Taste Tour: Latin America

Greetings Bromography readers!

Hope this post finds you all well.

As some of you already know, I am a licensed tour director and I have traveled many of the Latin American Islands.  As a foodie, I am always interested in the cuisine of each country. From what I have discovered, what we know today as a particular country’s cuisine today is far different from what it started out many years ago. Due to invasions, migration, and just downright simple tourism, cuisines have changed tremendously.

Out of curiosity, I have taken a simple assignment of exploring Peruvian Cuisine and turned it into a historical exploration of all Latin American and Caribbean cuisine. Over the next year, I will be issuing posts that will explore all the Latin American countries, as well as the Caribbean. I found it to be both interesting, as well as a tremendous learning experience. I hope you enjoy this tour as much as I have.

For instance, one major fact I came upon is that plantains are NOT originally from Dominican Republic (As a Dominican-American, I was surprised to hear that).  And onions, garlic and rice originally came from Spain and what we call peppers today are called peppers because Christopher Columbus thought that they were from the black pepper family.

Latin America and the Caribbean is a vast area comprising a large number of individual counties, each with diverse ways of preparing food. The only thing that they have in common is that they have all been subject to a Spanish or Portuguese influence, even if only, as in the case with some
Caribbean islands, by way of exposure to their neighbors. In some ways, we have Christopher Columbus to thank for “discovering” these islands on his quest to find India. He was later followed by another explorer, Pedro Cabral.  From what I have researched, Columbus and Cabral were truly just exploring, but that changed with Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro, who were more interested in conquering new lands and their people. In the process, great civilizations
were overthrown as Spain and Portugal tried to become world powers.  The French, British and Dutch soon followed.  And here we are hundreds of years later, one big melting pot.

It was the usual story… Explorers are sent out to look for new land or resources for whatever the reason. Accidentally, they come across this beautiful and rich land, they decide to “settle” there (this is what they called it before any laws were put in place regarding ownership so think about it… they were basically old-school squatters…)  So lands were settled and crops were planted,
but such activities required labor. At first, the native population gave their assistance, but soon rebelled. One thing led to another, and since the native people either died from disease, harsh treatment or ran away, and, as we know, necessity is the mother of invention, those in charged started importing African slaves to work the land. (Sound familiar???…)

The Spanish and Portuguese settlers intermarried freely with the indigenous and African women, and as a result, the mestizo (“mixed”) population grew. Thus the food became mestizo too. Many of the cooks were either indigenous or African women, and they prepared a mixture of their own recipes plus dishes their employers wanted.  And they used what was local and what the Spanish and Portuguese had planted using seeds from their own countries, such as rice, garlic and onions.

It was Napoleon III, the 19th Century French explorer, that coined the phrase “Latin America” and applied it to the countries on the American continent where Spanish and Portugese were spoken.

Please be sure to check back as I will be exploring the cuisines of following countries:

• Cuba
• Dominican Republic
• Haiti
• Puerto Rico (Already did a post on PR but I’m going to make sure I
  didn’t miss anything)
• Belize
• Costa Rica
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Argentina
• Brazil
• Chile
• Columbia
• Ecuador
• Paraguay
• Uruguay
• Venezuela

I will be including the more popular recipes, as well as names of local restaurants so you can taste their cuisine.

I am starting with Peru because it is considered the “Gastronomic Capital of the Americas”.  How could I resist with a tag line like that?

Enjoy!