About
Aruba’s most celebrated national dish — a whole Edam or Gouda cheese wheel hollowed out, filled with a richly spiced mixture of chicken or beef with olives, capers, raisins, peppers, and tomatoes, then baked until the cheese melts and the filling is fragrant and tender. The name literally means ‘stuffed skin’ in Papiamento. Born from Dutch colonial-era frugality — enslaved workers used the leftover cheese rinds after the colonial masters ate the interior — keshi yena is now a source of deep national pride.