Belize’s First SERIOUS Deli: The Farm House Deli in Belmopan

Living on Ambergris Caye, Belize, I miss some simple things but I obviously find that the pluses make up for the minuses since in May, it’ll be my 9 year Belize anniversary!  I miss magazines and the Sunday New York Times, I miss a bit of shopping but not much and I miss sandwiches.  Great deli sandwiches.  I love a big plate of rice and beans…a huge hot lunch.  I eat it 3 or 4 times a week.  But sometimes I just crave a sandwich…

….sometimes just turkey and deli American cheese but sometimes a big salty, fatty honker of a corned beef, mustard and rye.

And now, it can be found in Belize.  No, no…seriously.

Canadian born Ian Anderson, of Ian Anderson’s Caves Branch Resort, has lived in Belize for years.  But over the past few, he has picked up a few new hobbies…like farming, animal husbandry, cheese making (he offers expert cheese making courses at the resort), meat curing, pickling, baking…as if running a large resort was not enough.

The Farm House Deli opening in December of 2015…and I’ve been dying to visit it.  But it is 70 miles away, on the mainland, in Belize’s capital city of Belmopan.

I stopped in a few weeks ago but they are currently closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  I carefully chose my passport pick-up time to eat some pastrami.

CHARCUTERIE!  CHOCOLATIER!  OOH LA LA!  I headed there Thursday afternoon for a sandwich before my appointment at the US Embassy.

Here is what I saw.  All a sight to my sore eyes after water taxi and bus travel.

Homemade cream cheese to camembert to “Mr Stinky”.

A bit of outside dining but inside this farmhouse table.  That I shared with Ian himself and a few guys from the US Embassy.

The whole back 1/3 of the large room is a glassed off kitchen and bakery.  So you can watch the magic happen.  Like the magic that is the dessert selection.

I sat down at the table and was given a menu.  The staff here is SOOO good.  Each counter you approach, someone asks you if you have questions, do you want a taste some cheese or some smoked fish?  You could spend a very long time in here.

Just a portion of the lunch menu.  But enough for me.

But I’m not here to fool around.  For me, it was a reuben sandwich – the all-out-belly-buster New York deli favorite.

Reuben as defined by Wikipedia:  The Reuben sandwich is an American hot sandwich composed of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian or Thousand Island dressing, grilled between slices of rye bread.

I decided, at Ian’s recommendation, to have it with the pastrami.  And GOOD LORD WAS IT GOOD.

Enough for two hungry people for sure.  But I wasn’t taking half in a to-go container to get all mushy on the bus ride home.

A whole platter of homemade sour pickles and slaws…homemade mustard.  It was…heaven.  Fatty but not too fatty, salty but not too salty…the meat was gorgeous.

And then I was presented with a cheesecake.  Not a slice of cheesecake but again, one big enough for two or three.  Frappucinno flavored with white chocolate.

This I had to share with the US Embassy guys.

A THICK cinnamon-y cookie crust, cheesecake so smooth from the homemade cream cheese…I have had some amazing cheesecake in Belize.  Really.  At Sweet Ting in San Ignacio (DELICIOUS) and Sugafix Bakery in Belize City, in San Pedro at the Holiday Hotel, they have the most delicious banana cheesecake but this!  I couldn’t stop eating.

I was starting to cold food sweat.

This deli is the real real deal.  And Ian described that it will double in size over the next year to integrate a…healing center.  Teas and tonics…herbs and spices…and more seating for the deli.

It will be great to know that I can detoxify myself soon after I’ve finished about 3000 calories worth of food.  Hopefully tumeric tea will go a long way.

Visit this spot!  And follow them on Facebook.  The food is not cheap but what you get is well worth it.  From a NJ/NYC girl, I can tell you, THIS is a deli.  And when Ian asked me if there was anything I would change about my sandwich, I asked him how many people have asked for Thousand Island Dressing (rather than mustard- which I love).  He said none.   Huh.

Next time, I’m getting the bagel.

And the cheesecake.