Caribbean regions

The Caribbean is not one pantry.

Regional map

Jamaica: jerk, rice and peas, curry goat/chicken, oxtail, brown stew, escovitch fish, ackee and saltfish, patties. Scotch bonnet, allspice/pimento, thyme, scallion, ginger, browning sauce, coconut milk, and Jamaican curry powder matter.

Trinidad & Tobago / Guyana / Indo-Caribbean: roti, dhalpuri, doubles, channa, curries, pepper sauces, green seasoning, tamarind, cumin, and Indian-indentured labor history. Curry powder here is not generic supermarket curry powder; it has its own Caribbean logic.

Puerto Rico / Cuba / Dominican Republic: sofrito/recaíto, adobo, sazón, annatto/achiote, culantro, sour orange, rice and beans, roast pork, plantains, yuca/cassava, escabeche, and mojo. Keep these separate from Jamaican and Indo-Caribbean pantries.

Haiti / French Antilles: Haitian epis as the aromatic base; pikliz for acid/heat/crunch; griot, diri kole, soup joumou, accra, and French/African/Indigenous threads. Epis is not just sofrito renamed.

Bahamas / Barbados / coastal islands: seafood, conch, fish, peas and rice, pepper sauces, pickled or escovitch-style fish, rum/molasses, and British colonial influence. Seafood and preservation matter here.

Suriname / Dutch Caribbean: strong Javanese, Indian, Chinese, Indigenous, African, and Dutch influence. Don't treat Dutch-Caribbean or Surinamese cooking as a footnote to the Anglophone islands.

Foundations

Indigenous Caribbean foodways include cassava/yuca, casabe/bammy, peppers, seafood, barbecue/barbacoa traditions, and local starches. African-Caribbean foundations include ground provisions, plantains, yams, okra/callaloo, rice traditions, saltfish, and provision-ground history. Colonial sugar economies shaped molasses, rum, black cake, pepper sauces, and the plantation food system.