Tasting The Caribbean Cuisine

If there was ever a cuisine which came out of a thick fusion of various cultures, it has to Caribbean cuisine.

The cuisine in the Caribbean regions is the result of a fusion of traditions from Spain, Britain, India, China, Africa, Dutch, France and America. These islands were the homelands to settlers from various parts of the world.

It embraced all the cultures and their food is the prefect representative of this cocktail of cultures.

Caribbean cuisine is not just about spicy food. It has a succulent mixture of mild to hot curries, sauces, pungent vegetables, spiced meats and rice. The integral foods that Caribbean cuisine consists of are given below.

The �Jerk�

Jerk meats are very popular in these islands. Don’t be surprised if you see the word jerk written all over your menu at any local restaurant you visit.

Jerk is basically a spicy sauce. It has a unique flavor and very stimulating to the taste buds. Chicken and goat meat is spiced with Jerk sauce and barbequed or grilled. The result would be �jerk chicken� or �jerk goat�. Beef is also used commonly in this region.

Rice and Goat Curry

Rice is the staple food of the people living on these islands. You would that the typical boiled rice is usually quite thick and wide compared to the thin rice in India.

Goat curry and chicken are the usual accompaniments with rice. Curried meat is quite popular in this region especially in the islands of Tobago and Guyana. This cuisine originates from the direct influence of Indian culture.

Goat Water Stew

This tomato based stew is considered to be the national dish in Montserrat. The Caribbean goat water stew is a popular dish in most of these islands.

The usual ingredients of this stew would be goat meat, pawpaw, breadfruit and dumplings in tomato gravy. This stew is eaten mixed with rice or bread.

Cook-up and Callaloo

These strange sounding names belong to popular dishes in these islands. Cook-up is a non-vegetarian cocktail dish made up of chicken, pig tail, saltfish and beef with a few vegetables thrown in.

Callaloo is something of a soup made up of green vegetables, mostly okra. This dish is quite popular in the Caribbean.

Seafood

Shark, flying fish and crab are popular seafood in these regions. Seafood is cooked in a variety of ways and it changes from island to island.

Flying fish is highly popular in Barbados while Crab is the signature dish of Tobago and Trinidad.