The remarkable variety of Caribbean cornmeal

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The remarkable variety of Caribbean cornmeal
Caribbean fungi — no relation to mushrooms — is ready for its stateside close-up

By KAYLA STEWART
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 24, 2022 5:30PM (EDT)




In Caribbean restaurants across America, patrons have become accustomed to common dishes such as jerk chicken, beef patties, and oxtail. The heat and vibrance of Caribbean food has made a splash stateside, but some of the more home-style, foundational dishes are still struggling to gain attention in the restaurant space.

Fungi — pronounced "foon-ji," with no relation to mushrooms — is one of them. A staple Caribbean cornmeal dish flaked with okra and laced with butter can be found throughout the islands, particularly in the West Indies and Virgin Islands. The thickened, earthy porridge-like dish has roots in slavery itself, and is one of many dishes that demonstrates the importance of cornmeal in Caribbean foodways.

A staple with pseudonyms

Ramin Ganeshram, a journalist, food writer, trained chef, and executive director of Connecticut's Westport Museum for History and Culture, explains, "We call [fungi] cou cou [sometimes written as "coo coo"] in Trinidad, and it's called different things in different parts of the Caribbean."

Ganeshram is a multiracial American with Trinidadian heritage who has spent her career focusing on the colonial and early federal foodways of African Americans and mixed race people, with a focus in the Caribbean. (She also authored a book about Hercules, George Washington's enslaved, talented Black chef).

She explained that cornmeal-based fungi takes a variety of shapes across the Caribbean community. Her first memory eating the cornmeal is the way it's still cooked in Trinidad: with okra. It's molded into a cake-like or molded figure or some sort, then sliced and eaten with any kind of stewed dish. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/10/24/the-remarkable-variety-of-caribbean-cornmeal_partner/