What Is Unique About Caribbean Food?
The unique thing about Caribbean food and cuisine is how it took the various culinary influences from Spain, Great Britain, Africa, China and more and combined them into their own. The Caribbean did this so well so that many dishes we associate with the Caribbean, such as the jerk style of cooking, actually began somewhere else and was transplanted to the Caribbean.
Very few of the foods that we think of as Caribbean today were actually started there. Native foods grown on the islands include corn, yams, peanuts, and pinapples. Other items included black-eyed peas and lima beans. Ironically, some of these foods are not thought of as Caribbean at all, while things like jerk spices that originated somewhere else, are thought of as Caribbean traditional cuisine.
In the case of jerk cooking, it was thought to have started with hunters in Africa looking for a way to preserve the meat caught on the hunt. The Caribbean combined one of their inventions – barbecue – and now spice it with a dry jerk rub. The idea of jerk cooking came from the African continent, while the idea of using a dry spice rub to enhance the food came from China. Today, jerk cooking and barbecue is exclusively associated with the Caribbean.
Rum, still one of the Caribbean’s most popular drinks as well as one of its biggest exports, came from discovering that fermenting the sugarcane that the Europeans brought over led to this tasty concoction. Now you can’t find anyone that can name a quality rum that came from someplace other than the Caribbean.
Africa contributed many foodstuffs associated with the Caribbean today. Among them are okra, taro, plantains and breadfruit. These items, especially the plantains, are closely associated with Caribbean cuisine today. Plantains are used in salads, main dishes, and even sliced and deep fried for an appetizer or a snack. Coated in sugar, they’re eaten at dessert.
From India, the migrant laborers that came over brought masala, which is the original curry. Masala is just a combination of spices, picked to match the dish being cooked and enhance its flavor. It led to curry, which now too-often means a bunch of old spices thrown together and sold in the supermarket aisle. The Caribbean cooks took the masala and made it into their own style of curry, island style. It’s used most often with vegetables and starchy dishes with rice in them.
Even goat stew, arguably the most famous Caribbean dish, had its roots elsewhere. The animal itself was brought over from Africa. Prized for its milk from the females, the male goats were used to make goat stew, and flavored with native foodstuffs like peanuts. Added influences, like curry from India and onions and garlic from Europe, were added. Other influences are found in nearly every ingredient traditionally put in this stew – very few, if any, are native to the Caribbean. This is truly an international dish, no matter how Caribbean we may think it is.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this worldwide tour through the Caribbean – tonight let’s eat some Caribbean food and make a toast with rum to the Caribbean contribution to foodies everywhere.
Incoming search terms:
- aruba cooking jerk
- things associated with caribbean
- things associated with the caribbean
- what are unusual foods in the caribbean