Floribbean cuisine

Floribbean-style cooking incorporates an exotic spice pantry: red curry, lemongrass, ginger, and scallions are as commonly used today in Floribbean cookery as grits and cobbler are in other parts of Florida.

Foundationally, its bedrock is Conch, Black, Spanish and Cuban regional cooking, with heavy Asian influences.

Early advocates were characterized by the so-called "Mango Gang," a group of South Florida chefs that included Norman Van Aken, Mark Militello, Douglas Rodriguez, and Allen Susser, who advocated the use of fresh local ingredients with Caribbean influences.

[1] According to Van Aken, Floribbean cuisine was an inspiration for modern fusion cuisine, having coined the phrase in a 1988 letter describing his plan to “salvage the golden treasures and vibrant calypso flavors of old Key West and fusing them with a contemporary sensibility and an individual personality".

[2] Typical features of Floribbean cuisine include an emphasis on fresh ingredients and complex medleys of spices, especially strong flavors offset by milder ones.