Caribbean Food - A Little History

The Arawak, Carib, and Taino Indians had been the first inhabitants from the Caribbean islands. These initial inhabitants occupied the present day islands of British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Their day-to-day eating plan consisted of vegetables and fruits including papaw, yams, guavas, and cassava. The Taino started the method of cooking meat and fish in substantial clay pots.

The Arawaks would be the very first men and women recognized to produce a grate of thin green wood strips on which they gradually cooked meat, enabling it to be enhanced by the flavor from the wood. This grate was named a barbacoa, along with the word we know now as barbeque is taken from this early Indian cooking process.

The Carib Indians added a lot more spice to their meals with hot pepper sauces, as well as added lemon and lime juice to their meat and fish recipes. The Caribs are mentioned to possess produced the initial pepper pot stew. No recipes exist considering that each time the Indians created the dish, they would often add new components. The Carib had a significant impact on early Caribbean history, and also the Caribbean sea was named immediately after this tribe.

Then the Caribbean became a crossroads for the globe. ..

When the Europeans brought Africans slaves into the region, the slaves diet consisted mostly of food the slave owners did not need to consume. So the slaves had to become inventive, and they blended their standard African foods with staples located around the islands. The Africans introduced okra, callaloo, fish cakes, saltfish, ackee, pudding and souse, mangos, and the list goes on.

Most present day Caribbean island locals eat a present diet regime that is reflective of the major components of original early African dishes, and includes cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, bananas and corn meal.

African males had been hunters in their homeland, and often away from household for long periods of time. They would cook spicy pork over hot coals, and this tradition was refined by the early slaves in Jamaica. The method is recognized right now as "jerk" cooking, and also the secret entails a slow meat cooking process. Jamaica is well-known for jerk chicken and pork, and you are going to find jerk all over the island.

Just after slavery was abolished, the Europeans went to India and China for labor, and much more cooking styles How to bake bagel have been introduced. Substantially of your Indian cooking culture remains alive and effectively inside the Caribbean of today with the introduction of curried meats and curry powder. Indians contact it kari podi, and we've got come to know this pungent flavor as curry.

The Chinese introduced rice, that is normally a staple in dwelling cooked island meals. The Chinese also introduced mustard, along with the early Portuguese sailors introduced the well known codfish.

Most guests towards the Caribbean have no concept that the fruit trees and fruits so familiar towards the islands had been introduced by the early Spanish explorers. The fruit trees and fruits brought from Spain incorporate orange, lime, ginger, plantains, figs, date palms, sugar cane, grapes, tamarinds and coconuts.

Even the Polynesian islands play a vital part in Caribbean cooking. Most of us try to remember the film "Mutiny on the Bounty", but do not understand that certain ship carried breadfruit, which was loaded on board in the islands of Tahiti and Timor. In the movie the crew took more than the ship, forced the captain into a tiny boat to fend on his personal, and they threw the breadfruit, which they deemed "strange fruit" overboard. An additional ship was much more effective in bringing breadfruit from Polynesia to Jamaica plus the St Vincent as well as the Grenadines. Breadfruit is really a staple eating plan in the present day Caribbean

America is responsible for introducing beans, corn, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, and chili pepper to the Caribbean. The truth is these specific foods had by no means been noticed in Asia, Europe or Africa, so America in fact introduced these foods the rest of your world by means of the Caribbean.

So it really is no wonder Caribbean cooking is so wealthy and creative together with the flavors of Africa, India, and China, in conjunction with Spanish, Danish, Portuguese, French and British influences. Food served in the Caribbean islands happen to be influenced by the cultures of your globe, but every single island adds its personal unique flavor and cooking approach.