And I am only 8 days late but Happy New Year! It’s also the beginning of a new decade, did you know? I didn’t realise until I heard some random “Top 40 songs of the decade” countdown. Wow. Was I too burned out from the millenium end/beginning discussions even 10 years later? But nevermind. We’re in 2011, and next year we’ll be riding the icebergs and continents to new destinations, as long as the Chinese finish that big secret construction project. It’s TRUE. I saw it in a movie. It MUST be true.

Speaking of birds…those Scarlet Ibises above were taken at the Caroni Swamp/Bird Sanctuary last month. And those are white ibises on the right. More on that anon.

Last year started with one of the great tragedies of the region, the earthquake in Haiti. And unfortunately for Haitians, the year brought them hurricanes, cholera and suspect elections. There are still many ways that our Caribbean brethren need help (just perhaps not through Wyclef’s Yele…if the news reports are anything to go by…) but we can hope that 2011 sees some positive developments. Hurricanes also hit closer neighbours like St Lucia, Barbados…and the related controversy involving the new Government elected in T&T in 2010 is one I am not going into here…

Personally, I started 2010 on the seawall in Guyana after some long-overdue touristing around Guyana and then jetted off to Trinidad for some family time. This year was a bit reversed – in December I had some long-awaited touristing around Trinidad (photos and story coming), driving friends from foreign around to La Vega Estate, Caroni Swamp, Asa Wright Nature Reserve, Mount St Benedict and other parts of the island. And then I brought in the New Year at home in Trinidad, before jetting back to Guyana to start the working year.

One of the great things of 2010 for me personally  was the opportunity I had to (re)connect and spend time with actual people, even some new people. I joined Twitter and Facebook as Chennette, embracing this social media thingy, just a little…I am still finding my way there. In July, I bravely went on a Photo Walk in the Queen’s Park Savannah, and I hope I can meetup with other Trini photo-enthusiasts and photographers for another such event. Maybe even one in Guyana…

I posted at least once every month in 2010 and let’s see if I can make it to twice every month this year My readership is certainly loyal despite my erratic schedule – I had to upgrade my bandwidth in October…

As a gesture of my good intentions, sprinkled through this post have been some photos from La Vega Estate in Gran Couva, Trinidad and the Caroni Swamp… more are on Flickr here and here…but I am going to post very soon on my visits to some of my favourite places in my homeland. It made me miss T&T more, but at least I am close by.

Have a good year people!

What do I expect from this Facebook page? Not much really. I just realise that many people are more active on Facebook in terms of catching up on their information, “liking” pages and people (hint hint) and generally entering into discussions. Now, I AM on Facebook as the real not-Chennette me but I stick to people I actually know in real life. No offence meant to anyone else.

I realise from finally checking the stats via my hosting people that I may have more people reading this blog than I thought. And I know that people are always searching for things and because they don’t comment, I can’t help them out by telling them things like “Married man’s pork is NOT in fact the same as shadow benny”. Because people need to know these things. But maybe with a Facebook page I can offer such sage advice to the desperate. If they choose to like or follow me of course. Or, for those who don’t tweet, I can provide links to some of the things I find or notice that add to the online awareness of Trini and Caribbean food and other such things.

I am not big on promoting this blog other than providing the content. And linking to things. So…who knows how this will work! If you see the Facebook box disappear in the near future and I say nothing about it…just leave me be

This year, I thought I’d share a little of how I approach these important meals, as we are near the end of the first week of Ramadan.

Day 1
Suhr – got up, thought really hard about what to eat, but had no appetite. I am NOT a breakfast person or a morning person and I settled with drinking lots of water. Bad idea! I was headachey and tired all day. One MUST plan better!**

Iftar – Although feeling miserable, I got home in time to MAKE food. I made a potato, broccoli and cheese frittata, browning thinly sliced potato before adding the egg to get a beautiful crispy bottom. I also boiled corn with garlic, chives and bandhania (shadow beni) from my little herb trough and coconut milk. Yum. Although the headache didn’t go away till I had a cup of tea. Tea has now become a fixed part of my tradition this Ramadan

Day 2
Suhr – One benefit of cooking the night before was having a Suhr all ready and waiting – the frittata and lots of water made a great Suhr and this fast was much easier, alhamdulillah. I got work done although I developed a craving for a real cheesy macaroni pie, maybe with beef in it.

Iftar – I believe I broke fast at sister-the-elder’s and I cannot recall what exactly I had…hmm…but I had tea eventually! Her oven wasn’t working so NO macaroni pie!

[man...this hard! where are my notes?? like I took notes! sigh...or PHOTOS]

Day 3
Suhr – Uhm…Toast! With…butter. Actual butter because I am out of margarine. And mucho agua. It was Saturday and as per usual I crashed after Fajr so this was an easy fast. Although I DID do laundry! AND I made blackeye peas – blackeye googni (boil and fry peas) because it’s one of the non-fried things that always makes an appearance at communal iftars and I wanted it.

Iftar – Of course I had the blackeye peas – Went over to sister-the-elder’s where her oven WAS working and armed with cheese, we made MACARONI PIE. As well as some mini oatmeal-chocolate chip-almond muffins. All with the help of the almost-3 year old and the 4.5 year old, both of whom conspired to wake up the 7 month old so we had him in there too.

Day 4
Suhr – Macaroni Pie of course. And a Kiss goodie. And the water.

Iftar – uhm. Blackeye peas. Oh, and some simply cooked Brazilian food – steak, pan-grilled then topped with tomatoes and onions, yellow rice with carrots, fried plantains (diced not sliced) and sweet potatoes. Was pretty good! [Again...no photos...]

Day 5
Suhr – This was yesterday…and I cannot remember…oh…a granola bar I think. And water.

Iftar – stayed home and had the blackeye peas. Then made grilled cheese sandwiches on the tawah. With tomatoes, chive and bandania snipped from my herb trough and a mixture of cheeses. Yummy.

Day 76(today!)
Suhr- didn’t feel like trekking downstairs, was very groggy. Had a pack of those Go-Ahead biscuits (kept in my room for just such times!) and water.

Iftar – as you can see in the photo at the top, blackeye peas (going strong I made a ‘pint’), cake and dates. Followed by PIZZA. We made a couple with a biscuit dough like crust (like the one used in my cheese rolls) and 3 from Rose Levy Berenbaum’s recipe. So of course, pizza will be my Suhr!

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*See previous post on how Ramadan starts.

** My Halal Kitchen has some tips on preparing/planning for meals during Ramadan.

[can you believe I had to edit this post because I counted the days wrong? No wonder I couldn't remember these things!]

Georgia Popplewell of Caribbean Free Radio posted today (with the absolutely perfect title “photos don’t take themselves“) about two Trinidad and Tobago publications using one of her photos, without permission and of course without credit (Newsday even placed their watermark on the photo!). TriniGourmet, with her usual alacrity, updated her Dem Tiefin’ We?!? post (another stellar title! you’ll have to settle for my pedestrian one). This happens at an opportune time for me to write some more on this…since it was just a couple weeks ago that I finally sent the Express formal pre-action letters via my lawyer.

My first post about this was outrage when I discovered the Stabroek News in Guyana had used my photo of Guyana cocoa to illustrate a story. Further outrage when I realised that the story and photo was from an official press release from the Guyana Government News Agency (GINA). This led to further discoveries of photos on the official Guyana tourism page, where my Trini pelau was featured for Guyanese cookup. Argh. Fortunately, I have a lawyer in the family (apart from myself) in Guyana and we wrote to all 3 violators. Stabroek News was the only one who responded, apologising and offering to publish appropriate credit, noting that they were officially provided with the release and photo by GINA. The Government agencies promptly pulled the photos from the relevant sites, but never responded, either to the letter nor the phone calls.

Then, back in October 2008, the Trinidad Express used a photo of Lilandra’s roti and curry for the front of the Lifestyle Magazine (no permission, no credit), for EID no less…and then less than 2 weeks later there was one of my pelau photos (again, no permission, no credit). We emailed promptly and got what are essentially holding responses from the Editor, admitting nothing and stating that the matter was referred to their lawyers. And then silence. We were going to make Hajj a month later and so I compiled the information, correspondence and proof and sent it to my lawyer for action. Due to some technical problems, the letters were not sent and I will admit that when I returned from the Hajj, pursuing action was not foremost on my mind. I did, however, start watermarking my photos. A watermark had not occurred to me back then in late 2005 when I first started posting photos to Flickr. First of all, I like an anonymous presence online and secondly, who on earth would want my photos?

The issue returned to prominence when the Trinidad Express (AGAIN!) used my photo of doubles in September 2009, without permission or credit. This time the response was truly classic, revealing the Express’ lack of understanding of copyright and the internet -

“I have investigated your claim and I’m forwarding the response from the reporter for your information. While we understand and respect your copyright claim, in this instance, the reporter did not source the photo from your website although I checked both websites and the photos are the same.

Meanwhile, I am forwarding your letter of complaint to our attorneys for their comment and guidance.”

With the usual referral to their lawyers…

What the response did NOT include was whether they had requested permission from this other site. I contacted the other blogger about my copyright, who promptly apologised and with my permission to use the photo credited me. Now, these particular doubles photos proliferate the internet, particularly Facebook and it’s flattering that people seem to think they’re good to use. However, a media house cannot simply poach images from the internet because they are there. Clearly they never bothered to ask that other blogger for use of the photo. And the fact that the Editor believes this is a reasonable response to my copyright claim is beyond shocking.

It goes without saying that when I explained the legal nature of copyright and permission, my email went unanswered. And so I revived the issue of taking legal action. Or threatening same to get a response.

The delay should not suggest that I don’t pursue the protection of my rights. I post my photos to Flickr, even where I haven’t written a post, because I want to share the views captured in my photos. I had been enthused with the idea of a digital camera partly from my own discovery of Flickr and the great resource it is just to see the world and experiences. Even better to learn about photography! I had considered the options and originally posted my photos with a Creative Commons license to permit use for non-commercial purposes, provided I was credited, and no derivative works were made without my permission. I changed that, to All Rights Reserved, not because I was averse to sharing, but because I wanted to know where and how people were using my photos and at the time, preferred that I be asked. There are others who may not need or want this request and that is fine. The point is, the photos belong to me and unless I release it into the wild for legal capture and free use, I am entitled to retain control over it. That’s the nature of property. It’s a personal choice and maybe it’s linked to some idiosyncrasies of mine about ownership and control, but right now, when photography and blogging are very much personal commercial-free endeavours for me, this is the path I have taken.

What annoys me about the theft of the photos by big media houses in Trinidad and Tobago and the region, apart from revelations of ignorance of the law governing their particular environment, is the disrespect for the online community and the role we play in recording and sharing our history and culture. Complete disrespect. The small Caribbean food blogging community for example has a dedication and generosity that has produced, in a relatively short period of time,* a wealth of information, stories, recipes and photos that rival the archives of local newspapers with its focus on local foods and traditional recipes. And do you know why we do this? Well, for me, it’s the same reason I started collecting recipes from Mom. I wanted to record the foods which are part of my life and history. Food and recipes which may not be easily found online for those Trinis abroad (like I once was). I first started taking photos of food when Lilandra and I were back home after studying abroad and our first Eid back, our older sister and brother were not in the country. We wanted them to share in the usual preparations even though they were not there (no Mom, not just to torture your eldest and youngest children, they appreciated it). This blog is like that, but on a public scale.

The attitude of the more traditional media seems to be that we are nobodies even though they want our product. Prime example – during my first year of blogging and posting photos, an advertising agency in Trinidad contacted me wanting to use my photos for free, since “it is very difficult to get good images of indo-trini food unless we hire a photographer.” I was upset on behalf of the pro-photographers in T&T who actually know what they are doing, but at least they asked. So I am not that mad at them…. But…that’s the POINT. There are certain foods you cannot easily find photos of – I couldn’t illustrate my Bread Van post last month because there are no photos of biscuit cake, jam tart, currants roll etc freely available – not even any I could link to. I had to go out and buy  these items (ok, Dad bought them), take my camera (which cost a bit) and my lens (also expensive for me) and actually take the photos myself. I am fine if people want to use these on their own blogs and other non-commercial sites, but just ask.** And if you are making money from the use of these photos – why should you get them free? They were not free for me – I have invested time, money, effort, lost brain cells to try to take better photos, learn about processing them and then share them here – I also pay annual fees for this site and Flickr. I have thought about what it would take to fill this gap of food photos on a professional level, commercially, but I am not a pro, have no real equipment or training and I already have a demanding job. This is not to say that I have not granted permission for possible commercial use of some photos, with/out payment but with credit. This is my choice and not to belabour the point, but my right.

I salute those publications who make the effort to showcase food and culture (hail out to the current Caribbean Beat food issue!), and create or pay for original content, including photos. From my brief interactions with the Trinidad Express, it seems clear that the food related content is hurriedly put-together with limited planning and thought, and as galling as it is to my ego, with no realisation that there is a world of people online who do a better job. At least we look out for each other!

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* TriniGourmet and I first started in 2006 – I am not sure who preceded us.

** One reason it’s good to require permission – people using my photo of say, Trini pelau to illustrate a Guyanese cook-up recipe. Or I am looking right now at a bara recipe on Facebook with my Doubles Bara photo (which was made from a specific recipe that is very different). These things annoy me.

But this bun was different. It was yellowish yes, but smaller and didn’t have the characteristic smooth roundness of a yeast-leavened dough. I had no expectations of it other than I was a little peckish and wanted something to go with my cup of tea. And with my first bite, I was transported. It tasted like biscuit cake! Biscuit cake in GUYANA! It looked nothing like the round, pale inch-thick disks, big as your hand and lightly covered with white specks of granulated sugar, which I know to be biscuit cake. But the flavour was there. I couldn’t believe my sister had never told me I could get this in Guyana.

Now, I love biscuit cake. It was always my requested item when we did a bakery stop during my childhood, and because it was usually the cheapest thing in the bakery, I could get 2, or biscuit cake plus half a currants roll. I have tried looking for a recipe online, but it doesn’t seem to be one of the things anyone has posted. If anyone has a recipe, let me know (and Mom, if it turns out you have a recipe I will forgive you if it’s in my inbox before you comment ). [I did a little googling and came across this recipe for Trini Milk Cake - is this it?]

Biscuit cake is so named, possibly because it is shaped like a big biscuit (American terminology=cookie). While it may appear firm and hard on the outside, it should have a softness to the bite with a milky mild sweetness, and appears almost unleavened? Of course those dryness-czars have attacked this delicacy as well and many bakeries had versions that were dry and tough and unappealing unless dunked in tea. I think my parents indulged the biscuit cake requests, not simply because of the price (30 years ago they might have been 50 cents and then later $1 – any idea how much it is now?) but also the fact that it wasn’t in fact sugar-laden. While most bakeries in Trinidad would have had this item, I cannot remember the last time I saw it. Of course it’s better to ask someone who lives in Trinidad…or in the case of Trinfood someone who lives in London but knows her stuff – she advised that Chee Mooke’s sells them and Bread Basket in St Ann’s has a good one. I remember my best was in a bakery we used to stop by on our way up to Santa Cruz – was it St Mary’s? – it had the best pastries.

Since I had that flashback I have been going further down memory lane, remembering all the associations with bakeries and buying pastries such as biscuit cake. [Photos in this later post]Of course, there were the times when during the week, on our way home from school we’d stop at the bakery to pick up hot hops (how many bakeries have flashing lights “Hot Hops Available Now”?) – one quart for home, half quart for the family of six to devour on the way home. And if we were due for a treat, Mom would bring back some pastries to the car for us.

But the best bakery times took place, not at the bakery, but with the bread vans. I’ve seen bread vans in Barbados – as students, we were introduced to Bajan specialties from a van that stopped at our student apartment. I cannot recall what they were called though. A bread van is a small minibus vehicle,** where instead of seats, the main cavity of the vehicle was stacked with shelves and trays carrying fresh bakery goodies. The vans belong or work for particular bakeries and they would drive through our village every afternoon selling their wares, getting customers who would otherwise not have transport to get into the town or main road to get to the bakery. Unlike ice cream vans, which play stretched out taped music through loudspeakers, or the fish vans which call out their goods on mikes (“Caaaaareeet! Fresh Caaaaaareeet! Fry Dry! CroCro! Red Fish Caaaaaareeeeeeet!”), bread vans generally announce themselves with quick tooting of the horn every few metres. What more do you need when you’re selling hot and fresh baked goods?

The best time to buy from the bread van was on the weekend. Everyone was home and hearing the horn from the round the corner was like a signal to put on the kettle. Pastries in the afternoon from the bread van meant we would stop whatever we were doing, and all sit down around the table and have tea! I wasn’t a fan of tea itself then, but the milk and sugar that went into it But the memory of those weekend afternoons, with the fat round brown teapot (sadly broken for some years now) filled to the brim with hot tea, and our choice of delicacies from the van laid out on the table, are part of the golden years.

As a scaredy-cat child it was torture, however, to be given the assignment to stop the bread van, although the promise of the purchases made that chore more successful than waiting for the vegetable or fish van! I lived in fear of embarrassment or doing the wrong thing and the thought that I might not wave the right way, and the van driver would sense my fear, know I was somehow an inadequate village child and sneer; rushing past me on the little village road, leaving me with my arm awkwardly waving at nothing, with all the neighbours seeing my failure (yeah, I know… had/have issues…). However, for the bread van I would brave it. I could even muster up the courage to make the purchases myself. After all I knew full well the contents of the bread van and could make an informed selection -

Jam tarts, flaky layered pastry, twisted into a big triangle, with bright red jam of unknown (to me) origins, warm so that the jam oozed out when you bit into it, with the top of the pastry glistening with its light layer of crystallized sugar. The pastry would be so good, you’d eat the dry ends even if they didn’t have a speck of jam! Jam tarts were a favourite of sister-the-elder and my father. I liked them well enough, but I didn’t usually request them.

Currants roll - this is a Trini classic – similar flaky pastry as the jam tart, but rolled out and sprinkled with currants and sugar and rolled up, baked and sliced diagonally creating that recognisable shape with layers of pastry and currants rolled around inside. I don’t have photos and I have never made it myself, but to get an idea, look at these photos from my Flickr friend Reya. Currants rolls are I think my father’s favourite. Wherever we go someone would say “get a currants roll for your father!”. Of course he wouldn’t turn down a good jam tart either. And since he doesn’t overindulge, he’d have half of each, leaving his half of a currants roll to be snatched up by his children at the first opportunity. Probably why he, the ever-thrifty, would buy a couple extra so we’d leave his alone.

I remember in the late 80s/90s when there were import restrictions and we couldn’t get currants in T&T. So people made currants roll with raisins, bad enough since they resemble raisins but have a tang and moistness that do not match the currants! Worse yet was when they used those bright coloured pieces of what used to be part of a fruit, which the TriniGourmet once aptly named the “rubiks cube bits” Currants roll should have currants. We even had a currants roll lady in the village (have I mentioned the Dahi Lady and the Channa Lady?) who would make currants roll for every event in the mosque and for Eid. Of course I knew her name, but I think she’d be pleased we remember her for the pastry only she made in the village.

Madeleines are not the cakes you’re probably thinking of. The madeleine found in Trini bakeries is a small light cupcake, completely covered in a red jamlike substance (see jam tart above) and then rolled in grated coconut. Absolutely lovely. Very sweet outside, light and fluffy inside and the little added texture of the coconut. I would look out for that and hated the vans that didn’t bring it and had bellyful cake instead (I do not understand the allure of this).

Rock Cake/Bun – This is like a drop bun, with coconut flavour, and the “rock” really refers to the rough hard exterior – the inside should still be soft. It’s scone like, not rolled out smooth, but dropped onto the baking sheet, so it looks like a rock I suppose. I used to eat all around the outsides before the middle – the hard outsides were my favourite part. And rock cake shouldn’t have things in it as far as I am concerned, but people will always find a way to add their raisins and bright coloured things…

Of course bread vans would also have sweetbread and regular cakes. Maybe some savoury stuff. I don’t really remember. Trinifood had posted about some of these traditional sweets a few years ago. Since I am not often in the homeland to stop a bread van or take a poll of the bakeries, I’d love to hear from you about these faves of mine. Recipes welcome. Recommendations as to good traditional bakeries appreciated!

And now that I am pausing my reminiscing and that you (hopefully) have read all the way down here without a single photo to break the prose, let’s go have some tea. And if you’re not in a hotel, look out for the bread van for me!

UPDATE (24 March 2010): added links to TriniGourmet’s recipes for the Trini yellow bun and Coconut Drop where mentioned above.

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*I know…this isn’t really an Ode. There’s no lyric poetry here…maybe some other time!

**The minibuses that ARE minibuses are called bread van maxis if they’re this small size. Maxi-taxi being the Trini (and Turkish) minibus

On a flight from Guyana to Trinidad last week, the passenger behind me seems to be in possession of exciting new technology.

Pilot: Good afternoon from the flight deck. We are just awaiting air traffic control clearance and should be taxiing off in about 5 minutes, so we are on schedule to arrive on time in Piarco. Flying time is estimated to be 55 minutes this afternoon.

Purser: usual spiel about closing doors, turn off all electronic devices, turn off cellphones etc

Passenger: on the phone Yeah, ah have to turn off the phone now, so call me back in about 20 minutes. Yeah, yeah, I going change the chip, but call me back in 15 minutes, I have to turn off the phone now for takeoff.

I would have thought that in 20 minutes we would have been high above the earth, over waters. He must get excellent reception with that other chip.

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Please remember that the people of Haiti are still in need of assistance. My previous post gives some information that may be helpful.

But that brings us to today. Geocities is closing today. I cannot do better than XKCD who redesigned the site to reflect the design elements, html broken code and all, that became the characteristic geocities look, from all those users similarly wading in the very shallow end of html.

It’s almost at the end of the day already so there’s not much to say. I just felt the need to steal a few minutes from my beyond-overwhelming work day to remember when I first thought I could be famous online.

*Superstitions of T&T is what I ended up with. An idea, a beginning…

Yes, I know, this is primarily a food blog, and people might think I spend a lot of time cooking, or getting food supplies, but recently, not so much. And to actually get out there on a Saturday!! Saturdays I am not usually sure I am alive, much less active. So I hope and pray insha Allah (God willing) that the focus continues. I’ve found over the years, that focus during this month makes me more efficient at work too – getting things done more quickly and getting OUT the door and home. So we can all hope for some more food talk on this blog during this month too as it relates to Ramadan of course.

*****

Speaking of good happenings, several weeks ago the ever-so-kind people at Amazing Trinidad Vacations contacted me to interview Chennette for their site. I took a while, but they were patient thankfully, and the interview is now live on their blog. I am very flattered that they asked me – one of the previous interviewees was David Rudder!!  The site is intended to be a vacation guide to Trinidad and Tobago, starting with the personal experiences of the hosts (a family affair, Trinis and Trini by marriage) and providing information on the destination, culture, food etc – it’s a good online resource to refer people to as a starting point. Even for locals – especially those who missed out on the family’s Maracas trips