Creole cuisine in Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is the center of the Caribbean’s Creole culture, boasting a spirited blend of French and African influences.

The culinary inheritance of the Caribbean is integrally linked to its immigrant past. Its cuisine is known as Creole, derived from the Spanish word crillo (meaning native to an area). Originally it referred specifically to the dishes that mixed local ingredients with Spanish or French cooking techniques. These have changed drastically over time and now barely resemble their original incarnations – so the term has followed suit and now incorporates a diverse range of influences fused together in a single dish.

Guadeloupe is quite possibly the best place to try Creole cuisine; it’s still part of France and the influence of this culinary heavy weight makes it the gastronomic mecca of the Caribbean. 

Popular fusion dishes include Boudin Creole, a spicy blood sausage, Goat Colombo, based on an Indian curry, La Creole, a fish stew similar to French bouillabaisse and accras, an African salt-cod fritter.

Much of this food originated in the slave kitchens of centuries ago. The seemingly unpalatable off-cuts of meat like pigs’ trotters or tail – the leftovers often given to the slaves – are now mainstays of the region’s finest restaurants .