Happy holidays, everyone! Again, I find myself wondering where the time went and reducing the year to simply hot and cold—cold always meaning the end. The only difference this year was a much overdue and needed vacation on the beautiful island of Barbados.
The last big vacation I took was Italy in 2010. I realize now that I did not share the deliciousness that was Rome, Tuscany and everywhere in between. I will not make the same mistake about reporting on all of the cooking, dining out, eating and drinking that went down on this Barbados vacation.
We left on an early morning flight from JFK to Grantley Adams Airport. As soon as we walked off the plane onto the tarmac and that warm, dewy Caribbean air hit my face, I took a “Waiting to Exhale” moment and let it wash over me. A quick stop at the duty-free shop for a couple of bottles of the island’s sugar cane bounty, a cab ride to the west coast and we had arrived at our oasis on the beach of Paynes Bay.
We unpacked and settled in as soon as possible, so I could get my bathing suit on and jump in the crystal blue Caribbean Sea. The feeling was like missing the warmest hug you have ever had and not knowing it until that very moment. I swam way out, and when I emerged, I’d cleansed myself of the travelling and was ready to lean in to paradise.
Happily, my cousin Quinn was in Barbados celebrating her birthday with girlfriends and invited us to her friend’s home up island for sunset and dinner on her last night. Aside from the convivial island social set, the sunset swim and libations, our first bite of local fare was a big pot of pilau, a rice dish. This one pot would tell me everything I needed to know about Bajan cooking, and it would be the beginning of my food journey in Barbados.
Our home away from home included a fully stocked kitchen, which meant I would be cooking. Fine by me! As it does, cooking begins with grocery shopping, and we did just that for nearly two hours at the Massey Store in Holetown.
First on my shopping list was the Delish brand of pepper sauce I had with the pilau the night before. The addition of mustard rounds out the flavor profile. After that, I made sure I had all of the other ingredients of the pilau, including rice, beans, pumpkin, onion, chicken, Bajan spice pack and a collection of dried spices and scotch bonnet peppers. That last became my raison d’être to master balancing heat with spice and flavor on this dish and all my cooking.
The rest of the grocery shopping was a series of sticker shock moments and epiphanies about food on the island. First, like most Caribbean islands, root vegetables are a staple, so most green vegetables are expensive and not plentiful. In fact, most items are imported to the island so that cost is passed on to the consumer. The biggest sticker shock moment? A quart of Haagen-Dazs ice cream … ready? $75! I kid you not. Needless to say, we could do without it for two weeks.
Laden down with our shopping bounty, we jumped on a reggae bus (the yellow buses blasting dancehall) and headed home. Our groundskeeper saw all the bags we were carrying and knew I wasn’t playing in the kitchen. He graciously brought me some limes from the tree in the front plus some fresh bay leaf, lemongrass and what is called broad leaf thyme. Its big leaves are thick and dense, like a succulent plant with a turned up thyme flavor. I was happy to have it and did I use it!
So that is the set up of this great vacation. The kitchen is ready for blast off, the island is ready to be explored, there are people to meet, rum to drink and food to eat. Next time …
Happy eating and thanks for reading!
Kysha Harris is a food writer, culinary producer, consultant and owner of SCHOP!, a personalized food service offering weekly and in-home entertaining packages. Questions? Comments? Requests? Feedback? Invitations? Email her at kysha@iSCHOP.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram @SCHOPgirl or on Facebook www.facebook.com/SCHOPnyc
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