Creole cuisine

Creole cuisine (French: cuisine créole; Portuguese: culinária crioula; Spanish: cocina criolla) is a cuisine style born in colonial times, from the fusion between African, European and pre-Columbian American traditions. Creole is a term that refers to those of European origin who were born in the New World and have adapted to it (melting pot).^[1]

A less divergent or more coherent definition of Creole identity was proposed by Norwegian anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen who concludes:

"A Creole society, in my understanding, is based wholly or partly on the mass displacement of people who were, often involuntarily, uprooted from their original home, shedding the main features of their social and political organisations on the way, brought into sustained contact with people from other linguistic and cultural areas and obliged to develop, in creative and improvisational ways, new social and cultural forms in the new land, drawing simultaneously on traditions from their respective places of origin and on impulses resulting from the encounter."^[2]

Creole cuisine is found in different regions of the world that were previously European colonies. Creole food can be found in Louisiana (USA), Cuba, Brazil, Peru, the French Antilles, French Guiana, La Reunion (France), Jamaica, Annobón (Equatorial Guinea), Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cape Verde, Dominican Republic, etc. In each region, Creole cuisine has been adapting to local products (so there is no "single" Creole cuisine),^[3] however, they share certain features in common:

• Association of very different products on the same dish (compared to traditional European cuisine).
• Very spicy flavors, mixtures of sweet and salty, and pungent preparations.
• Relatively simple common culinary techniques,^[3] such as frying or stewing meat (called ragout). Adobos (marinades) are also common.^[4] Grilled dishes rarely exist.^[1]

In Hispanic America, many Creole dishes are named with the ending a la criolla, such as pollo a la criolla or colitas de res a la criolla^[5] or simply with the adjective criollo/a, as in vinagre criollo (Creole vinegar) or chorizo criollo. Also in French, the terms à la créole or just créole are used, such as in pâté créole.