Barbados and her Cuisine

map of Barbados


I have always been fascinated with the eclectic array of foods that one finds on the Barbadian table. After having spent a year in Nigeria, I became even more curious about the derivations of many of these foods. One glance at the flora of Nigeria, and a sampling of a few dishes, and I was convinced that Christopher Columbus along with the British, French, and Portuguese had done a tremendous job in moving foods about the globe. This curiousity, plus fond memories of my maternal grandmother's cooking, lead me to take a closer look at the derivations of some of the foods I enjoyed as a child in Barbados and still continue to enjoy, on occasion, here in the U.S. The intent of this page is to provide a "bird's eye view" of the Barbadian background and to share a few of the recipes I enjoy preparing.

Table of Contents:


[green ball]Background
[green ball]Early Settlers
[green ball]Influences on Caribbean Cuisine
[green ball]Barbadians (Bajans) Early History
[green ball]The Origin of the Name Barbados
[green ball]Precursors to Current Foods
[green ball]The Advent of Tourism and Its Influence on Barbadian Cuisine
[green ball]Recipes Which Reflect the Eclectic History of Barbados
[green ball]Barbadian Web Sites







Knight, Franklin W. and Colin A. Palmer. The Modern Caribbean, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.

Wilder, Rachel. Barbados, Singapore: APA Publications, 1988.

Barbados Logo, the "To Top" and "contents" buttons were created with the use of graphic material from CoolText graphics available at http://www.cooltext.com

Map of Barbados is a "gif" file borrowed from Travelfile, The Leisure and Traval Network which can be found at http://www.travelfile.com/go/barbados.html

The Greenball.gif, Redball.gif and Bluebar.gif were graciously loaned by the FIU Library Homepage Manager.

Palmtree, glass, dolphin, chilli pepper and archipeligo graphics are free gifs from the Cosmicdome ICON Directory found through Rose's Background Archive at http://www.wanderers2.com/rose/backgrounds.html

Elliptical buttons of various colors and the Red bar were found in the Icon Library at the University of North Carolina at http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/iconlib


This page was created in partial fulfillment of the requirements of LIS4930 "Internet Resources," for the Fall 1999 Semester. LIS 4930 is offered by the University of South Florida's School of Library and Information Science, and is co-taught by Professors Ilene Frank and Linda Brakeall.


This page was last updated November 29, 1999

Please send comments or suggestions to the author:

Cynthia E. Dottin



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