Tastes Like Home

My eating is erratic. I only eat when I am hungry.

The only thing constant is change – Heraclitus (Greek philosopher) How many of your 2020 New Year’s resolutions did you achieve?

One of the more constructive things to have come about as a result of COVID-19, is a return to home cooking.

Many holiday meals are about the big and best cuts – prime rib, crown roasts and whole legs – of pork, beef or lamb.

In last week’s column I asked what you were cooking this holiday; whether you were going all out as usual or bigger than usual given the kind of year we’ve had, or, if you were planning something simple and low-key.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve stumbled into December trying to keep my balance.

It’s Independence Day here in Barbados on Monday, the island’s 54th.

Curry of any kind, dhal, fried (sauteed) vegetables, and choka(s) are the many things we eat with roti.

It’s been a decade now since I first made Peera – Indian Milk Fudge also known as Doodh Peda.

You did not misread the headline. This is not about the popular and well-known local staple, Cassava Bread.

Dhal has always been one of my favourite dishes. I especially like it simply – with rice and achar.

What’s Cooking is a series in which I answer questions and share advice about food and cooking that you have but may be too shy to ask.

Weekends are about treats. And while it also the time we take to make many things to fill the Sunday lunch or dinner table – often with no space left to actually sit and eat at the table – it is also the time that some of us take to cut back on the cooking.

While television celebrity Chef Alton Brown’s book of the same title as the headline for this column is all about the science and how-to of cooking the food, I am here to tell you that for me, especially this week, I’m just here for the food – to eat and enjoy.

Short, square, and fat, Cardaba bananas are known in Barbados and much of the Eastern Caribbean as buffit.

The other day, a food-in friend was sharing with me the pleasures of eating Guyanese-style Aniseed Biscuits.

Eddoes with pork. Squash with chicken feet. Pumpkin with chicken. Chowmein with mince.

When last did you have Fish Choka? Or should I ask, have you ever had Fish Choka?

Many of us are more familiar with the hot version of lemongrass tea but have you ever considered making the tea and having it cold?

I have been trying, unsuccessfully, for the past 2 years to make granola clusters, also known as oat clusters or oatmeal clusters.