If you find yourself shipwrecked on a desert island, just hope the island happens to be Bonaire. This humble little sister of the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao’, the Netherland Antilles), has some of the best local island and international cooking to be found in the southern Caribbean. Since the earliest settlers arrived on this arid island fifty miles off the coast of Venezuela, the residents have had to learn to be creative with the limited offerings of a desert landscape

With volcanic rock and ancient coral geology, cactus and mesquite the predominant flora, lizards and iguana seemingly the only indigenous land animals, the earliest Amerindians logically exploited the abundant sea life available in the Caribbean. They found ways to use the resources at hand and also brought with them maze, tubers, squash, beans and sweet potatoes. From the earliest times the inhabitants exploited the arid environment’s natural ability to create salt from seawater. This salt has been used for food preservation as well as flavoring. As Europeans later colonized the island the salt marshes were turned into salt pans and commercial salt production became the islands primary cash crop. Today the salt pans comprise nearly the entire southern third of the 122 square mile island. Here the flooded cells turn pink with brine shrimp, attracting flamingos which have become the emblem of the island.Colonists brought slaves and donkeys to the island to do the heavy hauling of the salt trade. Eventually, both were emancipated. The slaves became the islands “native” inhabitants. Their creative influence is tasted throughout the island’s diverse culinary landscape. The donkeys ability to survive and prosper in the arid environment has enabled them to multiply in the wild areas of the island. The colonist’s goat herds also thrived in the thick underbrush and became one of the primary meat sources for the island. The island is a patchwork of small farms (kunuku) encircled by living cactus fences put up to keep the goats in and the donkeys out. While the islands natural resources may seem limited the foods are anything but. As ownership of the island changed hands over the centuries, colonists brought their love of diverse foods from their native lands. The cuisine of Bonaire melds these many diverse cultures with native ingredients and techniques. The zesty cooking of Spain and Portugal, bold, flavorful cooking from West Africa, robust northern European fare imported from Holland, and exotic Indonesian spices carried here by the maritime trade of the Dutch Empire have all contributed to Bonaire’s rich culinary palette. More recently, émigrés from North America the far-east India and China have added to the over seventy cultures represented in local cuisine.Even with all this diversity of tastes the islands inhabitants have all been forced to work within the confines of the island’s limited agricultural capacities. This has encouraged cooks to adapt their cultural tastes to the ingredients available here, giving birth to a wide range of soups (sopi) and stews (stoba), sweets and deserts. The balmy tropical temperatures and arid climate are most conducive to Bar-B-Cue and open fire cooking. Local dishes (kuminda krioyo) can be sampled at the many small snack bars and restaurants scattered through the neighborhoods on the island. Here you may find a few seats to eat in or get it pa bai kun’e (to go). Many ingredients are common to Caribbean cooking such as plantains (banana hasa), conch (karko), fish (piska) and other sea foods. Other ingredients are more unique to Bonaire like cactus, iguana (ywana) and the ubiquitous goat (di kabritu). Regardless of the hostile backcountry terrain, wherever you find yourself marooned on Bonaire, you are not far from a welcoming, full plate of adventure.

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Article Courtsey of Mark Barna

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