The many great foods you’ll taste while on vacation in the Caribbean
Travel The Culinary World Without Ever Leaving Your Caribbean Restaurant
Just imagine – you can travel the culinary world without ever leaving your seat in your favorite Caribbean restaurant. Come with us while we tour the world while sipping on a pina colada.
While cooling off while drinking that pina colada, just think of where the rum in that drink came from? The Spaniards who came roaring through the Caribbean five hundred years ago brought sugarcane with them. It was soon discovered that fermenting the cane led to this wonderful libation called rum! While we’re touring Spain, why not try anything with eggplant, cilantro, onion or garlic in it? These all came from Spain and other European countries. For dessert, how about a rum-soaked fruit salad with mangoes, oranges, and limes. Yes, these, too, all came from Europe.
Next stop on our global culinary tour is Africa. For appetizers, how about a salsa with pineapple? This was introduced by the slaves from Africa. Give them thanks for bringing over the jerk style of cooking as well. This was invented by African hunters who needed a way to preserve the game meat they killed on the hunting forays. Other African imports include okra, plantains, taro, breadfruit and callaloo.
If you don’t want to travel so far on your culinary journeys, how about Mexico? Their contributions to the Caribbean cuisine include papaya and avocado. Mull that over while you’re drinking your hot cocoa, as the cocoa beans were brought over by travelers from Mexico.
The Chinese immigrant laborers brought over both foodstuffs and cooking techniques. Caribbean cuisine has borrowed stir fry cooking and barbecue techniques (think Chinese spare ribs) from the Chinese. Many sauces are based on the brown soy suace and the sweet and sour sauce. And you can find many chow meins flavored with jerk seasoning in the Caribbean. And let’s not forget the dry rub spices – most of the spices and the whole concept of dry rubbing the meat came from China. Other foods include the many varieties of noodles that China is famous for, both rice and wheat based.
Traveling overland to India, start your meal off with the many varieties of bread borrowed from the Indian cuisine. From the breads sitting on your table that you nibble on before the appetizers come, to the flat breads that the main courses often are served on – these all come from India. Although you would think the rice would have come from China, the rice in Caribbean cuisine was actually brought over by the Indian laborers. The curry that is often used in the rice and vegetable dishes in Caribbean cuisine was also brought from India. The curry is derived from the Indian spice mix marsala, which is a specific blend of spices that the cook mixes together to complement the dish he is preparing. Prepare to be amazed at the variety of curries available in the Caribbean and think back to the boring choice of just the one available, pre-blended at most American supermarkets. You’ll never be able to go back to that one.
I hope you’re hungry after that global culinary tour through the Caribbean – now let’s go eat some jerk chicken!
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