The Curaçao dish that stuffs a hollowed cheese wheel with spiced meat, vegetables, and olives is keshi yena.
Keshi yena literally means “filled cheese” in Papiamento. Cooks traditionally use the rind or shell of a large Dutch cheese, fill it with seasoned meat and ingredients such as onions, tomatoes, peppers, raisins, capers, and olives, and then bake it until the cheese softens and the filling is hot. Chicken is common, though other meats can be used.
The dish reflects Curaçao’s colonial history and the island’s multicultural foodways. One widely repeated account connects it with enslaved people who reused discarded cheese rinds from Dutch households, though details of its origin are presented differently in historical accounts. Keshi yena is specifically associated with Curaçao and should not be confused with cheese-stuffed pastries or baked pasta dishes.