Variety of Caribbean food

[mackie]

Almost all the islands are known distinctly for their own food as different islands are influenced more predominantly by former colonial powers. In Jamaica, we known for our jerk chicken, Trinidad is known for their Rotti (Indian), Barbados is known for their flying fish. The one thing that is constant across all islands are our use of spices.

 

[Arch]

It's a funny thing that over here in the UK, we're only just getting into Caribbean food as a population, despite having plenty of immigrants from those islands since the 50's and 60's, whereas Chinese and Indian foods are now more British than British food!

So it's a cuisine I know very little about. Happy to learn though!

 

[jodiann12]

Almost all the islands are known distinctly for their own food as different islands are influenced more predominantly by former colonial powers. In Jamaica, we known for our jerk chicken, Trinidad is known for their Rotti (Indian), Barbados is known for their flying fish. The one thing that is constant across all islands are our use of spices.

I'm from Jamaica, too. (Hello, yardie! Wha a gwaan! . I love jerk chicken, jerk pork, jerk anything. But I have to disagree with you that this was influenced by colonial powers. The Tainos, the first indigenous people who lived in Jamaica, came up with the idea of jerking meat, which is similar to barbecue, and used to preserve the meat. The Arawaks took jerking meat to another level, and placed the meat on pimento wood to flavor it. They also crushed bird pepper and rock salt in a mortar and pestle, and used wild cinnamon leaves and thyme to season the meat.