This is a list of cuisines of the Americas. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. The cuisines found across North and South America are based on the cuisines of the countries from which the immigrant peoples came, primarily Europe. However, the traditional European cuisine has been adapted by the addition of many local ingredients, and many techniques have been added to the tradition as well.
South American cuisine – Some of the richest food products of South America come from the middle of the continent, the Amazon basin. For example, the Amazon region provides a plethora of fresh fish and tropical fruits. In countries like Peru there is a strong influence of the Inca empire and their cuisine. Potatoes are frequently grown as a result of this, and also plants such as quinoa. On the Southern tip of South America lies the Pacific Ocean, which provides a large array of seafood. Many plains also are on this continent, which are rich for growing food in abundance. In the Patagonia south of Chile and Argentina, many people produce lamb and venison. King crab is typically caught at the southern end of the continent. Antarctic krill has just recently been discovered and is now another food source. Tuna and tropical fish are caught all around the continent; Easter Island is one place where they are found in abundance. Lobster is also caught in great quantities from Juan Fernández. In Brazil the most traditional dish is the feijoada.
As there is no one homogeneous Caribbean, there is also no one Caribbean cuisine, but one based on European historical grouping and colonization. There are two broad based or types of cuisines in the Caribbean area. One is based around Western European colonized groupings such as British, French, Dutch and the other Spanish-based like in Central America and most of South America, or Latin based. Both incorporate a European influence together with an Indigenous, and a West African influence as a base.
The dishes made in the previously British and French Islands and territories in the Caribbean are much more diverse than the islands colonized by Spanish due to a history of changing colonial administration or ownership, and the migration of diverse groups brought to work on plantations including Indians from Indian, Chinese and Portuguese. There is even much diversity within each previous colonial groupings. While both Trinidad and Jamaica were both British colonies and share similar cooking styles, the scope of dishes in Trinidad are different and more diverse due to a very different population make up. The similarities in the larger region lie mostly in the fruits and vegetables consumed and the ingredients used in cooking, with the use of root vegetables, plantains, beans, and rice, fish and seafood being a common denominator. In the post independence and post colonial era, and with globalization in the 1990s cultural and food similarities between the previous British, still French and Dutch Island and territories were magnified.
Latin American cuisine – incorporates influences from all over the world. Most came due to colonization and the resulting mixtures among the Native Americans, European immigrants, and African slaves. Different waves of immigration have also had a hand in this mixture, mainly in the form of immigrants from central and eastern Europe and from east Asia.
