What to eat Martinique? culinary specialties and gastronomy

Fish and seafood are inseparable from Martinican cuisine. Among the most popular species are cod, snapper (a large and common fish), sauries (a long fish best eaten fried), pissiette (a small fish, fried, eaten without its central bone) and finally shark, often stewed for a long time with tomato and spices.

The queen conch is an enormous mollusk sought after for its delicate flesh and its beautiful, finely decorated shell, often sold to tourists. Its flesh has a firm texture, finer than that of the squid, and is a much appreciated dish. Lobster is the star of the West Indies. For a long time it was considered a poor man's dish by the fishermen, because it was abundant in the creeks and lagoons, before the West transformed it into a luxury dish, although it is still more accessible in the West Indies than in mainland France. It is served grilled, accompanied by a Creole sauce made of onion, garlic, civet, chili, lime, parsley and oil. The slipper lobster is a crustacean with a flat shell and very thin flesh, while the cirique is a small crab. The ouassou, a large freshwater shrimp, lives in rivers and is eaten at Easter. Clams (called soudons) are collected directly from the sand. Finally, the chatrou, a type of small octopus, is prepared as a stew.

To accompany these numerous seafood products, Martinicans use a host of vegetables, such as Turban squash (pumpkin), manioc, okra (which looks like a green chili pepper, but is appreciated for its gelatinous flesh that helps thicken sauces), yam, sweet potato and breadfruit, of which the floury flesh after cooking almost resembles slightly dense bread. It can even be made into French fries. Chayote is a vegetable resembling a pear, but with a taste close to the potato, often prepared in gratin.

All these ingredients are seasoned with many spices. Of course, it is impossible not to mention the colombo mixture made of turmeric, cumin, coriander, cloves, black pepper, fenugreek (with slightly bitter seeds), mustard and ginger. Prepared in powder or paste form, it sometimes also contains cardamom, fennel, or aniseed. In Martinique the cooking is sometimes fierce thanks to the West Indian chili pepper or habanero resembling a tiny bell pepper and the bird chili pepper barely a few centimeters long. Both varieties are particularly strong. The tamarind is a condiment from a tree that has pods filled with a sweet and sour pulp that can be used for both sweet and savory dishes.

We start a Caribbean meal with acras, typical cod fritters, sometimes with shrimp or crab, or even with Turban squash for fasting. They are more or less spicy depending on the cook. Let's not forget the salted patties, small flaky pastries stuffed with finely spiced sausage meat. The dombré is a type of flour dumpling cooked with dried vegetables, often red beans. The more refined ouassous dombré is filled with freshwater shrimp. Another soup, calalou, contains okra, spinach and various vegetables with crab or pork. Otherwise, the pâté en pot is actually a thick soup of mutton offal and vegetables, typically Martinican. Rather reserved for regulars, the foot soup contains beef foot, which simmers for a long time with vegetables. Finally, féroce is a purée of avocado, cod, manioc flour, green onion and chili pepper.

An emblematic recipe, the Creole blood sausage, white or black, is a specialty made with blood (black) or meat (white) of finely spiced pork, of French origin. There are also cod or queen conch based puddings. You can't miss the very popular poulet boucané either, a smoked chicken that is cooked in a three-quarter closed oven with a chimney. The marinated meat is placed high above the fireplace and cooked slowly, the smoke giving it an inimitable taste. Finally, the colombo —of cabri, chicken or pork—is probably the most famous sauce dish in Martinique, the meat simmering for a long time in a mixture of onion, spices, and broth.

Stuffed crab, also a typical Martinican specialty, is a mixture of crab meat, bread and onion, which is used to garnish the shell of the animal before baking it in the oven. For the holidays, there are some specific dishes, such as Christmas ham, caramelized with pineapple, salted pies, Creole puddings and Christmas yam.

There are also simpler dishes such as the bokit, a brioche bun that is fried and then filled with raw vegetables, cod or grilled chicken. Let's also mention the agoulou, a soft bread, grilled, then filled with minced meat and vegetables. Ti-nain-morue, a dish served in the morning, is prepared with cod and plantain. A variation known as tripe ti-nain is a mixture of tripe and beef, expertly cooked with spices, tomato, onions, and a touch of chili. Macadam is a creamy cod rice, slightly spiced. Otherwise, you can enjoy the blaff which contains fish or seafood cooked in a court-bouillon. Try the sea urchin blaff, which is sometimes called “West Indian caviar”. Grab a spoon and enjoy this delicacy with lemon and bay leaves. Another dish is matoutou, a fricassee of crabs, while souskai is grilled and crumbled cod served with vinaigrette.

As for desserts and pastries, don't miss out on the Robinson or “amour caché”, a cake made with pound cake, shortcrust pastry and guava jam, but also coconut flan (or blancmange) with its deliciously silky texture, covered with a golden coconut crust, and of course the classic pineapple upside-down cake. Saucisson is the local nickname given to the rolled cake that is filled with various fillings. Typically, West Indian, the Mont-Blanc coco is a soft sponge cake filled with a rum-coconut cream and covered with grated coconut. Or try the prune pudding, made with bread generously flavored with rum, or the jam-pastries, small crispy turnovers often topped with guava.

The sorbets here are made from milk, most often flavored with coconut, with a pronounced taste of cinnamon or vanilla. Always frozen, the snowball is a cup of crushed ice sprinkled with a dash of syrup (grenadine, mint, or orgeat). Rather reserved for the morning, the cassave is a manioc flour cake, cooked on a plate, which is often decorated with coconut jam. Finally, let's not forget the “doucelettes”, small sweets common on markets or stalls everywhere in Martinique, made of coconut milk and condensed milk.

There is an extraordinary variety of succulent tropical fruits on the island. Of course there are the classics like pineapple, banana (as a side dish like plantain or as a dessert like fressinette or fig-apple variety), avocado, mango, papaya, grapefruit, guava, passion fruit and coconut. But there are many more surprising species such as the star-shaped fruit when sliced, the mammee apple with its sweet orange flesh, the soursop with its very sweet, creamy white pulp and or the Cytherea plum with its fibrous flesh rich in vitamin C.

Of course, juices are extracted from these tasty fruits. The three main producers of West Indian fruit juice are Caresse Antillaise, Royal and Mont Pelé. Enjoy fresh guava, mango and papaya juices, which are uncommon in mainland France. Industrial fruit juices are always made from concentrate. You will find bottles of traditional local juices, often very tasty, in snack bars and on the roadside.

Rum and its tasting are a true institution in the West Indies. Two kinds of rums coexist in the trade: agricultural rums, produced in the French West Indies (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante) and industrial rums, manufactured worldwide. The Martinique rums, unlike the Guadeloupe rums, have an AOC.

The manufacture of agricultural rum comes from the direct distillation of vesou (sugar cane juice) and the transformation of its sugar into alcohol. One ton of sugar cane produces about 100 liters of agricultural rum. Industrial rum is elaborated from the molasses—resulting from the refining of sugar—put to ferment with yeasts. There are different agricultural rums such as white rum, the basis of ti-punch, which can be served iced. Old rum is made from white rum placed in oak barrels for at least 3 years. Some of them can reach 40 years of age and compete with the greatest spirits. At Christmas, shrubb is also prepared, an arranged rum flavored with orange peel, sometimes with a hint of cinnamon, vanilla or ginger.

As far as beer is concerned, Lorraine has the preeminence, but Carib has just arrived from Trinidad and is on the way to dethrone Corona, which is a real success with the young hipsters. Always to be served with a lemon wedge… Corsaire - from Guadeloupe—is light and pleasant. Of course, it is possible to find wine on the island, but it is imported from abroad or from mainland France and can be found at prohibitive prices.