Sunday Serenade

Wow! This place looks amazing! Yes, yes it is. Best country in the world is the perfect post-card for a fun romantic summer =)

Caribbean Christmas

This is the first year that I will not be going home to my little island in the sun for Christmas. This year will be new and different and exciting all the same. But there are a few things that I'm certainly going to miss from home. Most of them are food... surprise, surprise. These are the things that define Christmas at home for me.

Ponche Crema

Mmm... Ponche Crema! This is a little bit like American Eggnog, but very very alcoholic and infinitely more delicious. It is rich and creamy, and with a perfect sprinkling of nutmeg it just tastes like Christmas! You can find a recipe here. I must stress that it wont be any good unless you use a proper West Indian dark rum, preferably Cockspur. Don't even try to use Bacardi! Throw that shit down the drain!

Pastelles

Mmm... Pastelles! So this is a Trini/Venezuelan dish. There is a similar Bajan version called Conkie that you can read about here. Really I prefer the Trini version (and this is the only time you will ever see me admit to anything from Trinidad being better than Barbados). The filling is a mix of meats, heavily spiced and finely minced. It's then covered in a cornmeal casing and wrapped in a Banana leaf. From mid-December to mid-January my family eats these for breakfast at least twice a week. Pastelles really make me feel Christmassy!

Parang Music

So I really love traditional Christmas songs- Jingle Bells and Let it Snow and all the usuals. But these songs don't really tend to be party songs. No one ever jumped up to the dance floor for Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. At home we need something to dance to! We always need party music and Parang fills this space for the Christmas season. Most Parang songs, just like Calypso, are filled with suggestion and innuendo. Parang is funny, fun, festive... oh I just love it! 

Breakfast

Ok, so Cadbury biscuits obviously are not West Indian. Or even very Christmassy for that matter. But this very tin of biscuits means Christmas to me. You see, my family is a bit obsessive about presents. We're all pretty much grown, but still are up before 7 on Christmas morning to see what's under the tree. This means that there is no time at all to make or eat breakfast. Instead, a nice big tin of Cadbury Biscuits gets opened and we all gorge ourselves on chocolate while wrapping paper and ribbon gets torn to shreds!  

Christmas Ham

Mmm... Ham! Turkey is not the holiday meal of choice at home. It's ham. A nice big pig leg, honey glazed, covered in cloves... my mouth is watering just thinking of it. My Dad has one of these electric carving knives that whirs and buzzes as he carves our ham. The noise of the knife plus the smell of the ham is like a magnetic pull to the kitchen. We often eat it faster than he can carve!

 

SORREL!

Of all the things that mean Christmas to me, of all the delicious things that I love, none compares to my absolute obsession with sorrel. I LOVE sorrel! This beautifully red, fragrant juice is the most wonderful thing that December has to offer. A glass of sorrel with my pastelle in the morning, a vodka-sorrel to match my party dress in the evenings, sorrel-tinis getting mixed up on Christmas Eve... oh my oh my oh my. Many of you know what I'm talking about, but for those of you who have never had the pleasure of this beautiful drink, I cannot even describe to you how nice it is! It's like nothing else I've ever tasted. And if anyone reading this can tell me where I can get sorrel in London you will be my new best friend! Seriously, I'll bake you something delicious. 

If you're looking for more delicious Caribbean eats, head over to Skip to Malou* today for some more perennial dishes!

God Bless Bim

Today is Barbados Independence Day! 

Our lovely little island became its very own nation state on November 30th 1966.  We didn't have a silly war or anything... we just asked politely like the decent folk we are. So today we mark the 45th anniversary of Independence. 45 might be middle-aged for human beings, but for a country I'm pretty certain its the equivalent of being a teenager. Which means we're still cool and fun; no back pain or arthritis.

To celebrate I'm bigging up some fabulous Bajan talent! Here's Cover Drive's Twilight. Nothing to do with vampires, don't worry.

I must say, Amanda is looking fairly sweet in this one. Boys looking nice too. Hope everyone is waving their blue and yellow today!

Cultural Conundrum of Pie

Pie = Delicious, Right? I love pie. And I love to say that I love pie because it could mean totally different things depending on what country I'm in. 

When the Brits say pie this is what they're talking about:

Hairy Bikers' Steak and Ale Pie

Or some variation on this; steak pie, pork pie, fish pie, whatever! Essentially, a yummy savoury filling covered in yummy buttery pastry. I love pie! Nom nom nom.

But ask the Americans for some pie and this is what you'll get:

Shop.Cook.Make. Apple Pie

Good Ole American Apple Pie! or Cherry Pie or Pecan Pie or Pumpkin Pie or French Silk Chocolate Pie... and now I'm drooling. So yes, the key ingredient in American pies is sugar. Drop a sweet seasonal filling on a crispy pastry crust and you've got yourself a pie. I love pie!

But should you land your two feet in Barbados, stumble into a rum shop and order some pie, this is what you'll be served:

Proper Bajan Macaroni Pie

No pastry, no crust, just mouthfuls of starchy, cheesey bliss! This is the definition of PIE in our homeland: a brick composed of some long macaroni and a mob-a-ton of cheese. There are some other ingredients too; here's a recipe. I love pie!

Macaroni Pie is indeed our holy grail of all things pie. But we also do corn pie, yam pie, sweet potato pie... A pie is anything starchy, covered in some kind of white sauce and/or cheese, and baked in the oven. These are all standard side dishes in any meal. 

My mother is naturally one of the best cooks I know (aren't all Mums?). But Macaroni Pie isn't her speciality. Instead she does an Onion Pie. This isn't really keeping in tradition with real Bajan pies as being super-starchy. But it is a hell of a lot closer to Bajan than the Brit or Yank versions. It is the same concept as a Macaroni Pie but the onions replace the pasta. I LOVE onions and I LOVE this pie. 

I've recently tried a variation on Mum's Onion Pie. Thus was born: Onion-Courgette not-so-pie-like Pie. Photos, recipe, and war-stories from the kitchen to come...

If you want recipes for the pies on this page you can find the Brit one here, the American one here, and the Bajan one here. Now you're craving pie aren't you?

The Best Country in the World and The Worst Company in the World

If there is one thing that gets me vex it is really bad customer service. Not because I demand perfection and expect to be served like a queen. But because it is SO easy to do very basic things to make your customer happy and SO rare that people even make an effort.

A few days ago I was on my not-so-rare rant about the best country in the world; it's Barbados obviously. Not that I'm biased or anything. There is a long list of reasons why Barbados is so great, but good customer service does not usually appear on that list. In fact, I'm among quite a few Bajans who often get distressed, and frankly, embarrassed, at the level of service in some of the most tourist-visited places. Like the Airport, for starters. It is not that Bajans are a rude people, not traditionally anyway. We used to have a reputation for being warm and welcoming, kind and helpful, funny and good spirited. But more and more I come across cashiers at Super Centre whose only form of communication is grunting, shop clerks in Cave Shepherd who think it is helpful to finish their chat on the phone before doing their job, and my real favourite, taxi drivers who like to tell young ladies that they have got particularly attractive rear ends. Their language tends to be more colourful.

However! During my epic argument about the best country in the world, a Trini (one of those renowned Bajan-haters) conceded on the one point that he got pretty damn good customer service in Barbados. I was floored! And incredibly happy. Maybe there has begun a turn-around on my beautiful island. What's more, the next day I had to ring up the Barbados High Commission in London. I was fully expecting to hold for twenty minutes and then speak to a machine. Wrong! Two rings and the lovely Jackie answered. Not only was she pleasant and articulate, but she was also genuinely helpful. Can't say the same for the US Embassy; service was disgraceful. 

Not the best photo of The Best Country in the World
Batts Rock Beach

So we've got the Best Country decided. Now for the Worst Company - Argos. Ok, this might be an exaggeration. I'm sure there are arms dealers and market traders and soft-drink manufacturers and all sorts of other companies that do much worse things than Argos. It might not be The Worst but it certainly is Terrible. Mercia Garden takes a big load of the blame too as you'll see in a bit. 

Here is the tale of the Terrible experience had by a Friend:

Friend ordered a garden shed online, as one does, from Argos. Friend assumed she was getting an Argos product. Wrong! Argos out-sourced to Mercia Garden. Now the product was just slightly too big for the letter-box, so someone had to be home to collect delivery. Sure. No problem. Friend was given a day for delivery. No time frame; no "we'll come between 10 and 2"; nothing. So good responsible Friend sat at home ALL DAY! No delivery. Customer service department (if we can call it that) tells her, "Oh, we're very sorry. Bit of a mix-up. We'll deliver tomorrow". Fine. Good responsible Friend sat at home ALL DAY! No delivery. Ultimately, FOUR separate delivery dates were set up and still: No delivery. Now, I don't know what you like to do with your time, but Friend and I, we don't think sitting at home waiting on a non-existent delivery is particularly fun or productive. What's worse, the so-called customer service department is less than apologetic and less than helpful in sorting the whole issue out. 

Dear Argos, You Suck.

There's MORE! Friend, being a patient and forgiving and generally awesome person, makes another order from Argos. This time, for next-day delivery. Now, you may have seen all these adverts that Argos has got posted over half of London and ALL over the tele; they claim they can do same-day delivery, within 90 minutes if you're that eager for it. You'd think with the ability to do 90 minute delivery, the next day should be do-able. Wrong! The f-ed it up. Surprise surprise! For more on shit from Argos read this. 

Maybe one day Argos will surprise me in the way that Barbados has. Until then,I shall not be ordering from Argos. I will not be gracing them with my time and patience. There are a million other places I can shop and now, I will.

My Love of Food Part I: The Beach House

What gives you pleasure? When you think about complete and utter bliss, what is it that you're doing? Well for me, the answers are FOOD and EATING. I love food. No, I luurrrvve food. Really I ought to weigh about 190 kilos and it's really only miracles (and exercise) that prevent this. I live for food. I dream about food. "Diet" is a very threatening four-letter word. The truth is that I don't eat in excessive quantities (usually), but I'll eat just about anything. In particular, new flavours make me happy. I love tasting something for the first time and deciding that I really love it. There is nothing better than learning about interesting and unique flavour combinations that work!
So this post is going to be in two parts. Part I: review of dinner last night at The Beach House, Barbados, and Part II: my top picks for Food P**n (I'm afraid of generating unwanted traffic with the p-word)

Part I: The Beach House
As a family, we like to go out for a nice meal when we're all together. Especially because we aren't all in the same place that often. Last night was my parents' 32nd Anniversary (big up) so that was our excuse this time. We went to The Beach House in Holetown. I'd never been before, and to be honest, it wouldn't have been my first choice of restaurants. But I'm really not that picky and I was happy to give it a go. Let me tell you, VERY good decision. The food was excellent!

First I ate Grilled Scallops with Pumpkin Risotto. Mmm! The scallops were big and juicy and perfectly cooked. Living in the UK, nice fresh scallops is not something I eat very often. So I was really pleased to have these. The risotto was just a tad undercooked (which is rare for risotto) but it was nicely flavoured and to be honest I was too taken with my delicious scallops to care. Other starters of note were the Crispy Pork Belly. I cannot describe it any better than that. It was crispy. It was pork. It was belly. And it make my belly very happy indeed.

For the main course I had Grilled Swordfish with Melon Salsa. The fish was delicious. Fresh, perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked; just a perfect piece of real Bajan fish. But the star of that dish was the melon salsa. That surprised me. I'm not in general a big fan of melon. I find it a bit boring and a bit tasteless. But this was anything but tasteless. First, it was beautiful! So many different colours really made it appealing. I took my time tasting each little colour at a time to identify it. As far as I worked out, it was honeydew melon, watermelon, cantaloupe, mango, tomato, and butter-nut squash. These were all diced finely and seasoned with a mix of herbs, the dominant flavour being cilantro. It was absolutely delicious. It was surprising and refreshing and colourful. I'm definitely going to try to create my own version of this sometime. Amazing!

My family always shares desserts. In fact, we share most food, but there is an unwritten law about sharing desserts. So between us we had three: Bajan Lime Tart, Bread and Butter Pudding, and Apple and Sultana Crumble. The Lime Tart was not what I was expecting. It was a deep pastry shell that was thin and just a bit flaky. The lime filling was a mouse-like texture and barely-green colour. It was topped with a coconut meringue that smelled like bonfire-roasted-marshmallows. It was really very tasty. I like that the lime flavour was subtle yet refreshing and the thin pastry didn't make the dish too heavy. I would have preferred a bit more contrast in texture between the lime-filling and the meringue topping, but in general a very good dessert. The Bread and Butter Pudding was probably my favourite. This is unusual because this is not really my favourite dessert. This one, however, was not a heavy dessert as it often it. It was light and fluffy and had the perfect amount of cinnamon and raisins. It was also served with a really nice vanilla ice cream. The last one we had was the Apple-Sultana Crumble. This wasn't very good. It was more sultana than apple and there was too much of the crumble bit. It was the heaviest of the desserts we ordered and didn't really satisfy the sweet-requirement at the end of a meal. On the up-side, it was also served with that delicious vanilla ice cream.

My overall opinion: go eat at the Beach House! Just don't order the crumble. The food is simple but very well prepared. The menu blends West Indian and English inspirations, but I left feeling as though I had had a genuine Caribbean meal. My one critique is that the option for appetizers is not very great for a vegetarian or someone who doesn't eat seafood. Neither my mother nor my sister eats seafood and they were both quite disappointed at the options: Caesar Salad or the Pork Belly.The only vegetarian option was the soup-of-the-day (Potato and Onion), but I couldn't help but think that some days the soup might have a meat-based broth... So maybe not the best place to go if you eat veggie, but if you love a good piece of fish, a good view, and decent service, I would highly recommend The Beach House.

Sorry no pictures, I was enjoying the food way too much to get the camera out. Look at some photos on their website.

Come back Monday for Part II: Food P**n!

Listening List

It is Wednesday. So that means it is time for my weekly recommendations. No reading this week though. Just listening. In the spirit of being home and being local and all that, I wanted to big-up de Bajans (highlight some local talent). In the last five years or so there has been an explosion of musical talent on our island. We've always had the soca artists many of whom are extraordinarily talented. But this new surge is really a diversification of genres represented by bands at home. My home-friends will know all of these. But for those of you across the pond and elsewhere, I hope this introduces you to some new favourites.

Threads of Scarlet

 Cover Drive

Simon Pipe

Nexcyx

So I think all these artists are really cool. I hope you do too. Of course, can't big up local talent and forget this girl. She is an inspiration. And I can't help but think that her massive success has in some way driven all the guys above. Also, amazing video!