heart of Príncipe
My travels across the island showed me a place where food and cooking were intimately connected with the natural environment. Locally landed fish was by far the most common protein – the favourites being concon and azeite, grilled with fried plantain and toasted manioc flour or simmered with vegetables and palm oil in a spicy casserole called molho no fogo. At the exotic end of the spectrum were forest snails and even monkey (an invasive species on Príncipe), which was stewed and served with rice.
In a community with little in the way of disposable income, restaurants in the conventional sense were thin on the ground. In any case, given the good eating to be had at Sundy Praia, it made little sense to look elsewhere.
PICTURED: Bay of Needles boat trip. Photo Credit – HBD Príncipe
Night after night, chef Alexander – a local boy trained up by HBD – worked miracles with island ingredients. There was crab bisque with ginger and lemongrass, octopus with palm oil and tomato cream, and a textbook calulu containing, according to Alexander, no less than 35 different herbs gathered in the forest.
A Moment to Savour
But if there was a culinary memory that will stay with me forever, it was a meal of the simplest possible sort. The setting was Praia Banana, one of Príncipe’s sublime beaches, where the jungle vegetation comes right up to the fine yellow sand. Staff from the hotel had discreetly prepared a picnic under the palms. Meaty slabs of azeite fish had been grilled over driftwood coals in an old iron wheelbarrow. Watermelon and papaya lay in slices on shiny green banana leaves. Slices of plantain were fried to a crisp and salted. I slaked my thirst with fresh coconut water straight from the shell. Despite its simplicity, this was a feast fit for a king. Then again, as the islanders themselves are fond of saying, “we are all princes here”.
Tailor your São Tomé & Príncipe Holiday with Rainbow
Inspired to experience São Tomé and Príncipe for yourself? Let our Travel Specialists craft your journey, including the barefoot beach picnics and cacao plantation visits mentioned in this article. Plus, there’s a whole host of wildlife experiences, from watching various turtle species make their way to the ocean to observing the melodious Dohrn's warbler.
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