Tantalizing spices transform the mundane into the extravagant, creating a Caribbean gastronomical odyssey.
Through the seafood-rich Bahamas and the islands of the Greater Antilles--Cuba, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) Puerto Rico, and Jamaica southerly to the small pearls of the Leewards and Windwards--among them the French departements of Guadeloupe and Martinique--pause at the Dutch Antilles, meander to the tiny Grenadines and Barbados, touch at Trinidad and Tobago, and finally curl by mainland Guyana to the south. Interspersed in the sparkling, azure Caribbean are dozens of islands, which, along with lands bordering the eastern coastline of Central America, comprise cultures and sovereignties that share gustatory history.
Unlike European, Asian, and African cuisines, which are steeped in undisputed, identifiable culinary traditions, Caribbean cooking is marvelously eclectic. Throughout the various colonizations and the settling of slaves and indentured laborers at the islands' plantations, most dishes bear foreign influence and are confluences of superb ethnic blends.
Cornish pastries and meat and potato-filled pastries are today's delicious Jamaican meat patties--bursting with highly peppered seasonings. And didn't the Spanish bequeath escabeche or escovitch (pickled fish), a perennial favorite? Only now it dares with a kind of calypso/salsa tempo--full of island flavor and incendiary intrigue. Don't forget the French, who dangled haute cuisine, leaving boundins, court-bouillons and flambes drenched in dark, celebrated rums--the island's legitimate potion; and also the Dutch, who left their stuffed Goudas, and the Portuguese, who contributed garlic pork--a festive favorite in southern island ports.
To add spice to the potage of cultural ingredients, West African slaves introduced their know-how in cooking root vegetables--yams and cassava, beans and coconut milk. Chinese immigrants threw in stir-fried and sweet-and-sour wizardry, and indentured east Indians enticed us with captivating curries and flat breads.
Pepper--The Master Spice
The unique feature of Caribbean cuisine is its preparation, which masters the spicing and seasoning of foods with a pinch here and a dash there. Allspice (pimento), thyme, curry powder nutmeg, and ginger are some of the main spices employed to tantalize the palate. But of course, the "master spice" for which island cooking receives the most oohs and aahs is pepper.
Caribbean food is inexpensive and hearty. The cuisine claims no delicate lineage, seeks no great merit. Many dishes reflect a humility born of a place and time when a person's daily needs came from one pot. No wonder then that many are pilafs, mixed in their composition, but serving a single purpose--to satisfy.
"Island cooking," as Caribbean cooking is sometimes called, is difficult to define and categorize; a single dish can vary from kitchen to kitchen or from island to island. And many times the outcome depends on the improvisational savvy of the cook using ingredients at hand to create variations on a theme.
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