Windward Islands food - always to remember
Traditional food customs differ between the islands, but all of them are variations of Caribbean Creole cuisine. Windward Islands food and drink can be a delight and a shock to the Western palate, with its polar extremes of heavily fried foods and fresh fruit, but it's a varied cuisine that's well worth seeking out. A blend of African, Indian, Arab, Chinese, Spanish, French, Dutch and British influences, Caribbean cooking draws on a wide range of ingredients: African groundnuts, yams, okra and oxtail; East Indian curries and rotis; French Creole and bouillabaisse; and Spanish sofritos and citrus fruits. Typical traditional foods are funchi, a maize porridge, and pan bati, a pancake made of maize flour. Funchi and pan bati combined with carni stoba (a goat stew) form the basis of the traditional meal. Bolo pretu (black cake) is prepared only for special occasions. Fast food and international cuisine have become more popular since the establishment of tourism. Host to some of the Caribbean's finest resorts, St. Lucia is a luxury traveler's paradise. One great reason to visit is the food — tropical fruits growing in abundance on the island include mangoes, papayas, pineapples and passion fruit. St. Lucia has also garnered international acclaim for its unique Creole-inspired cuisine. Cooking styles in the Windward Islands are as diverse and heterogeneous as the various nations that have populated the region over the years. Generally, French and Spanish styles predominate, with lots of garlicky, tomato sauces served over fish, and meat cooked very simply in an oven or on an open grill. Vegetables usually come on the side, as do rice and beans. Yet despite similarities in cuisine, most of the islands have distinct leanings that show through in the most local of dishes and from top-notch restaurants to street-side stalls. Criollo cooking is popular on Spanish-speaking islands such as Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and makes liberal use of cilantro and mixed seasonings like adobo . Chefs in the Netherlands Antilles add Indonesian touches such as soy sauce, satay and nasi goreng, while old French colonies in particular have a tendency to cook in a Creole style, in which chives, bouquet garni and tomato are made into a delicious, thick sauce and applied liberally to fish and chicken. Jerk cooking is also common throughout the Caribbean, and originated with the African slaves who came to the islands in the 1600s, coated meat in spice mixtures (jerk) using island-grown ingredients such as ginger, thyme, allspice, hot peppers and green onion and then marinated it before cooking it very slowly in a pit, smoker or on a barbecue grill.
|
|
Windward Islands Vacations site
Our company is running one of the largest pc and mobile travel website networks, covering top hotel, vacation package, airline ticket, beach, cruise, all inclusive and honeymoon destinations worldwide.
We will also run a travel blog portal which centralises the blogs posted by our visitors on all of our websites and which represents one of the world's best travel information resources, totally build by people such as yourself.
In the link section, you can check more links to our travel website network as well as to other third party specialized websites as lastminute.com or orbitz.com which we suggest you to visit if are you planning a trip to Windward Islands .
|
