It’s been a few years since I was last in Florida, and the most adventurous cuisine I tried then was a few strips of alligator meat. Perhaps I just didn’t run into this term then, but I’ve since discovered the idea of Floribbean flavors; it seems self-evident that this is a fusion of foods from Florida and the Caribbean. Consider Miami and some of its nearest off mainline neighbors — Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic. The Floribbean style contains tropical fruits, key limes, mangoes, papayas; it contains spices, with rice as a featured part of the presentation. In fine dining restaurants, as well as home-style Establishments, there will be plantains (like bananas, but more vegetable than fruit; in an unripe stage, they’re primarily a starch and used like other regions use potatoes; in a riper stage, the starch becomes sugar and can be used in sweeter arrangements).
In New Orleans, you’ll find celery, green bell peppers and onions are three key ingredients, while in Miami, you’ll find Cuban meals starting with Sofrito recipes, whose primary ingredients are pepper (small red or green peppers), garlic and onions, as well as oil and cumin, bay leaf and oregano, and cilantro. Cilantro is an ingredient hard to find in most stores; most likely, they can be found primarily in a Latino or Asian market. It’s not cilantro; it’s similar, though.
To create Sofrito at home, you can do it with just the following: two green peppers, a red sweet pepper, all with seeds removed; two tomatoes, large, two med. onions, peel, a head of garlic, also peeled, and cilantro if you can’t find culantro, and a half bunch of parsley leaves. Chop and mix the ingredients with a blender and this will make approximately one quart, and it can be used as a foundation for a number of Latino Caribbean dishes.
Perhaps it’s better, though, to travel instead and check into one of the resort hotels Florida has, and try the real thing in any number of great Miami restaurants. If you’re not from Florida, like me, you could easily miss out on this term, Floribbean flavor, and therefore also miss out on the taste of it. So, go to Florida, grab a drink, sit back on the beach, and relax with true Floribbean cuisine.
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