Although this book appears as Caribbean Specialities, its true title is Culinaria: The Caribbean. A Culinary Discovery. This title is indicative of exactly what the book is all about. Really discovering the islands. I am an island girl, a Caribbean woman who took three years of her life, with German photographers first and then a photographer from Dominica, and travelled the islands experiencing first-hand all that I could of my beautiful Caribbean. This book is not about cooking. It is about history, about culture, traditions and why we eat the foods that we eat. I would need volumes to cover every thing I have wanted to write. But I hope that I have managed to stir up some interest in things really 'island'. Like for instance, who were the real discoverers of the Caribbean? Which island prompted William Shakespeare to write The Tempest? What is a Gombey? Is a potato really English? What is a Guinep? Do flying fish really fly? What is a Baku? Is Bois Bande really an aphrodisiac and do Caribbean men really derive their 'well-known prowess' from Aphrodisiac Soups? What could a Titiri be? What happens to you when you eat Cascadura? Why does a Mountain Chicken croak like a frog? Have you ever munched on an Iguana or eaten Cactus Soup? Did you know the oldest Jewish Synagogue in the Western World is in Curacao? Can you really keep a Pepperpot going for 100 years? Learn about days of old, pirates and a famous "mulatto madame" called Rachel Pringle. Eat a land crab. Drink some Blue Mountain Coffee.Suck a piece of cane. Learn to eat mango the island way. Try and catch a manicou. Bathe in sulphur rivers. Who ever heard of an Italian Rasta. Learn the truth about the Rastafarian movement. Spend Easter in Barbados and slap a domino in a rum shop. Pick nutmeg in Grenada. Smoke a Cohiba in Cuba. Check out the colourful markets. From Bermuda to the ABC islands, I try to take you on a trip which gives you just a modest insight into our world. Our real world. "So, buy de book nah man. Mek' an island gal happy, happy. Fuss, fix yo'self a nice cold Rum Punch (de recipe in dey too, de real, real one!), put on some sweet Caribbean sounds, a calypso or a Bob Marley, wrap yo'self in bright clott, (men can do dat too). If yu one dem lucky people dat does have dem hammoks we people invent in de fus' place...lie in it comfortable and start de journey....start de travelling.Yu do'an have to worry 'bout passport or visa or airport headache. Who knows... maybe dem fantazies you bin' having going come tru! Next t'ing yuh know yu is lying in de hammock wid de love of yu life....an island ting! Tru! Tru!