Since we’re on the subject of Guyana, maybe you remember when I posted about touristing in Georgetown, I mentioned that I’d been told there were manatees in the National Park, but I hadn’t actually gone to see them. Well, that hasn’t changed.

I have, however, now seen the herd of manatees in the Botanical Gardens in Georgetown. Yup, that’s right Georgetown has TWO herds of manatees. Imagine! In Trinidad, the West Indian Manatee  (Trichecus Manatus) is only now found in the Nariva Swamp, and the size of the herd is closely guarded.

The Botanical Gardens are right next to the Zoo, and are free to enter. In the photo above, the Zoo is beyond that cute bridge. The Gardens make for a great liming spot for locals and tourists – lots of grass to sit, relax or play games. Lovely palm tree lined avenues. Memorials for former leaders if you’re into mausoleums. And manatees!

I saw about 6 manatees in that pond. If you wave grass in the water, they make their way to the edge so you can feed them. They move underwater, silently, smoothly – you can only tell they’re approaching by a small trail of bubbles and the ripples in the water. And when they near the edge, their snouts begin to emerge. And when one comes, another is sure to follow right behind.

And then there’s this big cow on the left. She was the biggest. More than 6 feet long. And calmly basking in the sun, almost entirely out of the water, enjoying the attention of her visitors. How did I know she was a cow? Ah, well, when she moved her massive flat flipper-tail, voila – see the baby manatee? Awwwww.

Did you know that the name Manatee comes from a Haitian word “manati” and their closest living relatives are elephants and aardvarks?

I am home* for a couple weeks – vacation, then to vote.** So, taking advantage of being at home with Mom (who did the beef and beans), I present to you our Sunday Lunch today! Cornmeal Coucou, stew beef and red beans! Sunday lunch is a big thing in the Caribbean. It’s the time to break out the sometimes labour-intensive dishes, to make a special meal that is not easy to prepare during the work week. Lunch is sometimes later than usual, because of the work involved and also because having a big Sunday lunch is part of the enjoyment of the whole day. The heavy meals with macaroni pie, or coucou, leading to post-meal-paralysis are also ok, since you’re supposed to be relaxing before you start the dreaded Monday. Well, that’s my take on it

Coucou and flying fish is the national dish of Barbados, but it is also a traditional national dish in Trinidad and Tobago, eaten with callaloo and/or stew beans. Cornmeal coucou is ubiquitous, but it can be made from breadfruit as well. It’s like a Caribbean polenta. Some people like it a bit soft where it is spooned out of a dish – others prefer it to be set and firm enough to slice, although it should never be dry and chewy – that’s not coucou…maybe that’s cornbread. 15 years ago when I was studying in Barbados, I was surprised at the number of Bajans who tried to “introduce” us Trinis to coucou…I mean, I knew their national dish, how could they not know we have coucou and callaloo? I think things have changed over the years – we are more aware of our Caribbean neighbours food and culture – at least this is my hope!

Growing up, I was never sure I liked coucou. I knew I didn’t like ochroes, not just because of the slime, but the skin itself had a texture that I was uncomfortable with, even though in most preparations (callaloo) it melted away on the tongue. I was a picky vegetable-eater…But then somewhere in my teens, through food courts in those little malls on Frederick Street, in having to get vegetarian foods, I grew to love this thing called coucou. After all it is better than rice in soaking up stew gravy!

Coucou is traditionally a bit labour-intensive, because it involves an hour or more of stirring at the pot, while the cornmeal gets heavier and heavier and harder on your arms. So I hear, anyway. I never made it that way…my first attempt at coucou making was a couple months ago when Cynthia (of Tastes Like Home) posted a microwave coucou recipe. That was the quickest I have gone from reading a blog to cooking. I made the coucou that weekend, even though I had no ochro…I substituted baigan (eggplant) since that’s what was in the fridge, and I figured…hmm…eggplant also gets kind slimy when cooked… I was already craving stew chicken and red beans, and this would have been a perfect accompaniment. The proportions and recipe were really easy to remember too – 1 cup cornmeal to 3 cups water, salt, ochroes…stir, microwave, stir, microwave…eh, voilà!

There were some problems though…which I thought I should share if you want to try microwave coucou, so as to avoid my pitfalls!

• eggplant is not bad in coucou, but the skin can be bitter and inedible – if forced to use this, PEEL it
• after stirring, let the mixture sit for a while to let the cornmeal completely absorb the liquid – this way you won’t get hard cornmeal bits at the bottom of your bowl cooking well before their time – I don’t know what I was thinking, putting in a bowl of essentially water with cornmeal floating around…
• if the liquid is fully incorporated, you may not even need the stirring process in the middle of cooking!

Using Cynthia’s recipe was great – and I enjoyed a few meals with my coucou. However, I think there are differences between Bajan coucou and the Trini version. I remembered more colour in the Trini coucou I was used to eating – colour representing peppers and seasonings. It seems Bajan coucou, or the versions I have eaten and seen online, stick to cornmeal and ochro. I checked with Mom, and reinforced by Wizzy of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Punch, I realised that Trini coucou does indeed have more things, including coconut milk. Any Barbadians reading this can confirm whether this is true, or if I have just experienced a basic coucou.

So, here’s my version of the microwave coucou recipe (hope Cynthia doesn’t mind)

Ingredients

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2 cups warm water
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 3/4 cup sliced ochroes (nice thin young ones)
• 3 pimento/seasoning peppers, chopped (these are not hot peppers)
• diced hot pepper (optional, to taste)
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives
• 1 teaspoon (or more) chopped shadow benny
• 1.5 teaspoon garlic (we like garlic)
• salt to taste

Prepare all ingredients
Mix all ingredients except water and coconut milk, together.
Add liquids (warm water will make the cornmeal absorb faster and come together very nicely.
Stir well so there are no large lumps of cornmeal.
Pour or spoon out into a greased microwaveable dish and smooth the top.
Microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Check the coucou – it should not need stirring.
Microwave again on high for another 2 minutes.

The coucou will still appear jiggly and soft at this stage, and Mom ate it like this, but it will continue to firm up and by the time I ate, it was sliceable.

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* home is always Trinidad.
** T&T elections are on 24 May 2010

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.

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The featured item in the last post, the Biscuit Cake is up there at the top. And to your right, you can see the insides of this cake/biscuit/cookie. I did not get a chance to make it (from this recipe posted at Celnet.org.uk) over the past weekend, but I did enjoy this one from a neighbourhood bakery. “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.”

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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!”

Sadly, this is NOT a traditional jam tart, which uses FLAKY pastry. I gather that more and more places are making them like shown in the photo, with PUFF pastry. Sigh. Same jam filling I remember, but why mess with the pastry??

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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.”

This is not the greatest currants roll example. I will replace it with another when I get to another bakery! Too few currants and not quite enough layers. But still, decent pastry.

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(Coconut) Rock 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.”

Cynthia posted a recipe this past Saturday, for Fruit Rock Bun, which you can try out as a variant of the rock bun. The recipe linked to before is Trinigourmet’s.

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Coconut Turnovers

These were not in my post, but aka_lol mentioned them, reminding me that they are “the bread and butter” of bakeries (his pun).

These are lovely yeasty soft, slightly sweet and spiced bun dough rolled around a sweet and spiced coconut filling. The Guyanese have their solara, we (and the Bajans) have these turnovers. And as for buns and hot cross buns, check out Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Punch and Tastes Like Home.

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Cassava Pone

This wasn’t in my original post. I think largely because as a child I did not like pone. The squishy texture, spicing etc, were not appealing to me. Now, however, I love it. When it’s done right of course. Moist and sweet, with spices and a slight crunch of coconut. That’s the way I like it. I don’t mind if it is cassava pone, or pumpkin, or sweet potato or a mixture. Just get the right balance of sweet and spice with the perfect moist-with-a-bite texture and I can enjoy.

Recipes on Trinigourmet and Simply Trini Cooking.

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The photos I took this weekend of the bakery haul are all in one set on my Flickr.

Georgetown was planned as a garden city, with wide tree-lined avenues, framing perfectly the canals that are part of living below sea level. The city itself is laid out in a mostly easy-to-navigate grid with main streets, like say, Main Street a perfect place to view those wide roads, old shade trees and the wooden architecture that is characteristic of Georgetown. Of course, the city is not in its prime now, and people who knew it from say, the 70s, will rave about the beauty that isn’t always readily apparent to a current visitor. But it has good bones. I keep meaning to go around taking photos of the garden city, but I am waiting for that free weekend thing…in the meantime, Nicole of A Caribbean Garden, visited Guyana recently and posted some great photos of the Promenade Gardens.

The photo at the top is of the National Library in Georgetown, on one of the busiest (and complicated) intersections in Georgetown, corner of Main and Church Streets. It’s a nice example of one of the styles of architecture in town, and nicely festooned for Republic Day (in February 2010). Just a little up Church Street is the reason for the street name – the St George’s Cathedral, which is one of the tallest wooden buildings in the world. It is a truly impressive building and I took shots from many different angles as I walked around it. This was one of the rare occasions when I was actually being a tourist in Guyana, courtesy a visiting friend (TB) and having the day off for Old Year’s. I was such a tourist, after this shot, a car stopped for me to cross the road (almost unimaginable on Church Street) and the driver happily called out “Enjoy your holiday!” If only she knew

St. George’s Cathedral is an Anglican church, that is a beautiful building inside and out. There are ornate wood features, ornate metal features – and in black and white it exudes a somewhat gothic look that I quite like. So, I have no pictures of the Clock above the Stabroek Market, but I do have several of the cathedral!

Speaking of markets, Guyana is also known for these – there are several big markets around town – Stabroek being the most famous, but there’s also Bourda market and others. Markets in Guyana are not just for fresh produce – you can get everything there. And I mean everything. Dry goods. Stationery. Clothes. Souvenirs. Shoes. Anything. On the left is a fruit stall in one of the offshoots of the Bourda market and on the right, a popular (ahem…some say elitist) stand on Church Street…if you don’t want to head into the depths of the market. Nicole also posted on the market fruit.

On the north(ish)** side of Georgetown is the Atlantic Ocean and all along the Atlantic Coast in this below sea level country, is the Sea Wall (pronounced WAAH-L).  The Sea Wall is a remnant of the Dutch-designed system for keeping the city safe from the ocean and extends for much of the coast as a wide solid wall upon which the denizens of Georgetown congregrate to walk, run, fly kites for Easter, buy/sell food, have the annual Diwali Motorcade, fete and lime for any occasion and basically spend the weekend nights. Parts of the wall may be less wall like depending on the particular section, and may resemble artfully piled boulders, but it’s all the sea-waahl. And it is to Georgetown what the Savannah is to Port of Spain. These photos of the sea wall were not perhaps taken at its most pristine, as the high tides had been buffeting the wall, sending the silty saltwater over the top and cascading down the sides to the highway.

Along the East Coast (although not quite next to the sea wall) in what is known as Greater Georgetown, is a more recent iconic building of the city – the CARICOM Headquarters. Guyana has been home to the Caribbean Community Secretariat since 1973 and while for much of the last couple decades the Secretariat has been scattered through different buildings in the city, in 2005, the Government opened this new building which looks particularly impressive with all the flags flying. This particular photo was taken in July 2009 while the Heads of Government of CARICOM were meeting.

If you leave Georgetown from the other side of the city, you will soon get to the Demerara Harbour Bridge, which is a 6,074-foot (1,851 m) long floating toll bridge. When you cross this bridge, you get to the West Bank Demerara, and from there you can head to the “West Coast”. The bridge opens for river traffic every day, during which the road traffic lines up on either side waiting. The Demerara isn’t even Guyana’s biggest river, but for those of us from Caribbean islands, it’s impressive enough. Guyanese love to tell us Trinis, “Caroni River? You mean Caroni Trench!” or…”Trinidad could fit inside the Essequibo River!” On a recent drive in Georgetown, where my 2-year old nephew was happily pointing out any and all bodies of water, the 4-year old niece asked of one, “Daddy, is that a trench?” Her Guyanese father replied “Yes…but be careful, in Trinidad they would call that a river.” To which I responded “When you grow up on an island surrounded by oceans and seas, the size of the rivers are inconsequential.” But back to the Guyanese rivers – for a small island girl, the rivers are an incredible natural feature and worth a drive over the bridge. If you can, drive to the stellen to cross the Berbice, or take a ferry from Parika on the Essequibo River.

Georgetown is also home to the National Zoo with (freakishly) unique creatures such as the Harpy Eagle, monkeys, jaguars and very large caimans. The Botanical Gardens are worth a visit. And I hear the National Park has manatees, but I have yet to see them. There are other photos of Georgetown I do not have. The tree-lined streets. The canals and trenches which are filled with the lotus flowers, adding an unexpected touch of beauty to what might otherwise be large murky drains. More of the buildings. And even the herd of apparently wild horses that seem to live outside my apartment complex and roam the sea wall.

See more of Georgetown in my Flickr set, and of other places in Guyana.

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* Well, except for that 5 month posting in Barbados. And the 6 week trip for Hajj. And the 7 week absence during my bout of typhoid fever. And the traveling…You get the idea…

** Guyana’s peculiar geography and it’s notion of “East Coast” and “West Coast” as divided by the Demerara River, are almost as bizarre to my linear-thinking mind as the Trini Geography concept of “East Trinidad”!

Given it’s location, the easiest way to get there is by plane, where an hour’s flight on a small plane will land you on an airstrip just a few minutes walk away from the very top of the Falls. Otherwise it’s several days hike through deep forest, and I hear it takes days just to get from the base of the falls to the top. That’s more for a trip when you have some time to kill…and are of an intrepid spirit. Not to mention well equipped and trained. Given that the average trip to Kaieteur (if you can get a tour just to the Falls and not to any other resort stops) can cost US$150-175 (up to US$250 or $275 for the longer trip) it is not perhaps surprising that many Guyanese have not yet visited the Falls (of course, we should all wonder what homeland wonders we have yet to get around to visit in our own countries!). Chartering a plane may work out cheaper for a group and then you’re not locked in to any tourist extras. In either case, prepare for a 8-10 seater plane…some shy away from such forms of travel, but just keep in mind that the views you get are unsurpassed, especially when they circle around the top of the falls. Get ready to hold on to the seat next to the pilot for the best view!

The official website:

Kaieteur National Park occupies a prominent position in the center of the Guyana Shield. The Guiana Highlands or Guiana Shield being roughly 2 billion years old is the earth’s oldest surface. Located in north-eastern South America, it includes a large mountain plateau and rainforest system that is part of a vast watershed between the Amazon and the Orinoco rivers. Specifically, it covers 75,000 square kilometers (30, 000 square miles) and is bounded roughly by the Amazon River to the South and the Japur- Caqueta River to the southwest, the Sierra de Chiribiquete Mountains to the West, the Orinoco and Guaviare Rivers to the northwest and the north, and the Atlantic to the East.One feature of the Shield is its distinctive plateaus or table-top mountains, called tepuis by the Indians.

When you land on the little airstrip, you take a short walk over what used to be the seabed a long long time ago, try to spot the birds and golden frog they say can be seen and then you arrive at the top of the falls. Before you even catch sight of it you can hear it, and see the mist rising above the trees. And then, there you are next to the river just where it starts its 741-foot drop. The better photos are from the viewpoints a little further away, but you can’t stop snapping away in awe at being this close to this natural wonder. And then you turn to see where the water goes and there are the mountains. I love the image of those repeating plateaus as you stand next to the falls and look toward where the river snakes through those mountains. When you browse the photos you may see as many different shots of the tepui as of the actual falls! The volume of the falls also means lots of water in the air, sometimes in the form of annoying mist blocking clear shots and very often rainbows everywhere. The first time I went, I felt I was in some sort of magical rainbow world. Lovely Oh, and in case you worry about the description of the water as reddish-brown, never fear, it’s not dirt – the water is actually clear, but coloured by minerals in the soil the river passes through up there.

Kaieteur is a great experience, because for such a large waterfall, you can walk right to the edge of the falls, sit on the ledges, and look down into the valley. There are no ropes or barriers at any of the viewpoints, and until recently they haven’t had any reason to rethink that. For the first time anyone can remember, there was an incident last November where a depressed young girl jumped to her death at the falls. And just before that, the tour guides saw this dog sitting by the side of the river, staying there for days. Those who knew he belonged to a miner, figured out the miner had somehow gone over the edge at that spot and the dog remained. They located the boat and the miner, but up to a month ago, the dog was still there, part of the Kaieteur landscape and history now.

I have been twice to the falls now – in January 2006 and then a few weeks ago in late December (2009). Both times the falls were fairly full, although I believe January 2006 was not as dry as it is now, and so the photo on the left (coolpix E7900) shows a somewhat larger volume. As it has been dry recently, the falls would have dwindled significantly, so I was fortunate in my timing both times. So visit Guyana when it has been raining – not enough to flood Georgetown, but enough for an impressive falls. The timing might not be as difficult as it sounds…

This last trip I had my D80, and after many months I put back on the 18-135 mm lens because I wanted some wide shots. I’ve been so enamoured of the Sigma 50mm I have been using that I wasn’t sure anymore how the old lens would perform, but fortunately a lovely bright day made for good photos for my first D80 trip to Kaieteur. I went a little overboard in capturing the froth and splash and water droplets, but I love those photos. Where else will I get endless streams and gushes of coloured water splashing onto rocks just so I can try to get sharply defined water shots?

Kaieteur Flickr Set for the whole experience!

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

Now, I don’t celebrate Divali, but it is a tradition to receive the goodies Unfortunately, in my small compound in Guyana with mostly itinerant ex-pats I don’t think anyone will be ringing my doorbell to drop off treats tomorrow night. Mind you, I did ring a couple door bells for Eid, and one of the Trinis was oh so happy since she grew up in a village like me where even though she wasn’t Hindu or Muslim she was used to these little deliveries. So…no opportunity to sample the different styles of saheena and sweets tomorrow. Ah well. At least I know that my blog is serving the needs of those last-minute “Indian delicacy” makers, especially the ones outside who look forward to the reminisces at these times.

So, what are people searching for? Ah, well, Kurma tops the list. Barfi is very close behind, and as I left work this evening they were actually dead even, but Kurma is back on top. After all there are 2 types to look for I guess, fat and thin. Gulab Jamoon was 3rd, but only half the number of hits as Kurma. So readers, you know what you going to get this Divali!

This might be a good time to point out that I am trying to organise my Recipe page. I have actually collected 24 recipes! Didn’t really want to separate the categories into different pages, but who knows. It’s a work in progress.

Falafels are that ubiquitous Middle Eastern item – savoury, crunchy, fried balls of beany-goodness. Some may say falafels are Israeli, there may be other countries laying claim to the source of these delicious vegetarian protein-packed treats, but I am no food historian, so I won’t get into the debate. You can check out Wikipedia. Falafels are great on their own, eat with a tahini (Middle Eastern sesame seed paste) dip, or as shown above with one of the chutneys Trinis serve with all our savoury deep fried goodies – in this case a boiled mango chutney. In fact, falafels are so similar to Trini kachouries (ground yellow split pea fritter), that they should be recognised as siblings. Falafels are also commonly served popped into pita bread, for a deliciously filling sandwich. Falafel like this is street food, and like the Trini doubles, or bake and shark, they’re sold with “a vast variety of ingredients and sauces to fill … falafel (pita) sandwiches” (burekaboy‘s Falafel 101 is an excellent guide and recipe to perhaps more authentic Falafel).

While the most commonly found falafel is made from chickpeas (channa, an ingredient extremely familiar to Caribbean people, especially Trinis), Egyptians traditionally made theirs from fava beans. Mom always made hers using lentils and bulgur wheat. Much more like a vegetarian kibbe actually. She says it’s because she never liked fava beans, so…lentils…after all she grew up with it in jedra!. And burekaboy noted that his Lebanese neighbours added bulgur. So Syrian-Lebanese-Trini variation maybe.

This recipe is really simple. Really. Soak beans for 24 hours, add lots of fresh herbs and aromatics. Use food processor or blender if you want a smoother texture. And fry. Voila. Don’t believe me?

RECIPE
Makes about 40
Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb dry chick peas
• 1/2 lb dry lentils (or use 1 lb chick peas)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup chopped fresh herbs of your choice (parsley, chives, shadow benny/cilantro etc)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp geera (cumin)
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• salt and black pepper to taste (taste the batter raw, go ahead)
• possibly a few tbsps of flour (or dhal flour)

optional: some fresh bird or other hot pepper to your tolerance level

1. Soak beans in enough water to cover about 2 inches over. Add baking soda. Leave for 18-24 hours.

2. Rinse beans well and let drain.

3. Put beans and all other ingredients in food processor or blender and zap away. (I like the food processor because I like it chunkier – it’s super crunchy that way and I love the texture).

4. You can store this in the fridge for a couple days, although I have noticed that it might need a little flour to bind after this.

5. Put about 2 inches of oil in a heavy pot and heat to medium high.

6. Check the mix to see if it needs flour – squeeze a golf ball sized in your hand and see if it sticks together. If it does, then take a heaping tablespoon of the mix, shape into a slightly flattened ball and fry. If it holds up and doesn’t burn, then you’re good to go without flour and the oil isn’t too hot. If the mixture breaks up in your hand or in the oil, then add a few tablespoons of flour and mix so it can be shaped easily. Until you get the hang of it, fry one at a time. Keep hands moist.

7. Fry the falafel until golden brown (lentils in the mixture will make it a bit browner) and drain on paper.

Serve with a tahini dip (maybe recipe to follow, although I relied on Mom to do this!) or a spicy Trini chutney (tamarind is really really good).

Barbecue means different things to different people though – is the method of cooking, the equipment, the meat itself, the sauce or a particular meal combination? What makes a bbq? Growing up in T&T, we would barbecue on Old Years (what better way to pass the time in the one night you were allowed to stay up late?) together with neighbours. Which meant chicken, of course, with the lovely thick and charred layer of yummy, spicy and sweet, ketchupy bbq sauce. One of our neighbours would always wrap a big whole fish of some kind in foil and throw that on the grill too, all seasoned up and piled with onions and tomatoes etc. I remember an uncle trying to get me to expand my horizons beyond chicken with a piece of beef sliced off a big slab he’d grilled to a nice brown outside. Although I was not partial to it at the time (BEEF? no sauce??), I can still remember the flavours of smoky beef (NOT smoked beef which is a different entity entirely), which my more mature palate now can appreciate.  And oh, that’s just the proteins. No bbq in Trinidad can really be complete without the potato salad. All the better to soak up extra sauce. And a fry rice on the side. One year, we (Mom) contributed a lovely creamy cheesy green fig pie.

As we got a little older, we moved onto kebabs – lamb, chicken, veggie…skewered and then tossed in a olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs (Mom always has mint and thyme etc around). For a few years we did the Old Years’ barbecue at an uncle’s house, where we prepped whatever we wanted while he manned the grill. Fresh pineapple grilled, with sweet caramelisation on the outside and juiciness on the inside, together with lamb is just lovely. Once, when Dad wasn’t home to lug out the bbq, Mom got out the old small coal pot and we did lamb kebabs. We probably still did potato salad, or macaroni pie for the sides though.

So, when I was briefly in Toronto some years ago as a student, and was told to come along to the barbecue for the Faculty’s student orientation bbq, I was a bit taken aback by what that turned out to be – hot dogs…with veggie burgers (for people like me) – they fired up a grill for HOT DOGS. Was that all the Canadians meant by bbq? Did this extend to all of North America? Of course, I realised that couldn’t be it. I’d seen ads with people throwing steaks on the bbq. But it did make me wonder, what really do people mean when they say bbq? The Wikipedia entry doesn’t really make matters any clearer, other than identifying different usages and meaning in various parts of the world -

“[Barbecue] is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, with the heat and hot gases of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of charcoal or a propane gas grill, and may include application of a marinade, spice rub, or basting sauce to the meat. The term as a noun can refer to the cooking apparatus itself, or to a party that includes such food. The term as an adjective can refer to foods cooked by this method. The term is also used as a verb for the act of cooking food in this manner.”

People can name things whatever they want If you read this blog you know, that is fine by me. Barbecue, at least the word, can be traced right back to the Caribbean, however (see Wikipedia) -

“Most etymologists believe that barbecue derives ultimately from the word barbacoa found in the language of the Taíno people of the Caribbean. The word translates as “sacred fire pit.”[2] The word describes a grill for cooking meat, consisting of a wooden platform resting on sticks.”

But let’s move away from things that I am unclear about to things I know. Which, as always, focus on my personal experiences, and people are welcome to contribute their own (different) knowledge! Barbecue for me is about cooking over fire, yes, but to be “Trini” barbecue, the sauce is as important. And I don’t mean that (hickory) smoked American style bbq sauce – I really don’t like that flavour so much so that I hate bbq-flavoured chips (if only they’d invent a shadow benny bbq-flavoured chip). The sauce is important, because while the meat is cooking, you have to keep basting with the sauce, so that by the time the meat is cooked through, it has developed this thick, crusty exterior built from charring and sauce, while the meat is kept moist; with every bite ensuring that you taste the flavours of the sauce. (Of course this can be achieved by that other Trini favourite, of drowning food in sauce but it’s not quite the same thing…)

The Trini bbq sauce is ketchup based, and while everyone puts their own spin on it, it is essentially meant to be a little on the sweet side, infused with our regular green seasonings and some heat. I like when there’s a touch of tamarind in it – to bring a tang and complexity of flavour that is balanced out by the sweetness and the must-have shadow beni/bandhania. I know some people who add some citrus to the mix. While if you’re in a rush, you can just mix the ketchup together with your other stuff, the best sauce is made from slow-cooking all the ingredients together (watch out for ketchup splatter, and add some extra liquid).

The most common barbecued meat is chicken…well, that’s just the most common meat in T&T isn’t it? And there are different schools of thought on achieving the best balance of cooked-but-not-dry meat and crusty exterior. Most people favour pre or par-cooking the chicken, particularly when cooking for a large group, or in a rush. Because getting a quarter of a chicken to cook properly all the way through, takes some time…it’s not like a flat, relatively thin lamb chop, or a steak which can take some rareness. So many people will steam the seasoned chicken till almost fully cooked (sometimes even with some sauce), or microwave it, and then start the basting and grilling process. This is fine for a crowd, when you only have a single relatively small bbq, but I like the flavour of the chicken when you’ve cooked it long and slow, basting all the time, and then charring. The photo on the left was from a couple months ago, when I visited home, and since it was just 4 of us, Lilandra and I convinced Mom to put the chicken raw on the grill. And yes it took long, but without exposing it to too much high heat while it cooked, it worked!

The foil packets around the chicken (and the lamb in the first photo) contain potatoes and carrots, tossed in olive oil, garlic and green stuff, and just left on the edges of the bbq, turning occasionally, while we cooked the meat. The result? Tender on the inside, crispy-skinned potatoes with nice flavour, and really nice carrots that made us wish we had tossed in some honey with the olive oil.

Of course, Trini don’t necessarily barbecue EVERYTHING with sauce…chicken, lamb, beef, steak-fish…sure..shrimp too I am certain…but we’re a people interested in food generally. So I am sure there are nuff people out there who bbq hot dogs and burgers too. And kebabs with olive oil dressing. And veggies straight on the grill. I mean, what else is that roadside favourite roast corn?

One thing you do have to keep in mind about the Trini BBQ culture…if someone comes up to you and says “ey, we having a barbecue next weekend…”, get your wallet ready. Chances are the next words will be “I have some tickets here to sell. Is for the child school/mosque/church/mandir/sick person”.

Yes. In T&T the BBQ has become almost synonymous with a fundraiser.* It’s the method of choice for all – sell some tickets, buy some boxes,** fire up some coals, fry the rice and boil the potato for the salad…and fix-up. It’s a time-proven technique for which everyone knows the routine and can lend a hand. In fact the Q has become so common, that it has given rise to variations in the true spirit of the country. Chinese-Q - keep the fry rice, but use chinese-style chicken*** and chow mein. Curry-Q – roti (mostly paratha/buss-up shut), with curried chicken, channa and aloo and maybe pumpkin or curry mango. Veggie-Q - this can be any of the Qs without the meat, and some additional veggie preparation. I think we’re still missing out on some demographic, however, and I look forward to the Syrian/Lebanese-Q (or maybe Mediterranean-Q or Arabian-Q). I’ve gotten pelau in boxes before, but not sure why or where…was that a Creole-Q?

Now, if someone comes up to you and says, “we going to bbq tonight” as opposed to “having a bbq”, you might be safe to just walk with your belly and enjoy the goodness.

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* I have seen a similar BBQ for fundraising in Guyana, but I am not sure how pervasive it is or if there are other variations here.
** Who here has never folded boxes??
*** In the words of Alton Brown, that’s another show…

We did somehow manage to take quite a lot of photos of the things we ate (although not everything!). Somehow, I guess this seemed acceptable…I haven’t sorted through those yet. I just couldn’t face it. Soon we’ll just create an album of the daily food or something.

While I’ve only got up to the days just after the Hajj was completed, anyone who’s interested can go visit Chennette’s Flickr album for Hajj 1429.

The photos are still of Makkah and I have some proper Kaabah shots to upload yet. Not to mention Madinah!! Insha Allah it’ll happen. What with relying on my cameraphone and the Olympus P&S that is supposed to be sister-the-elder’s when we thought we’d have the new Nikon Coolpix we got for the parents…the photos got better as we got used to the camera…AND I am tweaking