TROPICAL CARIBBEAN TREATS HEATING UP CITY RESTAURANTS

Flying south isn't the only way to escape from the city's icy winter grip. For those who can't get away, a taste of the tropics can be found in several Edmonton restaurants specializing in authentic Caribbean cuisine.
"If you can't go to the Caribbean, the Caribbean can come to you," says Raffina Beby, a Trinidad-born chef at Caribbean Menu, a small cafe in Mill Woods serving up everything from jerk chicken, oxtail with rice and peas, snapper and coconut rolls to curry shrimp, roti, chow mein, soursop ice cream and Carib - the beer of the Caribbean.
Hanging on the walls are flags from islands like St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Jamaica, Barbados, St. Kitts, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Calypso music plays, while the menu boasts "Eating here is like being in the islands. You can almost feel the breeze."
The variety of dishes offered at the Caribbean Menu reflects the mix of cultures which have influenced Caribbean cooking over the years and resulted in a fusion of flavours.
There are more than 30 countries in the Caribbean, each with their own unique dishes.
"Caribbean food is a blending of cultures, of dishes from different cultures such as European, East Indian, African, Chinese and Native Indian," explains Brian Ally,
editor of Cariwave, a locally-produced Caribbean magazine and Web site.
The islands' first inhabitants, the Arawak and Carib Indians, tended crops like taro root, corn, cassava and peanuts. The Caribs spiced foods with chili peppers, while the Arawaks are believed to have introduced barbecuing to the Spanish - they used grills made from native green sticks called barbacoa.
European colonists - including the French, British, Spanish and Dutch - brought their own culinary trademarks to the Caribbean islands, as did the African slaves and the Chinese and South Asian labourers who came after the slave trade ended, says Ally.
The blending of foods and flavours have created a variety of exotic tropical dishes, says Alley, who comes from Guyana, a South American country with a Caribbean coastline.
"It's its own unique flavour," says Ally of Caribbean cuisine.
For example, he says, because of the blending of different spices, curries form the Caribbean islands have a completely different taste than traditional East Indian curries.
Many dishes are made with fruits and vegetables that flourish in the tropical island climates, like coconut, passion fruit, papayas, breadfruit, soursop, plantains, guava, yams, callaloo, yuca and okra.
Chicken dishes are common, although pork, goat and beef are also popular meats used in Caribbean cooking.
And of course, fresh seafood from the Caribbean Sea is common, such as swordfish, tuna, wahoo, snapper and conch.
Ally remembers eating fresh bananas and mangos and a dish his mother would make from ripe plantains, which were chopped up, boiled and mixed with dumplings, yams and pepper.
When he craves Caribbean food, there are plenty of options in Edmonton, says Ally.
Ms. V's Caribbean and Canadian Cuisine, a Jamaican restaurant, offers dishes like jerk chicken, curry goat and oxtail, along with sweet potato pudding, rum cake, pineapple drinks and coconut water, says Ally.
When he's craving ackee and salt fish, another Jamaican dish, he heads to Irie Foods.
"Ackee is a fruit that comes from that part of the world, and mixed with salt fish it tastes really good," notes Ally.
Other Caribbean restaurants in the city include Calabash Cafe, Roger's Place and A Touch of Caribbean.
Of course, you can always cook your own Caribbean dishes, says Ally. A good place to find Caribbean groceries are South Asian stores like the India Bazaar on 118 Avenue, which has East Indian, West Indian (Caribbean) and African goods, says Ally.
Hal O'Gilvie, who grew up in Jamaica, recalls eating foods like fried fish, rice and peas, plantains, cassava root and plenty of fresh fruit like star apples and sour sop.
"Down there, you can get grapefruits off the tree," says O'Gilvie, who dropped by the Caribbean Menu for the chicken roti, to tide him over until he returns to Jamaica this month to visit family.

By Corinnie Lutter