Characteristic regions and products
Guyanese Creole cuisine is reminiscent of the flavours found in Guadeloupe and Martinique. The spices, and in particular the chilli paste, make it a tasty and spicy cuisine. Meat and fish are smoked, i.e. smoked hot after being marinated according to a particular technique. In addition, there is a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, more or less common, as well as meats that have been simmered for a long time.
Bushinengue cuisine describes the culinary practices of the descendants of African slaves brought to Suriname by the Dutch. Living from fishing and hunting in the heart of the forest, they used an abundance of bush meat, such as iguana, monkey, caiman, peccary or capybara, the largest rodent in the world, which is about the size of a small sheep.
The Amerindian cuisine also gives pride of place to bush meat and river fish, not forgetting manioc, a plant native to the Amazon basin. Various wild fruits, palm worms and river snails are also eaten.
Thanks to its equatorial climate, which is hot and humid all year round, French Guiana offers a huge variety of fruits and vegetables. In addition to the manioc already mentioned, let us mention the yam, the kilometer bean (which exceeds 90 cm in length), the giraumon (a type of squash), the Chinese cabbage, the Guiana spinach or the christophine. On the spice side, of course, there are the basics such as cinnamon, turmeric (called "saffron" in French Guiana), marjoram, pepper, nutmeg, Indian wood (or allspice), cayenne pepper and, of course, roucou, an Amazonian plant whose delicately raised seeds provide a red pigment that has been used for millennia.
The fruits are just as varied. Let's start with citrus fruits (including the chadeck, a huge grapefruit), pineapples, bananas, belimbi (very acidic, prepared like a pickle), the acerola cherry, known for its extreme richness in vitamin C, but also guava, mango, passion fruit, papaya, tamarind, dragon fruit and also several palm fruits such as parépou and awara, with their large orange berries. Not forgetting the famous acai berry or wassai, the purple fruit of a palm tree, known for its anti-oxidant properties.
Beef, goat, pork, poultry and mutton are the meats most consumed in French Guiana, although we should not forget the varied game coming from the jungle, of which it is always important to find out how rare it is, as some of the species that are hunted are unfortunately threatened. Between the coasts, the rivers and the numerous estuaries and other mangroves, French Guiana will delight lovers of fish and seafood: grouper, mullet, shark, king mackerel, snapper, but also mangrove crab and mangrove oysters. Not forgetting the atipas, catfish with thick black scales.
There are about 180 restaurants in French Guiana. Most of them are small family-run businesses, offering classic menus, but also dishes that are worth the trip. Surprisingly, there are at least as many Asian as Creole restaurants here. In addition to the workers coming from the four corners of Asia, we will linger on the Indonesian presence in the region. Suriname, a neighbouring country, was a Dutch colony until 1954, as was Indonesia, which explains why Indonesian cuisine is so common in this part of South America. Indonesian dishes include bami (fried noodles with chicken and soy sauce), nasi goreng (fried rice with chicken, vegetables and fried egg) and lumpia (the Indonesian equivalent of egg rolls). Ironically, Indonesian restaurants are not necessarily common, but there are many market stalls selling these delicious dishes.The classics of Guyanese cuisine
Starters usually include the famous boudin créole, shrimp marinade (spicy shrimp fritters), stuffed crab, couac salad (a kind of tabbouleh made from cassava flour) and calaouangue or kalawang, a spicy mango salad. The small cod fritters, of West Indian origin (acras), also hold a good place.
Blaff is probably one of the most popular fish dishes. Cooked in a very spicy broth with onions, Indian wood, celery, chilli and other spices, the fish releases all its flavour to the delight of the gourmet. The blaff can be eaten at any time of the day, but especially in the morning, as a chimbé cho (snack) or breakfast.
Another classic, the Guyanese colombo is a stew of meat and vegetables (potatoes, green beans) with curry. Boucané is prepared with fish as well as chicken, pork or game (peccary, monkey, etc.) called "vyann-bwa". Pepperpot is a meat dish - beef, chicken, lamb - simmered with cinnamon and chilli, often served for special occasions. Typically Guyanese, awara broth is a stew cooked during Easter celebrations that takes more than a day to prepare. It consists of meat, poultry and seafood cooked in a sauce made from the paste of the awara fruit, a species of palm tree. Finally, the Guyanese calalou contains smoked meat, shellfish (crabs, shrimps), spinach leaves and calous or okra. The latter is a vegetable resembling a green pepper, but with a taste closer to that of a zucchini, appreciated for its viscous juice that helps thicken sauces. The beef pimentade is a stew mixing beef, tomato, chilli, onions, etc., speciality of Sinnamary.
More unusual, the pimentade of atipas is prepared with these amazing catfish, served in a coconut milk sauce. Macadam is a mixture of crumbled cod cooked in a tomato, onion and chilli sauce, coloured with roucou and served with rice. Grilled fish is often served with maracuja sauce, a creamy, tangy sauce with passion fruit pulp. Shrimp dongue is a mixture of shrimp, coconut milk, onions and spices, topped with dongue (called dombré in the West Indies), small flour dumplings that are cooked directly in the sauce.
Street food is obviously common and there are a few must-tries like the Madras sandwich (round bread, steak, egg, mayonnaise, ketchup, chilli) or the Bagnard (round bread, chicken, shoulder, egg, cheese, salad, onions, mayonnaise, ketchup, chilli). Or enjoy a bread-sardine (puff pastry, spicy sardines) or a meat pie (puff pastry, spicy meat). And don't forget the cochine - inspired by the Brazilian coxinha - a kind of cone-shaped croquette made of mashed potatoes and filled with chicken, steak or ham and cheese.
Desserts and drinks
The local delicacies are numerous. For the digestion, we will retain the sorbets with multiple flavors (mango, apricot, soursop, etc..) which match with the wide variety of fruits gorged with sun of Guyana. Otherwise, for those with a sweet tooth, there is the inevitable blancmange coco (a creamy dessert), dizé milé (a fried turnover filled with a custard or imperial ice cream, a kind of cream dessert flavoured with cinnamon, lemon zest or bitter almond) or the cramanioc cake (a soft pudding with grated manioc).
More surprisingly, the dokonon is a kind of sweet potato or cornmeal dumpling - decorated with coconut or raisins - wrapped in a banana leaf and then cooked in boiling water, coming from Africa. The sispa (thin cassava cake) originated with the Amerindian populations. Otherwise the matété comou is a cream of tapioca (manioc) beads flavoured with the juice of the fruits of the comou, a species of palm tree. Kontès are small shortbread biscuits that can be eaten with madou (a drink made from fruit macerated with spices and lime zest, very thirst-quenching). Try sorrel syrup, an iced infusion of red hibiscus that is very popular in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
Guiana's rum is produced in the Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni region. Rum lovers will appreciate its fragrant taste and high alcohol content. The Cayennaise or even the Coeur de Chauffe are allègrement close to 55°, which should encourage caution, especially since it is rare not to be tempted by a second glass. The ti-punch is the Guyanese cocktail par excellence served as an aperitif. Brown sugar (or sugar cane syrup), lime and the indispensable rum are the basic ingredients of this rather strong drink. The bravest drink it plain, the others flavour it and sweeten it with a maracuja syrup (passion fruit). Not to be confused with the "punch planteur", a mixture of rum and fruit juice from Reunion Island which has made its way to Guyana. The ingredients are very varied: coconut punch, comou punch (with palm fruits), chocolate punch, peanut punch, maracuja punch and many others.
Influences from nearby Brazil have brought cachaça (the Brazilian equivalent of white rum) and caïpirinha (cachaça, cane sugar, lime and crushed ice) to the region. There is also cachiri, a cassava beer of Amerindian origin that was produced by the Wayanas, traditionally by chewing cassava pulp before leaving it to ferment. Pineapple beer is also produced in Guyana. There are also more classic beers in the region, based on barley and hops, such as Parbo, which originated in Surinam. Otherwise the Jeune Gueule brand is purely Guyanese and its brewery is located in Matoury, south of Cayenne.
