ShawtyCat

Here is the recipe for our pickled cucumber: Pickled Cucumber 1 or 2 cucumbers peeled, scored lengthwise with a fork and sliced thin Salt & Pepper Half a small onion chopped fine Juice of 1 lime A few drops of Hot Sauce or Finely Chopped Hot Pepper Few thyme leaves In a small bowl combine all ingredients, adjust seasonings and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Hmmmmm.........maybe I went there on a good cook day?? Ive only gone to one restaurant that Id rate excellent and that is Cafe Matisse. I have three personal ratings for restaurants: Okay, Great and Excellent. The Cheesecake Factory was above what I get at Friday's but not as outstanding as Cafe Matisse. I'll stand by what I said about this visit to the Cheesecake Factory......the food I got there yesterday was pretty darn good. Even if their portions were too oversized and Im not really fond of their desserts.

Ok....here it is levyme Bajan Black Pudding Grated Sweet Potato A little bit of brown sugar (preferably the kind from the Asian Markets or West Indian Markets..see Flatbush) Thyme Burnt Sugar Coloring Finely Chopped Onion Finely Chopped Hot Pepper Finely Chopped Chives* Little bit of butter for moisture Mix together well and stuff intestines to make sausage. Don't stuff the skins too full, about half way or 3/4 is good, since they will expand when cooked. Tie off the ends with kitchen cord and coil sausage at the bottom of pot. Cook in plain water till done. Note: You can use Shallots or Scallions in place of Chives. Lil bit of History: This is a variation on Haggis. We have scots on the island and you can hear a little scottish when Bajan's speak. Especially when said Bajan is cussing you into next Sunday. We like to say "shite" alot. Here is where you will find the substitutions: Burnt Sugar Flavoring is the substitution for the Pig's Blood and Sweet Potato is the substitution for the Millet or grain called for in the original recipe. Souse Pig Ears or Pig Feet or Pig Tail or Pig Snout or a variety of any Piece of Pork chopped fine Grated Cucumber Lime Juice Salt to taste Finely Chopped Hot Pepper Finely Chopped Onion Shredded Parsley Leaf (not alot mainly for garnish) Boil Pig Ears and pork in plain water until done, (you do not have to season the water since you will be pickling the pig), making sure to skim away the scum while cooking. Drain water and rinse well. Cool and refrigerate. Must be cold when you put then in the pickle. Mix all other ingredients together in a bowl. Slice Pig Ears into ribbons. All pieces should be around bite size. Add Pig Ears and Pork to the bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight. This must be refrigerated for a few hours before you can eat it. 6 - 8 should do it. It's best to cook this the night before and refrigerate. These two recipes are served together as Puddin' n Souse.... Jodi

We take the kids to eat whereever we are going. When I say that the are cranky I usually mean my 23 mth old. He is forever trying to get down and run around the restaurant to talk to other diners or trying to grab the silverware. He's been in a restaurant since he was 2 days old. We've been to: T.G.I Friday's (Rte 17 S Woodridge) California Pizza (Garden State Plaza Mall) Cafe Matisse (Rutherford) Brooklyn Pizza (Hackensack) The Suburban Diner (Rte 17 N) Plaza 46 Diner (Rte 46 South Hackensack) Rogan's Corner (Ithaca, NY) Yop Sing ?? in Downtown Manhattan Chuck E Cheese (DO NOT EAT THE FOOD! I went to the restroom at the same time as one of the staff and she didn't wash her hands. When I came out I found her serving food. Ewww!) We went for the rides...

Suvir, Is the Basmati Rice I see in my supermarket the real deal?? Or should I try picking this up at the Indian Bazaar also?? I am only asking since the Ovaltine I see in the supermarkets here is not the same Ovaltine I get at the supermarket in Barbados. Some things are processed by different countries, plants etc. for the same company under the same product name but are very different when you open the package. Jodi

Ok...my hubby and I took our 3 kids (5yrs, 23 mths & 1 mth) to the Cheesecake Factory yesterday and it was packed. There were people lined up to put in a bid for a possible table and get their in-house pagers, others milled around the bakery peering in on the cheesecakes, some were sitting at the entrance while, still others were winding their way to the bar. After waiting in line for around 3 to 4 minutes we finally put in our bid for a table for 4. The wait? 20 to 40 minutes. Can you imagine waiting that long with 3 kids?? We got our pager and parked our respective butts in front of the cheesecake display window and hoped our kids wouldn't embarrass us. My flirt of a son soon found a 20 something year old lady to play peek-a-boo with and my hubby soon found a trio of ladies who actually lived a few blocks away from our house. I spent most of my time prying my daughter's nails out of my jeans and looking at the desserts. Is it me or do their cheesecakes look a little too involved? Our pager finally went off 30 minutes after we got it. Thank God! Our server was very nice and, noting that we had kids, asked if we would like some bread and butter along with our drinks. I wish more servers were like that and Im sure other parents of little "monsters" like ours would understand why. Unfortunately, they do not offer a children's menu. We ordered a cheese pizza for the kids to share and our apps: Mini Crabcakes for me and Chicken Nachos for my hubby. Being the annoying customers that we are, after realizing that the kids were getting crankier quicker than usual, we called her back and threw in my entree order: Herb Crusted Filet of Salmon with a Fresh Lemon Sauce, Asparagus & Mashed Potatoes. The crabcakes (2 of them) were pretty big and came with Tartar and Remoulade Sauce. We thought they were damn good and tasted like those at Cafe Matisse for half the price. My kids were stuffing their faces full of pizza when the Chicken Nachos arrived. They came on a HUGE PLATTER and I mean HUGE. If you are going to order those, let me warn you, that is an appetizer that could serve 4 people or stuff 2. It's that big. The highlight of my dinner was the entree. The salmon was absolutely delicious on its own. It doesn't taste all that well with just the Lemon Sauce but when you add some potatoes to the salmon and then dip this combo into the sauce.....ummmm ummmmm ummmmm my tastebuds just about exploded. I did have a few problems with the Cheesecake Factory and their portions. My salmon could have fit in both my hands and still spill over. The portions were way too big and I noticed a few other patrons also having trouble eating that much food. You can get stuffed eating their appetizers alone. I also got some feedback from a few ladies at another table about the cheesecakes. They said the best cheesecake overall was the plain cheesecake with the fruit topping. One cheesecake to stay away from is the Key Lime Cheesecake. Oh....and my hubby says to warn you about the German Chocolate Cheesecake. It doesn't taste like cheesecake, has a huge chocolate blob on top and tastes more like a layer cake. I ordered a Giant Brownie Icecream Sandwich, the other half of it is now taking up residence in my freezer. As I said before....the portions are HUGE. All in all, I thought it was an okay place to eat....WITHOUT the 23 mth old. Service: Excellent Food: Great Kid Friendly: So So (No Kids Menu) Edit: Hubby says to get there before 4pm to avoid a long wait. How did you find the food?

That is exactly what I was trying to say, only you said it so much better. If you go to any rum shop in Barbados you wont see the Mount Gay Extra Gold. You are going to see White Rum! And you know.....the stuff actually does taste like Rubbing Alcohol. I only had a sip, dad doesn't have to know everything. BTW at my grandmothers house the Cockspur wasn't brought out until Christmas. Special Occasions Only! Jodi PS Do you know that with the exception of very bad wine.....I don't think we Bajans drink any...

Congratulations on your excellent scores! And thank you, very, very much for posting your experience. Now I have an idea of what to expect. Jodi

Well the drink of choice is actually Banks Beer but I don't really see anyone getting smashed night after night with Banks Beer. Its always White Rum......I got a lecture from my father not to touch that stuff when I was a kid. That stuff will pickle your brain

I believe its boiled. I spent more time making the souse. Ill post the total ingredients and process after conversing with my mom. She's had more experience making this.

Amazing as it may sound, Barbados being surrounded by water and all, we do not cook much shellfish. In fact, I do not know of anyone who does. Ive seen Rastas eating fresh raw squid that they have caught but don't remember any shellfish. We don't really eat that stuff. I had my first shrimp in NYC!

Bajan cooking is a simple fare. Not the intricate dishes and involved flavors that you will find at many of the island restaurants that claim to offer "local" food. Our food revolves around simplicity, what ingredients are at hand in that point in time and what substitues you can use if you do not. Every household stocks up on the basic staples: flour, sugar, rice, peas and salt. There is also a cache of ingredients and products that are also stored in the kitchen after buying the staples: ketchup, tomato paste, gravy master, accent, Indian Head Curry Powder, Mello Cream (its like a baking/cooking margarine), shortening, Ecaf Mixed Essence, elbow macaroni, chow mein and canned mixed vegetables. There are farms all over Barbados and some still maintain a backyard vegetable garden. Most people will go to the supermarket once a month to buy about $100 or more worth of meat. Once upon a time, you would get chicken from someone who had them. Sunday dinner was the most elaborate meal of the week. My grandmother would make soup; Lentil with Ham (a substitute would be pigtail or trotters), Fish soup, Green/Yellow Splitpea Soup or Vegetable soup with chunks of pumpkin and that was just the starter. The main dish could be anything from Fried Chicken, Baked Chicken, Stewed Chicken, Fried Flying Fish (which I spent most of my time cleaning ), stewed beef and the list goes on. This would go with Rice & Peas which had still more variations. Pigeon Peas, Black-Eyed Peas, Cow Peas....the list goes on. We had three staple side dishes that are made at dinner throughout the week; coleslaw, a plain salad and pickled cucumber. Other people make potato salad along with these but my grandmother usually just did those three. For drinks we would grab the Coconut Man right before dinner was to be served and mix the water with a full 2 liter soda, to "stretch it a little" as my grandmother always said. Other drinks would be Carrot Juice, Beet Juice (always made me sick...hated that stuff) Plain Coconut Water or Passion Fruit Drink. I was in charge of picking the passion fruit that grew on the vines in our backyard. Dessert would be when the ice cream man or the Snow Cone came around. Or our parents would take us for a walk into town for fresh grapes and pineapple. Cake was reserved for special occasions although my grandmother did make Pone on some Sundays. There are also dishes that we love that are not made very frequently. These are more reserved for Christmastime. For example, Pudding and Souse. Pudding is made by making a puree of cooked sweet potato (our sweet potato is the purple skinned one in the Spanish Store) and spices then stuffing this into a pig intestine. The Souse is pickled Pigs Ears and Tails with minced onion, salt, pepper, chopped cucumber and a few splashes of hot sauce.

There is old song in Barbados that goes "when it's time to celebrate, everyone wants Fish Cakes & Bakes". There really isn't much to making Fish Cakes or Bakes and that is good when you want to put something on the table fast for the kids to eat. Disclaimer: There are no accurate measurements in Bajan Cooking, i.e. teaspoon, tablespoon etc. Bakes - The quick and dirty way Using a table spoon (the large on that comes with your cultery set) scoop 2 spoonfuls of cornmeal, 4 spoonfuls of flour, 3 spoonfuls of sugar, 2 shakes of ground cinnamon and a 2 pinches of salt in a bowl. Fill a cup with tap water* and add to the dry ingredients a little at a time till the batter is slightly thick. The batter is then fried by the spoonful. *You can use filtered/spring water if you don't trust your tap water . Fish Cakes aka Cod Fish Cakes or Fritters Cod Fish Onion, chopped Hot Pepper, Chopped Thyme Flour Black Pepper to taste (Salt to taste if you have boiled the fish a little too long) Oil to fry In a pot boil a piece of Salt Cod or Baccara, changing the water until most of the salt is gone. Taste a small piece of cod to estimate if you have to add salt or not. In a bowl add the slightly cooled cod and break apart with your hands to find and remove the bones. Add pepper, chopped onion, scotch bonnet pepper or a few dashes of hot sauce, thyme and flour. Add water a little at a time until you have a slightly thick batter. These are also fried by the spoonful. Note: Some people add egg or baking powder to their bakes but Ive never tried it. Bakes are similar to Ho Cakes (?) and Fish Cakes are really just Fritters. We can make a meal out of these two if warranted and you will find these at almost every stall during Crop Over.

I do not know about the other islands in the west indies but my poor island is losing its culture. Many of the elders of the island will tell you that our island is being "Americanized". Very few of the younger generation (I am somewhat in between the young and the old) cares to learn about our food, our culture or our history. They want the Burger Kings, McDonalds and Pizza Huts. There was a recent protest from small local restaurants regarding a proposal to let McDonalds open a location on the island. The small businesses violently protested stating that McDonalds is a powerhouse and will crowd out the little man and that their businesses would die. So Fat Guy, I believe this should explain the lack of "authentic local fare". There are too many international style restaurants on the island, the tourists flock to what is familiar and the local restaurants suffer. . Fat Guy: I have flipped through a few west indian and caribbean cookbooks and did not find many recipes that are truly ours. From what I have seen, the author throws in a few "recipes" with their variations as a hook for the buyer and then add other recipes that are uniquely their own. If you want to learn about Caribbean cooking you may have to live in the West Indies for a while. Take Italy for example, different regions of Italy have their own way of preparing a single dish. The Caribbean is the same. Jamacia's Ackee is not the same fruit you will find in Barbados. The pea in Bajan Peas & Rice is either Pigeon Peas or Cow Peas, though we also use Black-Eyed Peas and Yellow Split Peas. Err...not the canned variety either. Jamacians use Kidney Beans I believe. If I were looking for a cookbook on West Indian food....I would hang out with the old women in each of the islands. Toby: My mom is the rum cake master. Ill have to ask her how she makes hers and get back to you. It wont be for a few days since she goes in for a biopsy tomorrow and wont be an a very good mood afterwards. So Ill wait a few days to ask. Caped Chef: From what I know, our cuisine (if you would call it that ) evolved almost the same way Southern Cuisine in America did. In fact, some of the slaves from the south that were sold were brought to Barbados and the other islands to work the sugar cane crop. You will be able to find many similarities between our food and southern food. But all our cuisine traces back to African cooking and there you may be able to find the answers to your questions. African cuisine with Native Indian, Indian and Western influences. Here is my explanation for the substitutions made with the Stewed Chicken: 1. The carmelization of the sugar may have replaced searing chicken in order to give it some color and seal in the juices. My reasoning is that this was much faster and easier to do, plus there weren't many mistakes you can make with the sugar. You stir, it looks brown, add other ingredients. 2. Adding Ketchup - Ketchup is much cheaper and lasts longer than buying tomatoes or a can of tomato paste. My grandmother speaks about soaking crackers (biscuits in Barbados since we are so very British ) in milk, adding spices and then frying them in a little oil until done and eating them as lunch. I can personally attest to that. Our food was mainly about feeding hungry people in the best,or cheapest, way you could afford.

Id have to say: Fresh made black pepper linguine tossed with a pinch of salt and a little butter Plain tomatoes or cucumber with a sprinkle of salt Bing cherries Fresh picked lettuce with a squeeze of lime (yeah...I know Im weird )

Please excuse my ignorance but what is Pho??????

You will need to know how to make Bajan Seasoning in order to prepare most things in Bajan cooking. Here is the ingredient list: Green Bell Pepper - hand grated Onion - hand grated Bunch of Scallions, green stems also - minced fine Small piece of scotch bonnet pepper - minced fine Salt & Pepper to taste My variation: A few drops of Bajan Hotsauce. Hmmm..... If you want authenticy (is that even a word ? ) then you can hand grate this stuff. As for me, my blender is calling. Jodi

Long winded Bajan that I am, I have to talk about making Stewed Chicken to submit the process of making it. The first step to making Bajan Stewed Chicken is preparation of the chicken. Please take note that Bajans hardly ever accurately measure anything. Prep Work: Cut up a whole chicken (no I do not know if it is a Fryer or a Roaster) and put it in a medium sized bowl. Halve 2 limes and squeeze the lime juice over the chicken. Add 1 or 2 palmfulls of salt and then massage the chicken using the lime mixture. Refrigerate while perparing the other ingredients. Note: Lime and Salt is very important to Bajan cooking. I received a lecture on the benefits of lime and salting meat before cooking to remove the raw chicken taste from an elderly relative. I do not know if it is because freshly killed chicken has more of a raw, bloody taste than the processed and packaged variety. In another bowl add: sliced onion, diced carrot, chopped celery, largely diced potato and a few sprigs of thyme. Now here is where some of the variations start. To the vegetables add worchestershire sauce, ketchup, black pepper, curry powder and paprika. Some people would add: gravy master, tomato paste etc. It's about what you have on hand sometimes. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and rinse to remove the lime and salt. Make slits in the chicken and stuff with a pinch or two of Bajan Seasoning. Add chicken to the 2nd bowl. In a saucepot add about 2 capfuls of vegetable oil and heat. Add to this a few tablespoons of brown sugar and let carmelize. Do not burn. While heat is still high, add the chicken mixture. Coat and brown chicken, then reduce heat and cover. Note: It was explained to me that chicken has lots of moisture that is released when cooking. Now, I do not know how true this statement is but I have never seen my ex sister-in-law add any additional water to this. I, on the other hand, tend to keep a can of chicken broth handy. Check on the pot periodically until the chicken is almost done. Pour contents into a roasting pan, cover with aluminum foil and bake. Remove foil the last few minutes to reduce the cooking liquid. This is essentially why many Bajans find our cooking embarrassing I believe. For the caramelization of the sugar and the use of ketchup I guess. I noticed many recipes online omit these. There are variations but this is basically it.

Toby: I am a very bad bajan right now.....Ive been in the US since I was 11 and make mostly Italian food at home. There is no set recipe for stewed chicken, or for any authentic West Indian food. If we want to learn how to cook a dish from our respective islands we have to stay in the kitchen and watch how its done, write notes on the process or ask for the ingredient list. You then return to your kitchen and hope to recreate what you saw or tasted. It is very similar to the old apprenticeship system I have seen some members talk about. I will post the process for making Bajan Stewed Chicken that my ex-sister-in-law uses. I do warn you, it is NOT what you would find if you conducted a website search on google. When I look at those recipes, I see the recipes of a tourist. Fat Guy: You are absolutely correct! The majority of restaurants are geared toward the tourists and it is very hard for a native to find his/her own cuisine anywhere in that god awful mess. I spoke to my father a few months ago about my intentions to attend culinary school in New York. I was instructed to study and receive a degree in the techniques of French Cuisine! Mind you, there is a culinary programme in Barbados but obviously my island is embarrassed about OUR cooking. :mad: All venting aside, there are places to find authentic Bajan food. You just have to avoid the restaurants. Brown Sugar is the best "restaurant" to find our food. Though, if you really want to find our food you have to find a Bajan to show you around.

Well...other than rum cake....I do not have much experience with rum. I posted what I have observed over the years of watching many people succumb to Mount Gay's White Rum. Personally, my family works at the brewery and that stuff really smells. I always got queasy from the scent. I guess taste is also on the tongue of the beholder. I believe the smell alone is what kept me from tasting it.

Hmmm....I noticed that the majority of people on my island (Barbados ) do not really drink the amber colored rum. I have never tasted it solo...only when our specialty Christmas Rum Cake has been soaked with it for a few weeks. The drinking rum of choice would have to be Mount Gay's White Rum. Spy a drunk at one of the many rum shops (the CIA says we have a rum shop every few feet but I think that is a gross exaggeration.....Im sure its every block ) and be sure he/she will be hugging a bottle of White Rum. Just my 2 cents Jodi Edit: Just a passing comment but I noticed that Americans are wild about Bicardi. My uncle says he cannot figure out why. All you have to do is get a coconut....screw a hole into one of the eyes...pour in white rum, cork the coconut and bury it for 3 months. Ta Da! Bicardi! Just my uncle's comments and opinion.

On a recent trip back to my little island Barbados I noticed a phenomenon sweeping the island. I took one of the ZR vans (pronounced Zed R...it's a taxi $1.50 to anywhere on their route) into Christ Church and found, much to my surprise, an abundance of foreign food. There were Italian, French and Chinese restaurants abound. Hell, there is a French restaurant with an Asian touch! What the heck is that supposed to mean?! Where did the food of my island go? On my trip back into Bridgetown I saw Kentucky Fried Chicken and a few pizza places. There are places serving Persian, Thai and Nepalenese cuisine for christ's sake! Indian restaurants I can honestly understand due to our Indian population and maybe even the Asian food to an extent but when did the Thai come into the picture. So I searched and searched. I found that what most of my fellow islanders were doing, since the pseudo-foreign restaurants were above and beyond everyones paycheck, was to buy food from whomever was cooking out of their home, build a jerk hut or hit the fast food joints. Can you imagine paying $2 for a single KFC biscuit or $84 for a single small bucket of chicken when you are only getting paid $175 a week?? The only restaurant I found that still served authentic Bajan cuisine at reasonable prices was Brown Sugar located in Aquatic Gap, Bridgetown. I am sure there are others but this was the one that everyone (my family) said to go to. I know my island is a tourist location but I don't believe they have to lock our native food in the attic like someone's crazy aunt in order to please the tourist palate. I am sure my cuisine can co-exist on the same level as the others. Until then I will just head into Paterson NJ to Linn's Place on Park Avenue when I am racked with the nostalgia of home cooking but am too depressed to cook.

I will now take a deep breath and take the posting plunge. After reading Leslie Brenner's post and ruminating a little I've concluded that although I am a Pastry Chef, I do fit into the "home cook" slot. I have 1. learned to cook at a young age at many knees in my family 2. finally cracked open a cookbook at the ripe age of 14 and read voraciously about cooking techniques and science etc. And from a "home cook's" point of view there are just so many books you can read and technique videos you can purchase but it does not measure up to what you can learn by immersing yourself at a culinary school or restaurant. I am the Pastry Chef, I really prefer cook because I am not up to my own standards yet, and although pastry is exhausting it is not as fast paced (at least where I work it isn't) as the line. I filled in for the short order cook one morning and got slammed by the breakfast rush. A cookbook cannot fully describe that feeling of utter panic. Of trying to remember the orders that are coming at you like bullets, trying to organize your "mental mise en place" (sorry Mr. Ruhlman but that phrase has been stuck in my head since reading your book) so you have what you need to do organized so you can get the orders out on time. So what if I can make breakfast at home with a baby strapped to my back, a toddler hugging my leg and the kindergartener yelling that she's not going to eat whatever Im cooking. I know this will be over as soon as the eggs are cooked. But at a restaurant you have no idea when the rush will end or if more people will show up. And at the end OF THE RUSH you are literally exhausted. Most people look at the restaurant through rose colored glasses, with flickers from Food TV in their heads, and do not understand what a HARD JOB it is. Another thing that I'd like to mention about us "home cooks". I am sure we research techniques and have mastered the perfect pot roast, roasted turkey etc. But many of us, myself included, do not have a clue about knife skills. Fortunately, I did take a Food Safety Class (part of the job requirement) and know about food safety in the kitchen. How do you know you are executing the cooking techniques accurately? I've lookes at the technique for tourneing potatoes (can't remember which book right now) and I still cannot figure it out. There is much that you cannot learn from a one dimensional book or an edited video. I have a passion for cooking but my knowledge of cooking techniques is rather dreadful. I would love to go to culinary school to learn the technique of cooking so I can master them in the kitchen. Culinary school to me is a living reference cookbook. It only gives you so much. My personal belief is that it does not matter where you go to learn, or how you learned, if you do not have a passion for the profession. Contoversial Comment: I also believe that when you can look at a recipe, and see a source of inspiration for creating a new dish instead of a set of rules to cook by, then you can consider yourself a cook. Ok...I am finished. Commence picking apart my post. Jodi

You mean all this time Ive been cracking my eggs wrong!? Question: So if I were a short order cook and I cracked my eggs on the rim of a bowl......would I be subject to a real a** chewing from the head cook? Or does this even matter? I've never had a problem cracking eggs on the bowl rim....

Thanks for the advice Oliva....I found an Indian Bazaar: Pooja Int'l Inc 275 Main Street Hackensack, NJ 07601 Ph:(201)488-4907 Do you think Penzey's Online is too expensive? Whole Large Black Indian Cardamom Pods 4 oz bag for $3.49. Jodi