The Arawak, Carib, and Taino Indians were the first inhabitants from the Caribbean islands. These first residents occupied the present day islands of Uk Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Their own daily diet consisted of vegetables and fruits for example papaw, yams, guavas, and cassava. The Taino started the process of cooking food meat and fish in big clay pots.
The Arawaks would be the first people known to make a grate of thin green wood pieces on which they slowly cooked meats, allowing it to be enhanced by the taste of the wood. This grate had been called a barbacoa, and the phrase we know today as barbeque will be taken from this early Indian cooking food method.
The Carib Indians additional more spice to their food along with hot pepper sauces, and also additional lemon and lime juice to their meats and fish recipes. The Caribs are said to have made the first spice up pot stew. No recipes can be found since every time the Indians produced the dish, they would always tasks ingredients. The Carib had a large impact on early Caribbean history, as well as the Caribbean sea was named following this tribe.
Then the Caribbean grew to become a crossroads for the world...
Once the Europeans brought Africans slaves into the region, the slaves diet plan consisted mostly of food the particular slave owners did not want to consume. So the slaves had to be inventive, and so they blended their traditional African meals with staples found on the islands. The particular Africans introduced okra, callaloo, seafood cakes, saltfish, ackee, pudding plus souse, mangos, and the list continues on.
Most present day Caribbean island local people eat a present diet that is reflecting of the main ingredients of unique early African dishes, and consists of cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, bananas and corn meal.
African men were hunters in their homeland, and often away from home for long periods of time. They might cook spicy pork over very hot coals, and this tradition was sophisticated by the early slaves in Jamaica. The technique is known today since "jerk" cooking, and the secret entails a slow meat cooking procedure. Jamaica is famous for jerk chicken plus pork, and you'll find jerk all around the island.
After slavery was removed, the Europeans went to India plus China for labor, and more cooking food styles were introduced. Much of the particular Indian cooking culture remains well and well in the Caribbean these days with the introduction of curried meat and curry powder. Indians call it up kari podi, and we have come to learn this pungent flavor as curry.
The Chinese introduced rice, that is always a staple in house cooked island meals. The Chinese language also introduced mustard, and the earlier Portuguese sailors introduced the popular codfish.
Most visitors to the Caribbean have no clue that the fruit trees and fresh fruits so familiar to the islands had been introduced by the early Spanish explorers. The fruit trees and fruits introduced from Spain include orange, lime green, ginger, plantains, figs, date hands, sugar cane, grapes, tamarinds plus coconuts.
Even the Polynesian island destinations play an important role in Carribbean cooking. Most of us remember the movie "Mutiny on the Bounty", but do not know that one ship carried breadfruit, which was packed on board from the islands of Tahiti and Timor. In the movie the particular crew took over the ship, pressured the captain into a small vessel to fend on his own, and they put the breadfruit, which they considered "strange fruit" overboard. Another ship had been more successful in bringing breadfruit through Polynesia to Jamaica and the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Breadfruit is really a staple diet in the current day Caribbean
America is responsible for introducing beans, corn, lead pages, potatoes, tomatoes, and chili spice up to the Caribbean. In fact these particular meals had never been seen in Asian countries, Europe or Africa, so The united states actually introduced these foods the rest of the planet via the Caribbean.
So it's no surprise Caribbean cooking is so rich plus creative with the flavors of The african continent, India, and China, along with The spanish language, Danish, Portuguese, French and Uk influences. Food served in the Carribbean islands have been influenced by the civilizations of the world, but each isle adds its own special flavor plus cooking technique.
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