Cou-Cou and Flying Fish

Specialised

The national dish, and both halves need explaining. COU-COU is cornmeal and OKRA cooked and — the technique is the dish — beaten with a wooden COU-COU STICK against the side of the pot until it is smooth and elastic, then turned out in a bowl-shaped mound; ⚠ the method is of West African fufu and mealie descent and the stirring is skilled work. FLYING FISH — Hirundichthys affinis — is boned, seasoned with Bajan seasoning and lime, and steamed in a tomato-onion gravy or fried. ⚠ THE FLYING FISH IS ON THE COAT OF ARMS AND THE COINS, and yet the stock has shifted: warming water moved the shoals southward toward Tobago, producing a genuine fisheries dispute between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago that went to international arbitration in 2006. ⚠ A NATIONAL DISH WITH A CLIMATE PROBLEM, recorded as such.

What is recorded

Cou-cou is cornmeal and okra beaten smooth with a cou-cou stick, a technique of West African fufu descent, and is recorded as related to but distinct from Antiguan and Virgin Islands fungi. The flying fish appears on the Barbadian coat of arms and coinage. Shifts in flying fish distribution toward Tobagonian waters produced a fisheries dispute between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago that was submitted to international arbitration in 2006. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

originates from West African Foodways documented

The cou-cou technique — cornmeal beaten smooth against the pot — is of West African fufu and mealie descent.

related to Fungi, Pepper Pot and Ducana documented

Cou-cou and fungi are the same technique family under different names and with different national pairings. Related, not merged.

related to Trinidad and Tobago Foodways disputed

⚠ The flying fish shoals moved south toward Tobago as water warmed, producing a real fisheries dispute between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago that went to international arbitration in 2006.