Caribbean cuisine & foodways

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Debuting on Island TV​

The first-ever Caribbean-themed cooking show is debuting its pilot season. Caribbean Cook-Out focuses on the multi-dimensional aspect of the Caribbean and creates a platform for spicy conversations on topics that impact this vibrant community, over our shared love of food.​

With over 700 islands, the Caribbean is home to some of the world’s favorite dishes. The flavors are bold and the region’s rich culture makes the perfect recipe for an ideal battle of the best in Caribbean culinary.

The pilot series celebrates and elevates Caribbean culture by exploring the unique stories and people behind the region's mesmerizing cuisines

 

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Podcast based out of London, England

Unsavoury Ethnic Types​

7/18/2020

Episode 2: Caribbean food​

Season 1, Ep. 2
Carl leads the discussion around the popularity of Jamaican food and culture but explains how there is much more to Caribbean food than jerk chicken and rice and peas as he reflects on his dual Barbadian and Jamaican heritage. We also speak to the folks of Jerk in da park, a Waterloo based eatery who share their views on what makes jerk chicken so unique

 

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Premiers June 24

Meet the Contestants: Irma​

Irma Cádiz (New York, NY) grew up eating Dominican and Puerto Rican food and loves to prepare her mother’s recipes as a tribute to her family’s Caribbean heritage. Raised in a multicultural environment in Rochester, New York, she experienced a wide range of cuisines but wasn’t always a fan of cooking. Her mother encouraged her to join her in the kitchen, but it wasn’t until Irma had her own children that she learned to love it.
For the past decade, she has lived in New York City’s Harlem with its diverse culinary scene. Irma recently completed her college degree and has started her own business, where she specializes in Latin-inspired cocktails. Irma is an actor and current member of the Chelsea Repertoire Theatre, where she continues to hone her craft. Her signature dish is mofongo con camarones, a popular Caribbean comfort food made from mashed plantains and shrimp

 

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‘Hot Ones Caribbean’ Season 2 to Film in Jamaica​

June 2, 2022

The Jamaica Tourist Board will be welcoming TEMPO Networks to Jamaica this year to produce the second season of Hot Ones Caribbean, the Caribbean version of Complex Networks’ popular interview web series, Hot Ones. With over 1 billion views, TEMPO will feature top Jamaican celebrities, hot pepper sauces and a diverse mix of Jamaican talent across various sectors including the arts, sports, culinary, business and government.



“We are excited to partner with TEMPO for this series of 14 episodes of Hot Ones Caribbean from Jamaica,” said Donovan White, Director of Tourism, Jamaica Tourist Board. “Part of our mission in promoting brand Jamaica is to highlight factors that distinguish the island from other destinations around the world such as our local cuisine and spices, so this partnership with TEMPO will help us do just that. Plus, with 2022 being our 60th Anniversary of Independence, we are particularly pleased to be the focus of season 2 of this show.”


With their partnership with the Jamaica Tourist Board for Season 2, TEMPO plans to showcase Jamaica’s culture to highlight the best of the island’s culinary influence, culture, and celebrity impact around the world.




“From music to sports to cuisine and an absolutely breathtaking destination, Jamaica is extraordinary in so many ways and was the first Caribbean Island in which TEMPO Networks launched, so it is super-exciting to produce season 2 of Hot Ones Caribbean in the ‘irie’ island of Jamaica,” said Frederick A. Morton, Jr., Founder, Chairman & CEO, TEMPO Networks

 

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Debuting on Island TV​

The first-ever Caribbean-themed cooking show is debuting its pilot season. Caribbean Cook-Out focuses on the multi-dimensional aspect of the Caribbean and creates a platform for spicy conversations on topics that impact this vibrant community, over our shared love of food.​

With over 700 islands, the Caribbean is home to some of the world’s favorite dishes. The flavors are bold and the region’s rich culture makes the perfect recipe for an ideal battle of the best in Caribbean culinary.

The pilot series celebrates and elevates Caribbean culture by exploring the unique stories and people behind the region's mesmerizing cuisines

First episode

 

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Spoiler: Kreyol channel

'Bringing the island to dikkinson': Haitian YouTuber shares her Caribbean culture with restaurant launch​

Lamise Oyugi opened her restaurant, Island Cuisine in February. Featured in The dikkinson Press in 2016, Oyugi’s has reached almost 200,000 subscribers on YouTube. ​

Lamise Oyugi stirs a pot of curry goat inside her restaurant Island Cuisine on Thursday, June 2, 2022, in the St. Joe's Plaza. Oyugi went from launching a YouTube channel in 2016 to opening her own start up business in February of 2022.

June 06, 2022
dikkINSON, NORTH DAKOTA — Since 2016, a dikkinson entrepreneur and Haitian native has brought her island culture to the Western Edge through her YouTube channel that has 200,000 subscribers. Now, her childhood dream of opening a restaurant has become a reality.

Lamise Oyugi opened Island Cuisine , located at 30 Seventh St. W. in the St. Joe’s Plaza, in February of this year and has continued building on her passion of sharing Caribbean culture with a wide selection of special Haitian and Jamaican dishes.



Six years ago , Oyugi decided to launch a YouTube channel dedicated to sharing Haitian, Jamaican and African recipes. Three hundred recipes later, Oyugi has 200,000 subscribers between her two YouTube channels — one in English and the other in Creole.
“I think (it’s) my personality because for YouTube, people have to connect with you even if you have good videos. If they don’t connect, it doesn’t matter,” Oyugi said. “And I make food videos — everybody wants to eat, everybody wants to learn how to cook.”

An Island Cuisine dish, pictured above, features fried tilapia fish with Haitian rice and steamed cabbage.

Chicken and dumpling soup, pictured above, is an entree at Island Cuisine in dikkinson that's a favorite for customers

*As of now, Oyugi has two employees and her husband, business partner and oldest son help out as well. Eventually, Oyugi is hoping to expand her restaurant and build on her menu

 

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Caribbean burger earned the top prize for best burger at 2022 Detroit Burger Battle​

It was a burger Bonanza Sunday afternoon at Eastern Market and one burger came out on top as the best.
After a fierce competition, a Caribbean burger with mango chutney, peppery arugula and spicy jerk mayo was the 2022 Detroit Burger Battle champ.

The burger, created by Max Hardy, owner of Coop Caribbean Fusion at Detroit's shipping company in Midtown and pizza and wings spot, Jed's Detroit, won the $1,000 top prize and a trophy to display in his restaurant.
“It was truly an honor,” Hardy said of the win. “Coming back off COVID, after not being able to do this for the past year, being outside and being around all the fun chefs and restaurateurs. It’s an honor to be able to do it. And to win. It speaks to all the work that we put in every day in the restaurant industry."

The burger featured a blend of beef short rib and brisket, Hardy said. It was also topped with creamy Havarti cheese and served on a toasted bun.
"There's a lot of love and a lot of flavor," Hardy said. "It's spicy but love ... summer. So we had a lot going on."



On Sunday afternoon, burger fans waited in long lines, braving the heat, to sample burgers for the annual Burger Battle, put on by Dine, Drink, Detroit. The battle returned after a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic. Nearly 2,000 people were expected, said Scott Rutterbush of Dine, Drink, Detroit, the event organizer.

“We got positive feedback from people and are so excited to be back.” Rutterbush said.
Nearly a dozen metro Detroit restaurants and chefs competed for the top prize.

Second place for "Best Presentation" went to Frita Batidos, with restaurants in Ann Arbor and Detroit, for a slider-style burger served with corn relish, topped with beef brisket and a small, sunny side up egg. Naked Burger, with locations in Clinton Township and Rochester Hills, earned 3rd place "People's Choice" award for its burger with shaved truffles and a crispy cheese layer. The burger received 1,400 votes.
The entire afternoon the crowd sampled burgers and voted on favorites to send to the judge's table. Full disclosure, I was a judge along with other local food experts and restaurant critics.
"It's exciting," Mindy Kroll of Livonia said. "You feel like you're at a big party, like a big backyard barbecue with 15 different gri
Coop's Caribbean burger was one of Kroll's favorites.
Others that made it to the judging table included 2019 winner, Kozy Lounge, with its Katburger with jalapenos, Rolling Stoves food truck and its burger with caramelized onions, bacon and the surprise ingredient of peanut butter.

 

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The taste of Tobago in just one dish

4th July 2022


T
The birdsong was the loudest that I'd ever heard, backed by the rolling crash of the ocean. Hummingbirds whirred. Trees were weighed down with ripe mangoes, tangled creepers and leaves the size of frisbees. I was searching for crabs with local chef Sherwin Clark in the stretch of Tobago's emerald coastal forest that backs Englishman's Bay, whose apricot sands are patterned not by footprints but by the swish of iguana tails.
Catching the crabs was the first step in making crab and dumpling, Tobago's signature dish.
Locals are rightly proud of this salty, spicy, coconut-milk-infused curry that's made with sweet local manicou crabs and served with cornmeal-and-flour dumplings. That's partly because Tobago, the smaller, north-easterly island of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, is often overshadowed by its larger sibling. Most local food specialties, such as shark and bake, doubles and callaloo, originate in Trinidad and are eaten across both islands, but crab and dumpling is quintessential Tobago.
"Trinis come over here to eat it. It's a Tobago thing," Clark told me.

Crab and dumpling, Tobago's signature dish, is sweet, salty, spicy – and messy to eat


The other reason is that the dish is intimately connected with the Tobagonian landscape. Tobago is a land of plenty, with astonishing biodiversity including more than 260 species of birds. It's also home to the world's oldest protected rainforest, which is where these unique freshwater land crabs live, scuttling along the forest floor and in mountain streams rather than the marine environment usually associated with crabs. While sea crabs are also abundant in Tobago, the sweeter land crab meat is preferred for the dish.
"Crab and dumpling is the epitome of Tobago's food landscape. It is an 'ah we' dish, meaning that it comes from us, it is part of us," said Renee J Robley, who blogs on Caribbean cuisine at Thisbagogirl.
Nowadays associated with beach life and good times, crab and dumpling has roots in a shameful history. Like other British West Indian colonies, 18th-Century Tobago was exploited by the British as a base for sugar plantations, maintained through the labour of enslaved Africans and, later, indentured Indians.
Lizzie Collingham, culinary historian and author of The Hungry Empire, describes the conditions that African slaves endured here as "brutal", adding that they were given cornmeal and substandard saltfish to eat, and thus looked for other means of nutrition.
"It's likely the African slaves were familiar with catching crabs, as they would have probably caught them in the mangrove swamps of West Africa," she said. The enslaved African also introduced dumplings to the Caribbean, called "journey cake" or "Johnny cake", which they could transport easily and cook on hot stones.

The manicou crabs used in the dish are caught in Tobago's forest, which is the world's oldest protected rainforest


Following the abolition of slavery in the 19th Century, the British were faced with a problem: where to find workers for their plantations. This coincided with the Industrial Revolution, which caused cheap, machine-made English cotton to flood the Indian market and put thousands of Indian textile workers out of work. The British seized the opportunity, and over the next few decades transported more than 140,000 Indians to Trinidad & Tobago as indentured labourers. Workers signed contracts – that they were often unable to read – for five years servitude on minimal pay.
"The labourers wouldn't have been able to bring anything with them," Collingham said. "But the British would have been aware that they would have to provide spices for the Indian labourers. The British imported their own curry powder and gave it as a ration."
Over time, these Indian and African traditions and flavours merged to form the beloved dish, which is now sold from clapboard beach kiosks across the island, painted in lime-green, papaya-orange and mango-yellow, the colours of the Caribbean.

Among these, on Store Bay Beach close to Pigeon Point, is Miss Trim's, Tobago's best-known crab and dumpling stand. Meisha Trim is the second-generation Miss Trim to run the place; her mother started selling her homecooked food on a street stall, graduating to the beach hut around 30 years ago. When I visited, Trim proudly told me how the Tobagonian mix of cultures created the dish.
"It's a fusion of the best of us, of our African and our Indian heritage, so we have the spices from India and the coconut milk, fused together with the local seafood

Miss Trim's has been serving up homemade local dishes from Store Bay for decades

Sherwin Clark's restaurant, Marguerite's, is one of the best places to eat crab and dumpling in Tobago

 

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Ripe for the Picking: Thousands Turn Out for Mango Melee 2022 After Two Years of Covid-induced Lockdowns​

July 11, 2022

The 26th Annual Mango Melee held Sunday attracted thousands of Virgin Islanders and visitors alike to the St. George Botanical Garden, demonstrating that people's appetite to participate in activities after two years of Covid-induced lockdowns is ripe — pun intended — for the picking.


It was one of the best attended Mango Melees, with large crowds seen at the various locations in the Garden where events were occurring. It was also the first in-person event since 2019 following disruptions by the global pandemic that upended life in 2020 and 2021. Now, with lockdowns a thing of the past and the V.I. government declaring the territory as being in a state of Covid endemicity, Virgin Islanders — pent up for two years — are appearing at events once taken for granted in large numbers.

Vendors selling delicious cuisines and local businesses offering their products for sale had customers lining up. The highlight of the event was the Mango Eating Competition, where individuals challenged each other to see who can eat all of the mangoes provided to them first.

The age 13 and older group gear up for the Mango Eating Competition on Sunday, July 10, 2022 at the St. George Botanical Garden on St. Croix.


There were two categories: 12 and younger and 13 and up. The winner for the 13 and up division was Yasmine Tuitt, while Josiah Baptiste won the 12 and younger category.
The first-place prize for the 13 and older competition included a half-day sail with Big Beards to Buck Island along with $50 for lunch; two nights at the Tamarind Reef Resort & Spa; and a $50 gas gift card donated by Sam's Gas Station. The second-place winner received a case of Mutiny Vodka.
A $75 gift certificate from Undercover Books was the prize for the 13 and under competition, which only include a prize for the first-place winner.



For many, it was their first time at Mango Melee. Joyce John-Baptiste didn’t want to miss this year’s event. “Freedom! I am enjoying myself," she exclaimed. "This is my first time and I am here with my daughter and granddaughter."
Amid the tasty delights, there were fun and thrilling activities for children. Winifred Loving, president of the Children’s Museum, watched as children explored the different activities that were present. “The Children’s Museum of St. Croix was formed in 2017 to provide free services to all of the children on St. Croix. You can count on us every year at Ag Fair [ Agricultural and Food Fair] and Mango Melee. We have four dinosaur activities as well as a slime activity today. We want students to learn science, technology, art, engineering and mathematics through our efforts,” she said.

Miguel Cruz, a small business owner specializing in fitness and Acai bowls, was all smiles as customers approached his table. “It has been a great day. Ride into Fitness has been in business for 7 years. We are a small family business and we enjoy giving back to the community. This is our first year at Mango Melee and we will be back next year,” he said.
Sue Lakos, one of the founding members of the Mango Melee event, was as active yesterday as when the St. George Botanical Garden committee that she was a member of first created the event. Ms. Lakos, who came up with the name Mango Melee, could be seen working throughout day, making sure that the sprawling activity went off without a hitch.


Asked how does it feel to be back after the two-year hiatus, Ms. Lakos was blunt: "Exhausting

 

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A Caribbean chow down between LHHATL’s Spice & Karlie Redd​

July 9, 2022

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• Dancehall queen Spice from Jamaica and model/entrepreneur and reality TV star Karlie Redd from Trinidad & Tobago breakdown Caribbean Culture during VH1's Caribbean Heritage celebrations
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  In honour of Caribbean American Heritage Month (celebrated annually in the month of June), the television network VH1 invited Love & Hip Hop Atlanta stars Spice and Karlie Redd for a culture clash of sorts.
  The two women – both residents of Atlanta, Spice, Jamaican-born, and Karlie Redd, born of Trinidadian heritage – talked everything about food, fashion, trends started in the tropics and more.
  In this video segment, they played a guessing game featuring popular meals from Guyana, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, St Lucia, and Jamaica.
  
  They sampled three dishes and after chowing down, were tasked with determining the origins of the meals.
  Can they taste the difference in curries? Determine the country of origin?​
• See for yourself and to determine whether or not their proverbial Caribbean card should be revoked​
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