Dining Out: Caribbean Cuisine

Characteristics:

A combination of African and Spanish cooking, spices and fruits are its signature.

Common Ingredients:

Variety of seafood, spicy meats, tropical fruits, hot peppers, and root vegetables.
Hidden Dangers:
  • Rice and beans—If it’s plain and basic, that’s fine. But this is often coated in high-fat coconut milk.
  • Callaloo dishes usually contain salt pork and coconut milk.

Healthy Finds:
  • Jerk Chicken—smoked and seasoned with peppers, and served with a number of tropical fruits.
  • Stew Peas & Rice—pork or beef with kidney beans over rice. Often comes with flour dumplings called spinners.
  • Escoveitch Fish—marinated with vegetables, peppers and vinegar, and served over rice with plantains and fruit chutney.

The Big Tip:

Scotch bonnet peppers should throw up a red flag. Unless you LOVE the hottest of hot peppers, your mouth may regret it!

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