Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the United States (though many Native Americans have a very different perspective on its history). It is decidedly not a part of Caribbean history. Lest we forget, over 13 million people in the U.S. were either born in the Caribbean, or are of Caribbean ancestry. And so while Thanksgiving Day might not resonate as a story about pilgrims, it is still a time to gather with family and friends and share food. What winds up on the menu just may not be turkey, and all the traditional side dishes.
My own menu is a hybrid mix of both Black American standards—turkey, collard greens, potato salad and more—and some Puerto Rican holiday specialties. I also have West Indian friends who never eat the turkey, opting instead for jerk chicken.
Join me for a celebration of Caribbean holiday foods you may not be familiar with.
RELATED STORY: Caribbean Matters: Holiday eats and musical treats with sazón, spice, and everything nice
Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.
Are you aware of the PBS series “Alma’s Way?”
"Alma's Way" is an engaging, modern-day animated series for children ages 4 to 6. The series stars 6-year-old Alma Rivera, a proud, confident Puerto Rican girl, who lives in the Bronx with her parents and younger brother, Junior, as well as a diverse group of friends, family, and community members.
The show may be for kids, but this 75-year-old enjoyed their introduction to mofongo, which is one of my favorite Caribbean holiday side dishes.
From the YouTube notes:
Alma's Way show creator, Sonia Manzano, explains how food from her Puerto Rican culture is an important theme of inspiration for the show. Join us in making the traditional mofongo dish with Yadira, Clemente, and their family.
One sidebar about mofongo is the debate about its origin.
Alex Tabar & Erika Morillo write for Cocina:
Mofongo: Dominican or Puertorrican?
Mofongo is made with fried green plantains that are mashed with garlic and a mixture of meat or seafood, and is typically served with a side of fried meat and broth.
Mofongo is undoubtedly delicious, but similarly to the Pisco Sour war between Peru and Chile, its origin is disputed between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, with both countries claiming they invented it. Regardless of who created it, Mofongo has its roots in the African dish fufú, which is a mixture of different starchy vegetables, pounded and shaped into a ball.
There are quite a few “how to make mofongo” videos on YouTube. Here’s one:
RELATED STORY: Caribbean Matters: Meet Illyanna Maisonet, author of 'Diasporican: A Puerto Rican Cookbook
Another great vegetable side dish is callalou, which people often confuse with collard greens. As A-Z Animals explains:
You might be surprised to know that collard greens and callaloo are extremely different plants, complete with their own classifications, uses, and origins.
[...]
Although the cuisine of callaloo and collard greens is similar, they are still very different. Southern stewed collard greens are comparable to stewed callaloo. The greens of both plants are beautifully soft and supple since the vegetables are cooked on the stovetop slowly and on low heat. However, callaloo is a vegetarian dish while most stewed collard green recipes largely rely on bacon and other meats.
[...]
Callaloo and collard greens are very different in terms of appearance. Callaloo is extremely colorful, with foliage that contains a mix of green, yellow, red, and purple leaves. There’s a reason why its Latin name is amaranthus tricolor. Collard greens only have green foliage.
There are also some notable differences between collard greens and callaloo when it comes to nutrition. Callaloo has higher vitamin K, vitamin c, folate, manganese, iron, potassium, copper, magnesium, and calcium than amaranth leaves in general. However, compared to callaloo, collard greens contain substantially less folate and are higher in vitamin A.
Here’s a video covering both prep and cooking of callaloo.
Let’s take a short music break, with legendary singer-songwriter Walter Ferguson’s song about the dish.
Lyrics
Every body has his own opinion Some may be right and some may be wrong But callaloo, everybody loves callaloo, me say, everybody loves
Eat it in the morning and you eat it in the night And you eat it when you feel that you could loose your sight I say, Callaloo everybody loves Callaloo me turtle dove Callaloo, me say, everybody loves
Eat it in the morning and you eat it in the day Eat it when you feel that you might break away Me say, callaloo everybody loves Callaloo me turtle dove
Good for your belly and it's good for your back Tighten every joint that is getting slack I say, callaloo everybody loves Callaloo
I know a woman she name was Lou, She wake up one morning all black and blue She called to her sister name was Sue Beg her to cook up some callaloo Me say Callaloo everybody loves (bis)
Good for your belly and it's good for your back Tighten every joint that is getting slack Me say, Callaloo everybody loves Callaloo turtle dove
Eat it in the morning and you eat it in the day Eat it when you feel that you might break away Me say, Callaloo everybody loves Callaloo me turtle dove Callaloo it is a blessing from above
Eat it in the morning and you eat it in the night And you eat it when you feel that you could loose your sight I say, Callaloo, everybody loves
Everybody has his own opinions, Some may be right and some may be wrong But, I say, Callaloo, everybody loves Callaloo (bis) Callaloo it is a blessing from above
For the main poultry dish, instead of turkey, many Caribbean households will be sitting down to tasty helpings of jerk chicken.
“Jerk” has an interesting story, detailed by Jamaican Canadian Smithsonian writer Vaughn Stafford Gray in “A Brief History of Jamaican Jerk.”
As Carolyn Cooper, notable Jamaican literary scholar, explains, jerk is “one of the enduring legacies of the fusion of African and Taíno cultures in Jamaica.”
The Taino were one of Jamaica’s indigenous groups, who were “discovered” by Christopher Columbus in 1494. As Stafford Gray notes, Spain soon brought enslaved people to Jamaica; after the British invaded in the mid-1600s, Spanish settlers fled for Cuba, while enslaved people fled for Jamaica’s mountains, where they became known as the Maroons.
But by the time the Maroons encountered the island’s original inhabitants, who had also sheltered in the difficult-to-traverse ranges, 90 percent of the Taíno population had become extinct. The British, meanwhile, rapidly expanded their presence on Jamaica, shipping enslaved labor from Africa that would become the engine of the booming sugar industry. Over the years, the Maroons would grow in population as enslaved people would escape the plantations for the mountains.
Adds Cooper, “Archaeological evidence shows that Maroons who disdained enslavement and claimed freedom in the island’s mountainous interior settled among the Indigenous people who survived the trauma of ‘discovery.’ They shared culinary traditions.” Among those traditions was jerk.
Jerk, as a stand-alone term, refers to the way in which meat is seasoned, smoked and grilled. Whereas a historical jerk seasoning recipe calls for bird peppers, pimento and pepper elder, modern recipes may include Scotch bonnet peppers, scallions, garlic, ginger, pimento, thyme and cinnamon. Like barbecue from the American South, jerk today is a remnant from the era of slavery, when Maroons would transform tough cuts of meat into tender, delicious dishes. According to Gariel Ferguson, an acclaimed chef and restaurateur who participated in the inaugural edition of the James Beard Foundation’s “Savoring Jamaica” celebration, escapees traditionally hunted wild boar; seasoned the meat with pimento (allspice berries), salt and bird peppers (a species of chillies in the same family as cayenne); wrapped it in pepper elder leaves; and finally cooked it in “an underground smokeless pit … roasted over dying embers.”
“The Jerk Chicken Kings of Jamaica” episode of Street Food Icons offers a look at popular street food vendors on the island.
From the Munchies YouTube video notes:
In this episode of Street Food Icons, we head to Kingston, Jamaica, and get a taste of Hopeton and his son, Glenville's, pan chicken. The father-son duo and a handful of others serve up some of the tastiest and most popular pan chicken on the island. Sean Paul, Usain Bolt, weekend party-goers, and even politicians flock to Northside Chicken to eat this single-menu-item delicacy seasoned with thyme and scotch bonnets, then grilled on cleaned-out oil drums.
YouTuber Mama Joan invites you into her home to learn how to make jerk chicken:
I’m going to close here since I’ve got company coming. Hope you’ll share some Thanksgiving Day recipes, as well as what you’ll be cooking and eating with us below.
Happy eating and happy cooking!