Amerindian Foods

Amerindians have existed in Trinidad and Tobago for over 6,000 years and numbered at least 40,000 people at the time of Columbus's discovery. Other than place names such as: Caroni, Arouca, Caura, Chaguanas and Mayaro just to name a few and their skills for making canoes, fans and mats.Amerindians were the ones who first discovered some of our vegetables like, yam, cassava and sweet potatoes.

They made 'cassava bread 'which was originally called 'cassareep' where they would remove the poisonous prussia acid of cassava juice into a vinegar where they would then make

     cassava bread.

'Roucou' which was used for flavoring meat and giving it color, we now use in our pastelles.

 'Chardon beni' which was used as a seasoning for meat and we still use to season almost anything.

Other foods included 'farine' and' corn patella's which also has a Spanish influence, but we'll talk about that in a later post with our Spanish influence foods. Also 'warap' which is a cereal and don't forget our love for cocoa was first introduced by the Amerindians.

Amerindians and Wildmeat

Oh how Trinis like their wild meat, well we have the Amerindians to thank for that. They were the ones who hunted and killed the little critters. Their primary activities were hunting and agriculture, so they would hunt and kill agouti, iguana which is also calls opossum, lappe, 'quenk' better known as wild hog and tattoo known to the rest of the world as armadillo.

Amerindians preparing the meat

 'Buccaneering" was a method practiced by the Amerindians.It came from the word 'buccan' for smoking meat.This was used was for preserving the meat and is still practiced in many parts of Trinidad.

Tattoo also known as armadillo

 Wild meat is highly sought after during hunting season  from the 1st October - the end of February. Now wild meat is prepared as both a Créole and Curried dish and usually goes with dumpling or ground provision.

A pot with cooked wild meat