From the fast food stands to the refined international cuisine of the great hotels and restaurants, Caribbean dishes are delicious.

The word “Creole” means, generally, “born in the islands but with foreign roots”. This description fits perfectly with the history and evolution of the region’s own cuisine, and although there are common roots, each one has their own dishes and savors. All of them have the extraordinary Amerindian and African legacy, as well as the fresh products growing in their prolific lands, and the abundance of seafood and others of high quality proceeding from the Caribbean and Atlantic oceans. The Creole cuisine has also received influences from the European colonialist countries, as well as from the workers communities that migrated from Asia. And the great diversity of products growing in these islands with such different topographies is also a major asset.

Fresh products From Land and Sea
When the first Amerindians arrived, in the islands were already wild animals like the agouti, iguana, deer, wild boar, water turtle, and the guinea pig. Men brought farm animals like chicken, goats, cows and pigs. Now there are many people that have a small farm or work in their own orchards. Rivers and swamps produce river crabs. But the major source of proteins comes from the abundant seafood and other fishes from the Caribbean and Atlantic oceans, for many the best in the world. The small distance between the sea and the table, allows seafood to always be served fresh, contributing to their excellent taste. The jewfish, barracuda, swordfish, bream, and the tuna fish are some of the typical fishes of the islands. The flying fish is served, specially, in Barbados restaurants, where the difficult art of taking off the spines, has been transmitted from one generation to another.

The Caribbean waters are also rich in sea crabs, lobsters, mollusks, porcupines and octopuses.

The Caribbean cuisine has, therefore, a great diversity of fresh ingredients to prepare exotic dishes in many different ways, that are always fascinating. 

The Culinary Legacy of the First Inhabitants
Some of the Caribbean cuisine dishes go back to the Amerindians age. For example, a stew prepared with meat, vegetables and hot peppers, and cooked in a black manioc sauce, a natural conserver used originally by hunters. It’s enough boiling the stew, to keep it in perfect conditions.

It is also usual to find in some restaurants and homes, some traditional clay pots called coneree, where stews are preserved for months, having to add fresh ingredients at the eating time. From this dish are elaborated soups with vegetables like the pumpkin and ñame, that differ slightly from the one cooked by the Amerindians.

Another of the favorite Amerindians foods was toast corn, now used as an appetizer. The corn, previously peeled, is grilled until it gets black. In fact, from these Indians comes the name of barbecue, a word that in their language meant “cooking on fire”. Amerindians also elaborated delicious bread based on corn and manioc.