Caribbean

This popular breakfast food is also a late-night favorite after a good "lime." "Lime" is the Trini term for "hanging out." On Friday and Saturday nights, smart doubles vendors take to their stations to serve hungry revelers seeking a midnight snack.

The all-American soda fountain classic gets a fabulous tropical makeover.

Often called a boniato, a batata is what most of the world knows as a sweet potato. White-fleshed and drier than typical orange, moist-fleshed varieties, the tuber has a delicate, slightly sweet flavor reminiscent of chestnuts. We like to serve them with a flavorful compound butter.

This variation on the classic Piña Colada is served at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico; it's finished with a dark rum float for extra flavor.

Editor's note: This recipe is from chef Khalid Mohammed of Battimamzelle in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Mohammed also shared some helpful tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. Buljol, a popular Trinidadian breakfast dish, is a cold salad made from salted codfish. In his Trini-fusion version, Mohammed substitutes squid and locally abundant conch and adds green "figs" (green bananas, called by their local name, and "soused," or pickled, a traditional cooking method). He finishes the dish with the tomato chokha, a local sauce.

In Trinidad and Tobago, crabs are traditionally cooked whole and the meat picked out. This sophisticated dish combines American-style crab cakes with the island flavor of callaloo, a green stew that's the national dish of Trinidad. Here, the stew becomes a sauce, creating an elegant starter or light lunch.

This drink was featured as a Cocktail of the Month. Click here to learn more about the Ti Punch.

Both the peach relish and the pork benefit from an overnight rest in the refrigerator; the relish mellows in flavor, and the pork becomes even more tender in the fiery marinade.

Peel these fiery shrimp as you eat them.

Eli Gorelick of West Orange, New Jersey, writes: "As a kid growing up in Cuba, I worked alongside my mother every day in the kitchen, learning how to make specialties like picadillo and fried bananas. I still think Havana has the best Cuban food in the world, and I continue to love the recipes I learned during my childhood." Look for canned coconut milk in the Asian foods section of the supermarket.

Eli Gorelick of West Orange, New Jersey, writes: "As a kid growing up in Cuba, I worked alongside my mother every day in the kitchen, learning how to make specialties like picadillo and fried bananas. I still think Havana has the best Cuban food in the world, and I continue to love the recipes I learned during my childhood." Picadillo is a traditional dish in many Latin American countries; it's made with ground meat, tomatoes, and regional ingredients. The Cuban version includes olives and is usually served with black beans and rice.

Asopao de Pollo Angel Rodriguez of New York, New York, writes: "My family in Puerto Rico used to make this asopao for special occasions or when we needed something to eat while fishing by the river. This dish is made with sofrito, a flavor base in Latin American cooking.

Long before smoothies swept our nation, Puerto Rico and Cuba were whipping up their own fruit shakes, known as batidos.