What's Your Approach to Eating?

The title of this post is not a rhetorical question. I ask because I am interested. So please share. My approach is simple and it is certainly nothing new: Everything In Moderation. When I wrote the column back in January it was not in an effort to change minds but to get us talking about how we eat. I lay my case out there and make some points to ponder. After reading, you will understand why these photographs are titled as they are.

I look forward to hearing from you. Leave your comment below or inbox me.

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These are a few...

While we are transplanted in the places we now call home...
While we long for the tastes and smell of the homes we've left behind...
While we bring with us our food traditions...
We cannot help but learn to love some food things of our new home. That's the subject of my column this week. What are your favourites in your new home?


This is a saltbread. It is used the same way as bun, sliced with goodies inserted. It makes a hearty snack because it can also be eaten by itself just spread with butter or jam. It's a rustic bread.
The thing you see on top of it is a piece of coconut palm, placed on top of the dough just before going in to the oven; it causes the dough to burst, adding an even more rustic look. The baker said it also imparts a flavour, that I am not so sure about. I just love it.


When a salt bread is sliced and something is inserted, it becomes a cutter. In this case, I have cheese in mine so it is a cheese cutter.
As a child, I loved eating tennis roll (similar roll in Guyana) with cheese and drinking cream soda flavoured drink with a splash of milk and ice. Ummmm so good. Especially after a long day at school.


Rice and peas is an everyday staple in Barbados. It is considered authentic only when cooked with pigeon peas and a piece of salt meat, on the plate there I have a piece of salted pig-tail.

Sweet bread or coconut bread is good anytime, at breakfast, as an afternoon snack or an evening snack with a cup of tea. Moist, not too sweet, with the hint of cinnamon and of course, the coconut. What's not to love?




I love chicken and chips but don't indulge too often, when I do, like yesterday, I only have Chicken Barn's. Theirs is barbecued with a semi-dry rub. It is never slathered in sauce and that's one of the things I like about it. It has a great smokey, home-made kind of taste. Love, love, love it.

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FRIED Bakes

This week it's all about fried dough. Okay, okay, for the past two weeks it has been about fried dough - pancakes , phulourie etc. Bakes, floats, muffins, dumplings call them what you will, we in the Caribbean often quibble about whose is better. The argument comes down to this: how can you call that a bake when it is fried? (lol) Read the column to find out which Caribbean country's bake is actually baked and why the name they use to describe theirs, perhaps makes more sense.

These are traditional Bajan bakes frying. They are usually flat, some people put baking powder in the dough which then causes them to rise.

Guyanese bakes: this is how I roll the dough out before frying it. It's rolled between 3 - 4 inches round.

I add the rolled dough to hot oil, it bubbles, swells and then floats. I then turn it over to brown on the other side and drain on a paper towel.

This is what it looks like inside when cooked. You can stuff it with anything, sauteed saltfish, eggs, cheese, ham, vegetables etc. Or you can simply spread some butter and let it melt into all the nooks and crannies and eat it just like that!

Email me if you need the recipe.

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An Unlikely Combination

It was not deliberate when I made an Indian and an Italian dish for a meal. Actually, no thought was given to the combination at all. All I was interested in was having a starch and a protein for a meal. I made potato roti (aloo paratha, aloo roti) and Italian meatballs using the recipe of New York Times' Kim Severson. Email me if you need the recipes.

Seasoned mashed potatoes to be stuffed in roti dough. I sauteed my aromatics before adding them to the mashed potatoes and instead of garam masala, I used ground cumin (geera).

Roti dough stuffed with seasoned mashed potatoes before they are rolled and cooked.





This is what I cook my roti on, a tawah. It is also known as a flat iron-griddle.




Cooked potato roti (aloo roti)

I used regular all-purpose white flour instead of whole-wheat flour which many recipes call for.

Seasoned mixture for meatballs

Italian meatballs

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