Food is an essential part of every culture around the world.

Eating brings people together.

Local cuisines are crafted from a collection of many influences.

Food holds a special place in our traditions, families and memories.

Guyana South America's cuisines are rich with culinary fusions from throughout the region, including Indian, Caribbean, Creole, African, Chinese and European sampling.

These influences, along with the rich ethnic populations, has led to a local menu that is unlike any other around the world.

Demerara is the northern coastal historic region in Guyana.

It includes the capital city of Georgetown.

It is famously known for its sugar cane production.

In fact, the name for raw sugar we recognize most throughout the world is called Demerara Sugar.

It is brown in color and has a mild caramel or toffee like flavor.

This unique sugar originated in the demerara sugar cane fields in the 1600s.

The manufacturing of sugar cane remains relatively the same process today.

First, the sugar cane stocks are harvested and collected.

Second, they are chopped up and sent through machines that extract and collect the juice.

Then the juice is boiled at an extremely high heat.

This process will produce a dark syrup, which is a form of unrefined molasses.

Lastly, the syrup is put through a process that separates the crystal from the syrup.

The result is a slightly sticky sugar crystal.

Root vegetables, like sweet potato, yams and cassava root, are staples of the country's diet.

Guyana is known as the land of many waters.

With hundreds of acres of freshwater Amazon rivers, seafood is a major part of Guyanese cuisine.

There are over 900 species of fish throughout the country.

The fresh waters of the Atlantic and the dense tropical rainforest provide the perfect environment for some of the freshest seafood and the tastiest produce to make its way into the country's food.

The bangamary, or spotted trout fish, is a popular freshwater game fish in Guyana.

These fish are excellent sources of protein Beef, chicken and shrimp are also popular meat options in many Guyanese dishes.

Both of my parents were born and raised in Guyana.

My mother has continued preparing traditional dishes that her mother passed along to her and that have been passed down for generations.

I'm excited to share this special recipe with you so that you can experience a traditional Guyanese dish at home.

Hi, I'm Nareesha, and this is my mom, Zabeeda.

Hello.

Today, we're going to be cooking a popular Guyanese dish called Cook up Rice.

This is a one pot meal that is rice based with coconut milk, beans or peas and a variety of meat.

Today, we're going to be using beef as our protein.

We're also going to be using rice, black eyed peas, coconut milk, beef broth, extra virgin olive oil, mixed vegetables, garlic and fresh vegetables.

This is how my mom showed me and I will show it to Nareesha.

This is the way you could make it at home.

When we cook this Cook up Rice, we have so many ways you could use chicken, you could use fried fish, anything, whatever you like for vegetables, you could add to your Cook up Rice.

So do they call this a one pot dish because you basically put everything in the pot and it cooks itself?

- Yes.

Everything go in one pot.

Everything that I took out a cup of rice, everything cooked up with the rice.

Board with all our ingredients.

And the colors are beautiful.

- It almost looks like the color of the Guyanese flag.

- For now, we chop everything.

We are ready to go.

So we moving to the stove.

So Nareesha, can you turn the stove on for me to high?

We will wait on the pot to heat, Then we will throw our oil in and let it heat up.

Now I will add the vegetable that I cut up.

Go ahead and keep stirring so it don't get brown.

I don't want it to brown.

This is how it's looking.

It is frying up.

And looking very good.

I wash my meat and I season with some black pepper and some salt.

Now I add it to my vegetable.

(liquid sizzling) This is my black eyed peas.

I soak overnight.

Now I'm going to go ahead and rinse it so I could add it to my pot, drain my water out.

Now I will take it to the stove and add it to my meat.

Now my black eyed peas and my meat is fry up together.

Now I would add my coconut milk.

Now I will add my water.

This will help the black eyed peas on the meat to get soft.

I will cover it and let it come to a boil.

This is boiling for 15 minutes now, and I'm about to add the rice.

(water running in sink) I put my rice, I stir it, and I will low my stove down to medium.

I will add my beef stock to the rice.

I wash my rice, I put it in my mixture with my beans, black eyed and everything.

So I have covered the pot and let it cool for 15 minutes.

I will be back and check on it.

So now my rice is boiling.

Now I'm going to add my mixed vegetable, my oregano and I will put a sprinkle in my rice.

And I will stir it.

I let it finish off.

I give it about five more minutes when I finish.

Then I check it to see when it it is soft.

I will split it like that.

And if it's finished, it's soft.

- Mom, thank you for sharing this dish with me and the viewers at home.

This is something I can actually pass down to my two boys.

- Yes, you know, have a lot of more different dishes from Guyana and the viewer should be checking into it because there are lots of different things you could learn about Guyana.