In the Caribbean more so than in most other parts of the world, food is a reflection of culture. Slaves from Africa brought their African culinary traditions with them when they were transported to plantations in America and the Caribbean. The plantations looked for inexpensive labour once slavery was abolished in the Caribbean. Most of those new employees are from China and India. The result was a great blend of East Indian, Chinese, and African influences in island cuisine that is still popular today.
Each island has a different ratio of components, which affects the flavour and texture of the food. The Caribbean's method of preparing flavorful, all-natural ingredients and the robust cuisine that results are distinctive as a whole. It is tough, nutritious, and spicy.
This hybrid cuisine and eating approach is by no means elegant. It all comes down to passion. Even though I just had dinner, just remembering Trinidad and the street cuisine makes me hungry! Curried goat in a dhal poori, fried bread and curried chickpeas, bake and shark, conch ceviche, fried conch from the Bahamas, stew mutton, salt fish fritters, tania fritters, the kind of breadfruit imported from Africa, jerk chicken from Jamaica, curried beef patties, fried plantain, and Barbados rum cake... I could go on forever, but I'll stop out of respect for your palate.
I've been incredibly lucky that every location I've worked and lived in has been able to provide me with amazing gastronomic experiences.
But if I had to pick only one, Goa would be the most enlightening. I became more aware of how some foods may cross borders and unite peoples and cultures of far-off places when travelling around India after my periods in the Caribbean, and Goan food has the capacity to do just that.
Today, the concept of culinary culture is international. I simply hope that as boundaries disappear and we become a part of a global community, we don't lose sight of our own unique cultures and traditions.
In some ways, when we try to make traditional recipes overly elaborate and intricate, we are compromising their integrity. We must keep in mind that things have been done a specific way for a reason—they functioned, and the method of preparation itself was a part of the culture. Reproducing anything authentically means being faithful to the culture and the dish.
It is becoming more and more usual to mutilate traditional cuisine and ignore the history and tradition of long-established and long-honored recipes. Nevertheless, I don't see anything wrong with enhancing recipes by using top-notch products and contemporary cooking methods. The intention is to accomplish this while preserving what may be referred to as the dish's essential bloodline.
My own culinary background brings to mind a beer-braised sailor's beef stew that my grandpa used to make for family feasts when I was a young child. Another was a sort of Swedish rice porridge, a recipe from my grandma. Now that I think about it, food has come full circle.
Less is more and the old becomes new. Maintaining cleanliness is essential while cooking precisely and focusing on the quality of the raw ingredients. By "clean," I refer to a certain conceptual elegance; to the attractive and practical simplicity of a dish's composition and presentation.
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