Floribbean cuisine facts for kids
Floribbean cuisine is a special type of cooking found in Florida. It mixes different flavors and ideas from various cultures. This food style focuses on using fresh ingredients from the local area. It also uses many different spices, often combining strong flavors with milder ones.
Floribbean cooking uses exciting spices like red curry, lemongrass, ginger, and scallions. These are now as common as traditional Florida foods like grits and cobbler. The main influences for Floribbean food come from Conch, Black, Spanish, and Cuban cooking, with many ideas from Asian cuisine too.
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How Floribbean Cuisine Started
In the 1950s, many people moved from Cuba to South Florida. This helped create Floribbean cuisine. A group of chefs called the "Mango Gang" were important early supporters. These chefs, like Norman Van Aken, Mark Militello, Douglas Rodriguez, and Allen Susser, loved using fresh local ingredients. They also added flavors from the Caribbean.
Later, in the 1980s, more Cuban immigrants arrived. These chefs and others in Florida then made Floribbean cuisine more official. It gets ideas from many places, including Latin American cuisine, Caribbean cuisine, Cuban cuisine, Soul food, Jamaican cuisine, Puerto Rican cuisine, Haitian cuisine, Bahamian cuisine, Jewish cuisine, and Asian cuisine.
Norman Van Aken said that Floribbean cuisine inspired modern "fusion cuisine." He used the term "fusion" in 1988. He wanted to combine the "golden treasures and vibrant calypso flavors" of old Key West with new ideas.
What Makes Floribbean Food Special
Floribbean cuisine focuses on fresh ingredients. It uses many different spices, often mixing strong flavors with milder ones. Floribbean cooking usually has less spicy heat than the Caribbean dishes that inspire it. However, it still uses many kinds of peppers.
The spiciness is almost always made milder by adding ingredients like mango, papaya, rum, almond, coconut, key lime, or honey.
As Floribbean cuisine grew in South Florida, it was greatly influenced by Asian cooking ideas. This included using Asian fruits and vegetables grown locally. These plants can only grow in tropical and subtropical parts of the United States, where it rarely gets cold enough to freeze.
Latin-Floribbean Flavors
Latin-Floribbean cuisine mixes Floribbean food with Latin American cuisine. This results in strong influences from Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Dominican cooking styles.
See also
In Spanish: Gastronomía de Florida para niños
