What to eat Florida? culinary specialties and gastronomy

With a mainly flat territory, generously watered and a very mild or even tropical climate on a good part of its surface, Florida is widely cultivated and agriculture as well as breeding are an important part of its economy.

The first thing that comes to mind is the orange, the flagship crop of Florida, this fruit even decorating the license plates. Indeed, more than half of the country's citrus fruits are produced here and nearly 70% of the oranges in the USA. The state is also known for another citrus fruit called Key lime, a cross between a citron and a combawa, both native to Southeast Asia. The lime tree was brought by Portuguese and Spanish settlers to the West Indies and Central America, hence its name. It is smaller and more acidic than the lime, which is itself a hybrid of the lime tree.

But agriculture in Florida provides other foodstuffs, including an incalculable number of fruits and vegetables often grown very late in the season or even in the middle of winter when it is too cold in the rest of the country. This is the case of strawberries for example. A tropical climate makes Florida the largest producer of sugar cane in the United States, not to mention mangoes, lychees, bananas, papayas, etc. Produced in the region of St. Augustine since the ^19th century, the datil is a very strong pepper, green, orange or red, barely 3-4 cm long.

As far as eating habits are concerned, it should be noted that breakfast is not automatic in the hotels. You can therefore enjoy a typical American breakfast in the restaurant: eggs (fried or scrambled), bacon, sausages, hashbrowns, pancakes and waffles, often drowned in maple syrup.

As for the schedule, especially for dinner, keep in mind that Americans eat earlier than the French. Here we generally dine between 6 and 7 pm and except in nightlife oriented neighborhoods or outside of fast food and 24 hour restaurants, most classic restaurant kitchens close early, often as early as 10 pm. All-you-can-eat buffets are also common.

Although the local cuisine has been influenced by the typical flavors of the Deep South and the many waves of migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean, the great classics of American cuisine in the broadest sense can be found. There are excellent steakhouses and delicious seafood restaurants.

Just as in Texas, barbecue is a serious business in Florida and not surprisingly there are Cuban and Caribbean influences once again. The orange and lemon aromas used to marinate the meats are fragrant while the whole pig is smoked (hot smoked) - as in Cuba - by cooking it for 12 hours in an underground oven, resulting in a melting meat. Jerk chicken is a spicy Jamaican chicken recipe, common on Florida barbecues. Smoked mullet is a popular dish in the northern Gulf Coast region.

While South and Central Florida have a more Latin American influenced cuisine, in the North the flavors are closer to Deep South cuisine with signature dishes like fried chicken, cornbread grits (corn porridge often served with shrimp), country ham, hushpuppies (cornmeal croquettes), collard greens, green tomato fritters, fried catfish, and various rice and black eyed peas recipes. You can't miss the alligator bites, small cubes of fried alligator meat served with a lemon wedge. The taste and texture are similar to chicken.

With some 2170 km of coastline, Florida is the 2nd state in the US for the length of its coastline just after Alaska. This means that lovers of all kinds of fish and seafood will have something to enjoy here. You can find them absolutely everywhere, but the best seafood specialties can be found in the Keys and on the Gulf of Mexico, where fishing is a very common activity. Barracuda, dorado, tuna, swordfish, grouper and scorpion fish are just a few of the many species caught in the area, not to mention freshwater fish.

You can also enjoy seafood such as oysters - very popular - coming from the Apalachicola region in northwest Florida. Unfortunately, overfishing and global warming have drastically reduced the stocks and their harvesting is now prohibited in this part of the state. Oysters are usually served with an American style cocktail sauce made of ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice and Tabasco. Otherwise you can try the Florida stone crab, similar to an edible crab, whose claws are very popular with mayonnaise, or the conch fritters, a large shellfish of Caribbean origin. The rock shrimp is a large shrimp with a very hard shell, like a lobster.

Finally, the Minorcan clam chowder is a clam soup with tomato and bacon, created by migrants from Menorca, Spain, in the late ^18th century. Excellent fish and seafood dishes can also be found in the town of Tarpon Springs, near Tampa, known for its large Greek community, which arrived in the early ^20th century and brought with it tasty Mediterranean recipes.

Throughout the ^nineteenth and ^twentieth centuries, Florida's location, less than 150 km from Cuba and the Bahamas, saw several waves of Hispanic-Caribbean immigrants, who played an important role in the development of Florida-Caribbean cuisine.

Among the main characteristics of this fusion cuisine is the abundance of fish, seafood and chicken, cooked with many spices and other condiments such as red curry, lemongrass, ginger and green onions. Asian influences are numerous as evidenced by the strong presence of Chinese and Indian workers who came to the West Indies to harvest sugar cane in the ^19th century. Thus, exotic fruits and vegetables from Asia are produced locally in South Florida with its warm climate unlike the rest of the USA with its harsh winters. Floribbean cuisine often uses less spice than traditional Caribbean dishes. This spiciness, however, is almost always moderated by the use of tropical fruits, almonds, coconut milk, lime or honey.

The best example is the Cuban sandwich, a variation of a ham and cheese sandwich, which probably originated in cafes serving Cuban workers in Tampa or Key West. Later it became popular in Miami as well. Indeed, Florida has the largest Cuban community in the United States, with no less than 1.5 million people, many of whom fled the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s. The sandwich is made of ham, roasted pork, cheese, pickles, mustard and sometimes salami on Cuban bread (kind of baguette). This snack even became the "signature sandwich of the city of Tampa" in 2012.

Other recipes include deviled crabs (croqueta de jaiba in Spanish), crab croquettes, native to Tampa, developed by Spanish, Cuban and Italian immigrants in Ybor City. Other recipes include ceviche, a Peruvian specialty of raw fish marinated in lime juice, or the Spanish-inspiredarroz con pollo (yellow rice with chicken), which is very common in Latin America.

As far as desserts are concerned, you will find all the American pastries you can dream of: cheesecakes, muffins, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, carrot cake, etc. However, if there is one dessert that cannot be ignored in Florida, it is the Key lime pie, a succulent lime pie topped with whipped cream. In the state that made the orange its emblem, you will also try theorange meringue pie . The Key lime bundt cake is a crown-shaped cake topped with a lime glaze while the strawberry shortcake is a simple butter shortcake generously topped with whipped cream and strawberries. Winter strawberries are very popular in Florida, a rare state able to produce them in this season.

If we are used to American coffee so long that it is often described as "sock juice", more than 60 years of Cuban migration to Florida have contributed to create a taste for coffee different from most other American states. The most common coffee is the cafecito or cubano, a very strong espresso with lots of brown sugar. Or try the cortadito, half espresso and half milk, while the classic café con leche is made with a dash of condensed milk. These drinks may not be common outside of Cuban neighborhoods, but Americans are increasingly appreciative of good, full-bodied coffee.

In addition to beer and wine, which are readily available, Florida is above all a paradise for cocktails, especially those based on rum and tequila, which is no surprise. Thus the Rum Runner - name given to the people who transported rum during the Prohibition - was invented in the 1950s mixing white rum, blackberry liqueur, banana cream, orange juice, pineapple juice and grenadines. Otherwise the Miami Vice is a cross between a piña colada (coconut milk, pineapple juice, white rum), a daiquiri (white rum, strawberry puree, sugar, lime). Other cocktails such as the margarita, the mojito and the caipirinha are also very popular.