Footprints Of The Arabs In Caribbean Cooking
By: Habeeb Salloum/Contributing writer
Fiery, spicy and exciting is how most visitors who love fine foods usually describe the cuisine of the Caribbean Islands, collectively known as the West Indies. Their dishes, a world of gourmet delights, are a medley of African, Asiatic, European and Middle Eastern foods, enhanced by the Islands’ host of unique fruits and vegetables. This exotic mixture has produced a Caribbean kitchen which is, perhaps, more varied than any place else on earth.
Consisting of a great arc of islands stretching from Florida to the South American mainland, the West Indies are inhabited by an amalgam of races who have developed a rich cuisine. The interplay of the delicate blends of the foods of the original peoples, the Arawak and Crib Indians who were almost totally exterminated by the European invaders, along with those foods introduced by overseas immigrants have created a rich Caribbean kitchen. The foods brought by the British, Dutch, French, Spanish and millions of African slaves intermingling with those introduced by the Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern immigrants, have been combined to develop a mouth-watering Caribbean cuisine.
The Dutch left a trace of their taste in Curaçao and the other islands they colonized; the French imparted their cuisine to Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique and to a few other places; the British bequeathed some of their dishes to Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and numerous other islands; and the Arab, Chinese and Indian immigrants added their host of foods. However, it was the Spaniards and the African slaves who had the greatest hand in creating the culinary art of the Caribbean islands.
The Puerto Rican okra stew, Quingombos Guisados, is without doubt one of these foods. Okra, whose English name could well have been derived from its African name uehka and thereafter transmitted through Arabic in western languages, came with the slaves from Africa to the Americas. However, it was not native to West Africa from where the slaves mostly came. In previous centuries, Arab traders had spread its cultivation from Ethiopia, its land of origin, to most of Africa where it became a favoured food.
Also, a chicken dish in almond sauce, Pollo En Salsa De Almendra like other chicken dishes cooked with almonds and commonly found in West and North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, were brought to the islands by either the West African slaves or the Conquistadors.
The Arab influences, via way of the Iberian Peninsula, are today to found in Cuba, the largest Caribbean island, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico that make up most of the land area of the West Indies. They are all Spanish- speaking and hence, Iberian Peninsula foods, heavily influenced by the Arabs and adjusted to the islanders’ taste, are very widespread.
image: Ajilimojili
One such dish, Ajilimojili, a hot garlic sauce, is the same as the garlic sauces of southern France and the Iberian Peninsula, introduced by the Moors. The Spaniards introduced it into Latin-speaking America and the Caribbean. Sans the peppers, unknown in Medieval Europe, this dish could very well have been prepared in Moorish Spain. Moros y Christianos, a Cuban style black beans dish, and the almond punch, Horchata de Almendra, a drink of pure Moorish origin, are other legacies of the Arabs in Spain.
As well, the pickled haddock appetizer, Robalo En Escabeche and the pickled chicken dish, Pollo en Escabeche are common of the once Spanish island colonies. Found in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean nations, these dishes derive their name from escabeche (Arabic sikbāj – derived from Persian), a meat stew made with vinegar which was once enjoyed in medieval Arab Spain. The influence of this dish even spread to some of the English-speaking islands. A common dish in Jamaica, Escovitch is only another version of the Spanish Escabeche.
On the other hand, whatever their colonial past the majority of the Caribbean population, many who are descendants of African slaves, have developed throughout the islands a somewhat common cuisine. Their dishes, which tend to island hop, in the vast majority of cases originated in Africa – a good number influenced by medieval African Arab traders.
Enhancing these tasty African edibles are the immigrant foods of China, the Indian sub-continent and the Greater Syria region of the Arab world. Throughout the years, most of the descendants of these settlers from the Asiatic lands have lost their languages and traditions, but not their food. In fact, a number of their dishes, prepared Caribbean style, are today enjoyed by most of the Islands’ peoples.
The numerous eggplant dishes, found in the Caribbean but much more spiced, all have their origin in the Middle East. The Dominican Republic eggplant purée, called, Caviar de Berenjena, almost a carbon copy of Baba Ghannuj, a dish made in the Arab East, came to the West Indies by way of the Conquistadors or was introduced by Syrian/Lebanese immigrants.
With their wealth of exotic fruits and vegetables like avocado, breadfruit, callaloo, cassava, guava, mango, papaya, plantain, yams and grapefruit – a Caribbean creation – the West Indians have modified and spiced the immigrant foods to suit their palates. The fusion of these tropical fruits and vegetables with the cooking of the European colonizers, African slaves and immigrant population, not least of which were the Arabs, have given the Caribbean cuisine its character and shape.
Local fruits and vegetables, Caribbean.
In this evolvement of the Islands’ foods, the Arabs by the way of the Iberian Peninsula’s Moors, African slaves and Syrian immigrants have left their mark. Today, in almost all the Caribbean islands as well as the edging nations like Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico and beyond, the foods of the Arabs have found a home. Syrian/Lebanese restaurants saturate these lands and Arabs dishes like Kubbah, Safeehah and Hummus have become national foods in a number of these countries. Without question, the footprints of the Arabs in Caribbean and Latin American cooking can be truly seen by those who seek the history of foods.
Habeeb Salloum
