Ripe Plantain and Chorizo Stuffed Chicken Breast with Cilantro Rice and Tamarind Rum Glace
A quick to prepare and flavoursome dish

Coconut Chicken Curry
A Trinidadian dish drawing on the island's East Indian food heritage

Crab and Callaloo
A typical Guadelupe seafood dish

Guava-Mango & White Cheese Stuffed Roast Pork
Delicious combination of exotic fruits and roasted meat

Pan-fried Mahi-Mahi with Plantain Mofongo and Passion Buerre Blanc
A recipe for this delicious white fish based Caribbean dish

The Caribbean, a place associated with laid-back living, raucous parties and resort holidays, doesn't immediately leap off the map as a top foodies' destination. Yet anyone stepping off the beach or out of their hotel will discover a region fiercely proud of its rich tradition of cross-pollinated cuisines.

Merrilees Parker takes a hop across the islands of Puerto Rico, St Kitts, Guadeloupe and Trinidad in search of the tastes that give the Caribbeans their unique spirit. In Puerto Rico she finds the colonial influence still alive in the islanders' love of coffee, while St Kitts has capitalised on its history by converting its plantation houses into gourmet restaurants. Here she cooks up a local catch, spiny lobster. On Guadeloupe she savours the truly international Creole cuisine, a combination of Indian, Chinese, French, Spanish and African influences, as well as the identifiably French flavours of its pastries and rum. The menu ends in Trinidad where she samples Trinni street food favourites like roti, corn soup, pelau and rum at its mind-blowing world famous carnival.

FOODS

Creole Cuisine - derived from roots in the cookings of Spain and France and intermingled with Caribbean immigrant cuisines from East India, England, Holland and Africa

Rum & Rum Cocktails - Origins of the Caribbean's No. 1 tipple including bacardi, with cocktail recipes for Mojito, Pina Colada and Daiquiri

FESTIVALS

Maricao Coffee Festival - Puerto Rico festival of dancing, food, caffeine and revellery in celebration of the harvest of the coffee bean

MORE INFORMATION

Listings of where to stay, where to eat, shops, visitor attractions, Tourist Office contacts and getting there and away as featured in Planet Food: Caribbean.