Caribbean Meals - A Little History

The Arawak, Carib, and Taino Indians have been the initial inhabitants of the Caribbean islands. These initially inhabitants occupied the present day islands of British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Their every day diet plan consisted of vegetables and fruits including papaw, yams, guavas, and cassava. The Taino began the method of cooking meat and fish in massive clay pots.

The Arawaks are the very first folks recognized to produce a grate of thin green wood strips on which they slowly cooked meat, allowing it to be enhanced by the flavor of your wood. This grate was named a barbacoa, along with the word we know these days as barbeque is taken from this early Indian cooking process.

The Carib Indians added far more spice to their meals with hot pepper sauces, and also added lemon and lime juice to their meat and fish recipes. The Caribs are said to have made the very first pepper pot stew. No recipes exist due to the fact every time the Indians created the dish, they would often add new ingredients. The Carib had a large effect on early Caribbean history, plus the Caribbean sea was named soon after this tribe.

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

After the Europeans brought Africans slaves into the area, the slaves diet program consisted largely of food the slave owners did not would like to consume. So the slaves had to become inventive, and they blended their traditional African foods with staples identified on the islands. The Africans introduced okra, callaloo, fish cakes, saltfish, ackee, pudding and souse, mangos, plus the list goes on.

Most present day Caribbean island locals consume a present diet program that is definitely reflective on the main ingredients of original early African dishes, and incorporates cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, bananas and corn meal.

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

Right after slavery was abolished, the Europeans went to India and China for labor, and much more cooking types how to bake focaccia bread had been introduced. Significantly with the Indian cooking culture remains alive and well inside the Caribbean of currently with all the introduction of curried meats and curry powder. Indians call it kari podi, and we've got come to know this pungent flavor as curry.

The Chinese introduced rice, that is generally 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 were introduced by the early Spanish explorers. The fruit trees and fruits brought from Spain contain orange, lime, ginger, plantains, figs, date palms, sugar cane, grapes, tamarinds and coconuts.

Even the Polynesian islands play a vital role in Caribbean cooking. The majority of us try to remember the film "Mutiny on the Bounty", but do not realize that particular ship carried breadfruit, which was loaded on board from the islands of Tahiti and Timor. Within the film the crew took over the ship, forced the captain into a compact boat to fend on his personal, and they threw the breadfruit, which they regarded as "strange fruit" overboard. Yet another ship was more profitable in bringing breadfruit from Polynesia to Jamaica and the St Vincent and the Grenadines. Breadfruit is really a staple diet inside the current day Caribbean

America is responsible for introducing beans, corn, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, and chili pepper towards the Caribbean. In truth these particular foods had in no way been noticed in Asia, Europe or Africa, so America really introduced these foods the rest of the world via the Caribbean.

So it is no wonder Caribbean cooking is so wealthy and creative using the flavors of Africa, India, and China, as well as Spanish, Danish, Portuguese, French and British influences. Food served within the Caribbean islands have already been influenced by the cultures of your world, but every single island adds its personal specific flavor and cooking strategy.