If you have an appetite for mouth-watering, spicy food with a vast range of exotic ingredients then the traditional cuisine of the southern Grenadines and Grenada is unsurpassable.
The food they serve up on Grenada and Carriacou bears influences from the islands’ colonial history as well as indigenous elements, making a virtue out of a somewhat unsettled and often violent past. French, African, Spanish and British culinary input has blended in with the local expertise to create a unique array of offerings for you to dip into and salivate over during your stay here.
The climate of the islands might lead you to expect something light, but the reality is a concentration on rather wholesome creations, with rice serving only as an accompaniment to stews and sauces and starchy local vegetables. And the omnipresent spices for which these islands are renowned form an intrinsic part of most dishes.
The national dish of the Grenadines is ‘Oil Down’, which consists of dasheen leaves, aubergine and root vegetables, all steamed to perfection in a mix of coconut milk and of course various spices, and left to stew in its own juices for a few hours.
Stews in all shapes and sizes are very popular: stewed fish, stewed beef, stewed pork – you name it. On Saturdays it is traditional for families to have fish broth and cow heel soup. Cow heel soup is especially nutritious and involves boiling cows’ heels and split peas for a couple of hours before adding potatoes and condiments, then dropping dumplings in and cooking for another half hour.
Black pudding is also a great favourite, probably derived from the British influence. Lambi is curried conch, pounded and sliced and mixed with a range of vegetables and spices, and fried jacks go down a treat as well.
These islanders are spoilt for choice when it comes to ingredients. The soil is so fertile and fed by sporadic, heavy rainfalls that the vegetation of the islands is lush and varied, and feeds livestock that fatten in no time to be incorporated into delicious meat dishes.
In the islands’ markets, the locally-grown food is piled into small mountains and almost spills into the streets. Sweet potatoes, eddoe, yam, figs, plantains… the list goes on and on. When European sailors used to arrive here a few hundred years ago they must have been overwhelmed by the food available, after months at sea living on weevil-infested biscuits and old salt pork, and their teeth falling out due to lack of Vitamin C. Here was a cure for scurvy if ever there was one!
Once you’ve started doing your own shopping at the market you’ll find it difficult to stop cooking these recipes with their endless variations. Try farine if you’re up for a culinary challenge, which can be eaten on its own with saltfish cakes or used to stuff fish before baking them.
The possibilities are infinite when it comes to either dreaming up original recipes or exploring the delights of the traditional Grenadine cuisine. No wonder these people always seem to have a big smile on their faces!
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