West Indies salad facts for kids
West Indies Salad is a special dish from the Mobile, Alabama area. It's a type of crab meat salad that's very popular there. People still enjoy this tasty seafood dish today!
What is West Indies Salad?
West Indies Salad is a bit like a dish called ceviche. Ceviche is usually raw seafood that gets "cooked" by the acid in citrus juice. But West Indies Salad uses cooked crab meat. It's a cool and refreshing salad, perfect for a warm day.
How Did It Start?
Many people say that a person named Kym Lewis created West Indies Salad. Kym Lewis owned a restaurant called Shushunova. This restaurant was located south of Mobile, Alabama, on Dauphin Island Parkway. The salad was supposedly invented in 1947.
In 2022, the Shushunova restaurant closed down. This was because they had trouble finding enough staff to work there.
What's in the Salad?
Even though there are different ways to make West Indies Salad, some ingredients are always included. The main ingredient is fresh, chunky blue crab meat. It also has finely cut sweet white onions.
Other important ingredients are cider vinegar, salt, and pepper. A little bit of vegetable oil is also added. Traditionally, people used Wesson oil for this recipe.
Where Can You Find It?
You can find recipes for West Indies Salad in cookbooks. For example, the Junior League of Mobile published a recipe in their cookbook back in 1964. More recently, the Times Picayune newspaper in New Orleans also shared a recipe.
Many restaurants around the Mobile Bay area serve West Indies Salad. It's a local favorite that visitors and locals love to try!
