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Dasheen (Taro), was introduced to the Caribbean way before the Chinese immigrants. It's believe to been introduced by the African slaves, Taro is also a staple in West African cooking.
lol, I remember when bubble tea became a fad here too. It doesn't seem as popular now but if I were to roughly recall it was throughout the 2000s.
Root and tuber crops like cassava/manioc, yam, taro etc. are the usual staple for tropical West Africa, Oceania and other places near the equator, as dietary staple rather than cereal grains (wheat, corn, etc.), which can kind of seem a bit exotic to those of us living outside the tropics.
The root-type starch staples replace the grain-type staples as you get towards countries in equatorial climates. Wheat doesn't grow well at all in climates with hot humid summers, being a cooler, temperate/Mediterranean climate crop. Even rice is more suitable to cultivation in subtropical or seasonal tropical climates than the fully humid equatorial zone. I'm not entirely sure, but I think some of the tropical root crops like taro are very resistent to waterlogged soils and flooding.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Originally Posted by Stumbler.
lol, I remember when bubble tea became a fad here too. It doesn't seem as popular now but if I were to roughly recall it was throughout the 2000s.
Root and tuber crops like cassava/manioc, yam, taro etc. are the usual staple for tropical West Africa, Oceania and other places near the equator, as dietary staple rather than cereal grains (wheat, corn, etc.), which can kind of seem a bit exotic to those of us living outside the tropics.
The root-type starch staples replace the grain-type staples as you get towards countries in equatorial climates. Wheat doesn't grow well at all in climates with hot humid summers, being a cooler, temperate/Mediterranean climate crop. Even rice is more suitable to cultivation in subtropical or seasonal tropical climates than the fully humid equatorial zone. I'm not entirely sure, but I think some of the tropical root crops like taro are very resistent to waterlogged soils and flooding.
It keeps growing in popularity here. Then again Australia is closer to Asia, both physically and culturally (more Asian influence). When I was in LA it wasn't hard to find 'Boba' which is basically a similar thing.
Rice is grown in warm temperate climates/humid sub-tropical climates as well, like Japan, or Arkansas or Missouri in the US. It can also be grown in dry climates that are irrigated, such as the Murray river valley in Australia.
Interesting that the bubble tea is still popular there. I think Asian culture influences are also pretty strong in Canadian cities though, due to Asian countries being the largest sources of immigrants. I believe the drink became a fad in Canada through Vancouver because of the Chinese influence, but became popular all around many Canadian cities -- don't know if it was synchronized with the popularity in the West coast/US as a hip thing, where many fashions start.
I mean it's still around as an drink/item to buy, but just less popular now "on the street" (during a "fad" phase in the 2000s, I remember it was common to see people holding the drinks walking around in the summer, not so much now). I haven't been to California recently so I have no idea if it is still popular now there too. Then again, fads/fashions are what they are, who knows what logic or rhyme and reason is behind its spread all across western world (it's like how I only really saw women wearing the Uggs boots in the late 2000s in Toronto, even though it's apparently been popular elsewhere a lot earlier).
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stumbler.
Interesting that the bubble tea is still popular there. I think Asian culture influences are also pretty strong in Canadian cities though, due to Asian countries being the largest sources of immigrants. I believe the drink became a fad in Canada through Vancouver because of the Chinese influence, but became popular all around many Canadian cities -- don't know if it was synchronized with the popularity in the West coast/US as a hip thing, where many fashions start.
I mean it's still around as an drink/item to buy, but just less popular now "on the street" (during a "fad" phase in the 2000s, I remember it was common to see people holding the drinks walking around in the summer, not so much now). I haven't been to California recently so I have no idea if it is still popular now there too. Then again, fads/fashions are what they are, who knows what logic or rhyme and reason is behind its spread all across western world (it's like how I only really saw women wearing the Uggs boots in the late 2000s in Toronto, even though it's apparently been popular elsewhere a lot earlier).
Oh yeah I forgot you were talking about Canada. The West coast of the US is Asian too of course.
Yeah I first heard of Bubble tea here back in 1999 I think, but it only became popular around 2002 or so. It's stayed pretty popular since then, but now it's almost become something that everybody knows. I see as many non-Asian people drinking Bubble tea. There is a big chain called Utopia which is expanding. I believe Bubble tea originated in Taiwan.
Rice is grown in warm temperate climates/humid sub-tropical climates as well, like Japan, or Arkansas or Missouri in the US. It can also be grown in dry climates that are irrigated, such as the Murray river valley in Australia.
Rice is being grown in the Sacramento valley in California too.
Apparently (though it is obviously a really water-intensive crop), the irony is yields per unit area in a season are greater in those irrigated dry zones and the temperate zones (Australia, US, Spain, S. Korea, Japan) where summer is at least long enough for one season than in the native humid subtropical/monsoonal zone where it is most consumed.
A big part of that is those developed countries with enough water to spare, utilize the extra sunshine during the summer at their higher latitudes (as long as summers are hot enough and water sufficient, extra heat in summer doesn't help, but extra day length with sun does; many poorer countries cannot afford to irrigate to take advantage of the sunnier dry season for growth, and have to rely on natural monsoon rains when it falls).
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stumbler.
Rice is being grown in the Sacramento valley in California too.
Apparently (though it is obviously a really water-intensive crop), the irony is yields per unit area in a season are greater in those irrigated dry zones and the temperate zones (Australia, US, Spain, S. Korea, Japan) where summer is at least long enough for one season than in the native humid subtropical/monsoonal zone where it is most consumed.
A big part of that is those developed countries with enough water to spare, utilize the extra sunshine during the summer at their higher latitudes (as long as summers are hot enough and water sufficient, extra heat in summer doesn't help, but extra day length with sun does; many poorer countries cannot afford to irrigate to take advantage of the sunnier dry season for growth, and have to rely on natural monsoon rains when it falls).
I think in the Caribbean the culture is comprised of all the people who live there blended together into one main culture. As a result you will find everyone being culturally quite similar despite race. This produces some interesting results as some aspects of each group's ancestors is lost while some are contributed towards the overall mainstream Caribbean cultures. Chinese Trinidadians for example cannot use chopsticks, non Chinese Jamaicans can cook Chinese food quite well, non Indian Trinidadians can easily tell the difference between a Hindu or Muslim last name, Carnival which stems from European and West African influences is popular with most Caribbean people.
Unlike the US where ,for example, a white person can have a "cultural experience" by going over to let's say a Chinese friend's house ("What am I eating? Taro?? How do you spell that? Is it like a potato? ") the differences are much less strongly defined in the Caribbean. I'm not sure why. I think maybe the small size of the islands forced people to interact more closely and thus form a blended composite culture.
A really good example of all I said above is with the taro. It is extremely common and is cooked in the home by all Caribbean people. It was introduced to the region by Chinese immigrants (brought to replace African slave labour) in the early 1800s and was called by the ruling French at the time "de la Chine" (meaning from China). The name has since been corrupted over the years to dasheen but its popularity remains strong. And nobody thinks of it as Chinese food anymore (or probably even knows its origin), just Caribbean.
Very well said.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88
Maybe it's because the populations of Caribbean islands are, in fact, nearly all non-white. Have you considered that explanation? In Jamaica, for example, the population is only 3% white, and in Trinidad it is less than 1% white. Why are you surprised that people think of those countries as being predominantly black?
As a matter of fact, whites make up a larger percentage of the population in Ghana and Tanzania, than in Trinidad.
Because in the case of Trinidad, for example, it is not predominantly "black." The whole world is not simply white or black. The largest group in Trinidad is neither white or black, nor a mix of the two.
There is a white woman who belongs to my church who is a Trinidad native. Her accent sounds almost German to me, though. I don't know what a Trinidadian accent is supposed to sound like!
There is a white woman who belongs to my church who is a Trinidad native. Her accent sounds almost German to me, though. I don't know what a Trinidadian accent is supposed to sound like!
It can vary depending on the part of the island etc. But sounding German is a new one... Maybe Witch can lend more insight when it comes to that...
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