Caribbean Cuisine

Originally, two Native American tribes occupied the islands - the Arawaks and Caribs. Food historians claim that the Caribs began the institution of spicing food with chili peppers, a culinary feature maintained today. The Caribs were also cannibals, a gastronomic trend that fortunately did not carry through to present.

The Arawaks are credited with beginning barbecue techniques, by fabricating grills with native green sticks called barbacoa. Crops tended by these Native Americans included taro root, corn, yams, cassava, and peanuts. Guavas and pineapple, as well as black-eyed peas and lima beans grew wild on the islands.

During the African slave trade that began in the early 1600's, foods from West Africa came to the Caribbean Islands, including okra, pigeon peas, plantains, callaloo, taro, breadfruit and ackee. Following the abolishment of the slave trade in 1838, laborers from India and China came to work in the fields and plantations, adding two very different culinary influxes to the already long list.

Today, Caribbean cuisine is a hodgepodge of culinary influences, including African, French, Spanish, Indian and Dutch. In Aruba you can feast on Indonesian-style rijstaffel, a popular Dutch meal consisting of numerous small dishes; Puerto Rico boasts Spanish-influenced asopao, meat- or seafood-and-rice stew similar to paella; and you can sample traditional French creole boudin - blood sausage - in Martinique.

Ackee and saltfish - dried, salted cod - is Jamaica's national dish, eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Ackee is a bright red, mild-tasting fruit that is toxic when underripe, so it's never eaten before it's fully ready. Jamaicans soak the saltfish in water, then boil and shred it. They saute the ackee with garlic, onions and peppers and serve with the fish, a perfect balance between the fruit's mildness and the cod's saltiness.

Vegetables, likewise, are prolific on the islands. Yams, pumpkin, yuca, calabaza, callaloo, chayote, sweet potatoes, okra, tomatoes, zuchinni, cucumbers, and bell peppers are all used to their full advantage. A variety of legumes are also popular, especially black beans used in popular Cuban black bean soup. Other common beans are pigeon peas, black-eyed peas, and red beans.

Because of the surrounding waters, it's inevitable that seafood - particularly fish - is an important part of Caribbean cuisine. Red snapper is abundant, and fish are often steamed, fried or stewed. One popular dish is blaff, named for the sound the fish makes when it's thrown into the cooking pot. Red snapper is marinated in limes, chiles and spices, then boiled with herbs such as chives and served with rice.

In most of the Caribbean, you can find variations on the classic soup callaloo, made from the spinach-like greens of the same name. The soup usually includes okra, hot chiles, limes, pork and crab, which makes for a hearty, green-tinged soup. And of course, there's the well-known seasoning called "jerk" - a fiery blend of about 20 ingredients, including hot chiles, garlic, onions and spices such as allspice and ginger. It's rubbed on meat, usually chicken or pork, which is then roasted for a mouth-burning experience.

Lush tropical fruits also make up a large portion of the Caribbean diet.Fruit also turns up at every meal, whether they're cooked as a side dish, incorporated into a main dish or savored as a dessert. Some fruits are enjoyed right off the trees as part of a meal or snack, but many are used for a variety of both sweet and savory dishes. Mangos and papayas are used in drinks, desserts like sherbets and mousse, and in fiery chutneys. Coconuts are used for coconut bread, coconut ice cream, flan, and that world-famous Pina Colada. Coconut milk is also used for meat sauces, and even cooked with beans. Plantains, which are similar to bananas, are eaten grilled, fried, prepared as crispy chips, or baked in meat pies.

Probably because of the preponderance of sugar cane in the islands, desserts are an important part of a Caribbean meal. They come in every form, from cakes, dumplings, bread and rice puddings, to flan, souffle and mousse. There are also frozen ices and sherbets. Many desserts utilize local fresh and dried fruits, sometimes sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and avocado; rum is sometimes an ingredient.

Rum! A delicious, slightly sweet distilled liquor made from sugar cane by-products (molasses), is produced in all sugar producing Caribbean countries.

Source: http://www.foodtv.com/cuisine/caribbeancuisine/0,5155,,00.html