The Silent "I"

Food, Glorious Food: What to Eat in St. Lucia

 

St. Lucia offers a variety of food options to suit just about any palate, from the gourmet to the gourmand or the mac-and-cheese-addicted child.  Freshly-caught fish and seafood abound, combined with locally-grown seasonings, vegetables and traditional Caribbean preparations, making for healthy, delicious, and unique culinary experiences.  Some popular dishes are found in different forms on other Caribbean islands, but St. Lucia puts its own twist on food. Even if you think you know what Callaloo or Shark & Bake tastes like, you haven't tried it until you've tasted it here. 

Green Figs & Salt Fish

The national dish of St. Lucia is the dynamic duo known as "green figs and salt fish".  The "figs" are actually unripe bananas, peeled and sauteed with garlic, onions, celery, and peppers.  If the combo of bananas and garlic don't sound appealing, never fear.  Unripened bananas are not sweet and taste more like potatoes than the yellow bananas we're used to putting in cereal and eating as an on-the-go snack.  Unripe, the bananas are much starchier and harder, with less banana flavor. Green Figs & Salt Fish also features salt fish, rinsed thoroughly to drain out most of the salt, then flaked and sauteed with the bananas and vegetables.  It is a hearty, filling meal for lunch or dinner, but I even ate it for breakfast while I was there.  Bananas, green and ripened, are abundant on St. Lucia and are the island's primary crop for export.

Floats & Bakes

"Bakes" are a popular form of bread in St. Lucia, made with a round of plain flour dough that is bake or fried.  When baked, it has a taste similar to English muffins, not sweet, but dense, chewy and hearty.  You can eat them on their own, or with a variety of fillings to form a handy sandwich-like snack. Add a little powdered sugar or jam, and you have a breakfast treat.  Much of the street food sold at markets and stands in St. Lucia has a bake filled with a meat or fish filling.

Shark & Bake

The same dough recipe can be deep-fried to create a "float", a popular base for St. Lucian street food like Shark and Bake.  Shark and Bake, as the name connotes, is a mixture of fish and stewed vegetables eaten as a sandwich.  I'm not sure if the fish meat was actually shark or something else, but it tasted good.  Other islands may have originated and popularize this version of the fish sandwich, but St. Lucians have adapted a version all their own.

Callaloo

Callaloo is a dark green leafy vegetable that comes from the leaves of the taro plant.  St. Lucians use it in place of spinach or kale, and when cooked up, it produces a smoky-flavored addition to fish or seafood dishes.  Combined with mashed dasheen (taro root), the leaves form a thick, green, flavorful soup base for crab or other seafood.  It reminded me of the Seaweed Soup my mom makes, both in taste and texture.  My travel companion, Julia, tried the Callaloo crab soup, which was a little hard to eat since the crab meat had to be extracted from the tiny crab legs.  She said it was worth the effort, even though some of it ended up on her lovely white dress.  I had Callaloo and Snapper at one meal, which was a mixture of snapper sauteed with callaloo leaves.  The leaves were similar in taste to cooked chard or kale, with none of the bitterness. 

Places to Dine

Street Food

Throughout St. Lucia, there are open-air stands selling a variety of ready-to-eat local delicacies, like shark and bake, roast pork, and bakes.  Grab a foil-wrapped Shark & Bake for an inexpensive, hearty meal on the go.  On Friday nights, Trios Restaurant at Bay Gardens Beach Resort offers up their parking lot to a food and music festival called "Calaloo Fridays" with food stands featuring typical street food, the ubiquitous Pitons Beer, music and Carnival bands showing off their elaborate costumes and dance moves. This is a fun and inexpensive way to try out a variety of St. Lucian delicacies. 

Caribbean Fusion

For a fine-dining experience with a pan-Caribbean flair, check out Trios Restaurant at the Bay Gardens Beach Resort in Rodney Bay.  Featuring locally grown fresh vegetables and fresh fish dishes from the sea, Trios offers excellent seafood, jerk-style chicken, and hearty vegetarian dishes in a romantic, tropical setting frequented by locals and visitors alike.  I enjoyed the Crab Chowder served in a coconut shell bowl, with large chunks of crab and vegetable in a coconut-based broth.  The Trios Snapper was served with three sauces that all complemented the fish and mashed sweet potatoes well.  For dessert, try the Fruitcake, which is more the color and consistency of gingerbread than the Christmas doorstop that we think of as fruitcake.

Pumpkin seem to be a favorite ingredient among St. Lucian chefs, who use it for a spicy soup, a base for vegetarian dishes, and for dessert treats like pumpkin pie. 

Indian Food

St. Lucians share a long history of trade with India, and nearly 40% of St. Lucians have some Indian ancestry.  It's only fitting that one of the top new restaurants in St. Lucia is the acclaimed Spice of India. Spice of India offers tradional Indian food served with a dramatic flair.  We had what seemed like a suptuous 90 course meal at Spice of India, and no one at the table could stop eating. From the luscious, creamy butter chicken to flavorful deconstructed samosas to perfectly-grilled tandoori chicken to the deep-fried chocolate cake at the end, every bite was a new twist on some familar Indian dishes.  This is not your mother's chicken tikka masala, and you might not ever want to go back to it after dining at Spice of India.  This restaurant was voted #1 by TripAdvisor, and for good reason: the food is simply out of this world.

If you just can't take all this exotic goodness, and have a hankering for some good old American fast food, there is a KFC, a Domino's and even a Subway in Rodney Bay.  McDonald's, however, has not made it into St. Lucia yet, so you'll have to wait to get to the airport in Miami or New York to get your Big Mac on.

 

 Creme Brulee, Fruitcake & Pumpkin Pie

 

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life - and travel - leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks - on your body or on your heart - are beautiful.”

                                                                                                        -Anthony Bourdain

 Disclosure: Food and accommodations for my trip to St. Lucia were paid for by Bay Gardens Resorts. I did not receive any additional financial incentive or compensation for writing this post.  All opinions expressed are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Bay Gardens Resorts.

Photos: Copyright Glennia Campbell/The Silent I. All Rights Reserved.

Kona Coffee: A Traveler's Tale

Visiting coffee plantation tasting rooms on the Big Island of Hawaii is one of our favorite things to do when traveling there. On prior trips to Kona, we stopped at coffee farms and did some coffee tastings of island-grown Kona Coffee, and have been addicted ever since.  Last week, Frank attended a conference in Kona, and before he left, my one charge to him was to bring back some coffee.  He took that seriously, and this is his tale of finding a special family-owned Kona Coffee farm at Da Kine Coffee Bean.  You wouldn't dream of visiting Napa Valley without tasting the wine, so you shouldn't visit Kona without a taste of the rich, wonderful coffee.

Da Kine Sign

I landed on time in Kona, and after getting a grey Chevy Impala and a bite to eat, I headed down Highway 11 to Kona Coffee country.  Before I left for Kona, I had tried looking for some places to try coffee online and found a website for Kona Coffee Roasting listing a huge number of coffee farms and plantations on the western slopes of the Big Island. The list was lengthy, and it was hard to pick a place. However, many of the listings boasted about “cupping competitions,” so I started doing Google searches for Kona coffee farms who won these, and stumbled across an old article that mentioned Terry Fitzgerald and his farm Da Kine Coffee Bean.  It seems he was one of the Kona pioneers.

In the early 1970s, Fitzgerald took over a coffee farm that had gone wild, and helped cultivate Kona Coffee to be what it is today. This sounded like a piece of Kona Coffee history, so I e-mailed him through the website to ask if I could visit, and was told to “come on up”.

So, between milepost 105 and 104 on Highway 11 in Honaunau, I saw the small yellow sign for Da Kine, and headed up the mountain. 20 minutes and 1 mile later (yes, it’s a really rough road), after wondering if I’d made a wrong turn somewhere, I again saw a little yellow “Da Kine” sign, and parked.

Terry Fitzgerald came out to greet me a very friendly man with a beard in a sarong. His wife, Susan, peeked out and also said a cheerful “Hello”, and wanted to know if I wanted my beans dark or medium. They had some dark, but no medium, and I said I’d try both and so she fired up the roaster. At first I was honored at this special treatment, but they said the way they always do it - the beams are all stored green and roasted to order, even when ordering through the internet. While we were talking, their 7 year old son, Sonny, started poking out from behind the bushes, taking pot shots at me with his Nerf gun.

Granny's Chicken & Dumplings Recipe: DailyBuzz Moms 9x9

 

Granny's Chicken and Dumplings

Growing up in Ohio, Sunday dinner meant one thing to me: Granny's Chicken & Dumplings, a warm and hearty stew made of the simplest ingredients of flour, chicken, salt and pepper. A staple in the Midwest and South, chicken and dumplings is about as comforting  as a comfort food can get. It seems to be something born of hard times, when only the bare necessities were on-hand to make a meal for a crowd.

As a child, I watched my grandmother roll out dumpling and make quick work of cutting out dumplings into little bite-sized squares. Her knife skills would put even the Top Chef Masters to shame. I often helped knead the dough, standing on a chair to put my whole body into the process of shaping and rolling the dough into a ball, then using a rolling pin to flatten it out.  Granny coached me through it, making sure my dumplings were not too lumpy or too thick.  Making dumplings was better than play-doh for keeping little hands busy. 

Granny didn't use a recipe, so for the longest time I had only a vague idea of how to make chicken and dumplings.  My mother showed me how to make it, using the "eyeball it and throw things in until it tastes right" method.  My brother Mike is a chef, and he coached me through turning it into a real recipe a few years ago. The recipe that follows is an approximation of what you need to make Chicken & Dumplings, just like Granny used to make. The original recipe only uses salt and pepper for seasoning. I've added some chicken stock base and herbs for extra flavor.

 

 Ingredients

For Stock:

12 c water

3 bone-in chicken breasts

2 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)

2-3 leaves of fresh sage (optional)

1 packet Knorr Homestyle Condensed Chicken Stock (optional)

Salt & Pepper to taste

For Dumplings:

6 c + 1 c Gold Medal Self-Rising Flour

1 c water

1 t dried sage (optional)

1 t dried thyme (optional)

1 T salt

1 T black pepper

 

Country Inns & Suites: Home Suite Home

Ever hear of Country Inns & Suites?  I hadn't until about a year ago, when they generously offered us a voucher to stay in one of their fine establishments.  We were not able to take them up on the offer until our Christmas roadtrip to Austin, and I was pleasantly surprised by the accomodations they offer at reasonable prices.  We enjoyed a complimentary overnight stay  at the downtown location in Tucson, Arizona, during our long journey through the desert.

Like many of the better highway hotel chains, they offer free Wifi in the rooms, complimentary breakfast, and a pool.  What sets Country Inns and Suites apart are the little things, like complimentary cookies and bottled water on arrival, a full hot breakfast (not just microwaved sandwiches and cold cereal, but bacon, eggs, the whole works), and a homey, charming decor.  We found the staff to be friendly and efficient, as well as knowledgeable about the area.

On our December roadtrip, we left the Salton Sea Recreation Area and headed east on I-8 through the dusty California border towns toward Tucson. We were hoping to be in Saguaro National Park before sundown.  Unfortunately, we arrived too late for the park.  I dubbed this our "Too Late Tour," since it seemed like we always arrived at our destinations just after the sunset so we couldn't see anything.  Frank said that he planned a perfect itinerary for summer, or anytime the sun stays up a little past 5:00 pm.

Anyway, we arrived in Tucson after dark and couldn't get to the Saguaro National Park on time, so we went straight to the Country Inns & Suites.  We were welcomed with freshly baked sugar cookies in the lobby, a homey fireplace, and some bottles of water, which were great after a long, dry drive through the desert. The front desk staff was extremely friendly and answered all of our questions.  There were some kids running around the lobby, and the hotel seemed to be extremely family-friendly.

Our room was nicely furnished and large enough for the three of us. The furnishings and decor were nicer and more traditional than some that we encountered later on our trip at similar hotels. It seems that the latest trend in hotel decor is blinding florescent lighting and migraine-inducing neon green bedding with fuschia accents and large black and white photos of doorknobs and exposed pipes in the hallway.  I was happy to find the room to be comfortable and not over-done, with more muted colors and soft lighting.  During our trip, we used Marriott and Hilton loyalty program points to stay at Fairfield Inn and Hampton Inn in different locations along the way.  We liked Country Inns the best for food quality, service, and general ambience, although the three were pretty similar in locations, space, and pricing.

Holiday Entertaining with Fresh & Easy

This weekend, I was thrilled to host a house party for some of my blogger and work friends sponsored by Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets.  The folks from Fresh & Easy brought in some of their best holiday fare for us to try out, including Brie & Cranberry Pastry Puffs, Mini Beef en Croutes, and Bacon Wrapped Shrimp appetizers. The appetizers are in the prepared foods section of the store, and are uncooked when you buy them. Just pop them in the oven for about 10 minutes, and you have tantalizing, decadent appetizers that seem like you've been slaving all day to prepare. I mean, seriously, how could you go wrong with brie cheese wrapped in butter pastry? Or anything at all involving bacon?

A few months ago, I went to an event in San Francisco to launch new Fresh & Easy stores in Northern California.  I had never heard of Fresh & Easy before that, and was delighted to learn that they offer fresh, wholesome foods at reasonable prices. Fresh & Easy is owned by the British supermarket chain Tesco.  They are in the middle of opening stores in California, Nevada, and Arizona. In addition to their own branded products, they also offer some of the top name-brand items and fresh bread from Il Fornaio bakery. 

Jamaica: Where I Learned the True Meaning of the Word Jerk

I thought I knew what the word jerk meant before I went to Jamaica, but I was wrong.  I learned the true meaning of jerk at Scotchies, an unassuming barbecue restaurant in Montego Bay.  Sure, I've known my share of the human kind, the boorish line-cutting, loud-talking, argue with the umpire kind or as epitomized by a number of men chosen to be contestants The Bachelor.  The kind I'm talking about now is the culinary type, the spicy, slightly sweet and smoky kind of the meat or seafood variety.

Jerk is a national dish and a national obsession in Jamaica. Dating back to the time of slavery, the cooking technique was developed as a method for runaway slaves to cook food without being caught. Traditionally, they would dig a pit, light a fire of sweet wood, then lay the meat on top, covered by a piece of tin, then bury it.  This method allowed little smoke to escape, but made the meat falling-off-the-bone tender.  The technique is similar to the imu used by Hawaiians to cook kahlua pork.

The real secret to jerk isn't the cooking technique as much as it is in the sauce.  When I've had jerk chicken in the US, it was aggressively seasoned with hot pepper sauce that was so hot my tasted buds revolted after a few bites. Not so with real Jamaican Jerk.  The sauce used to marinate the meat is made from a mixture of Scotchbonnet peppers, allspice, and brown sugar.  This is added to some other spices to make a flavorful concoction that is tasty, but doesn't make you want to curl up in a fetal position and cry for your mommy. But, maybe that's just my reaction to hot food.

Since some like it hotter, the meat is served with two extra sauces that can be added to turn up the heat.

Love, Loss and Peanut Butter Pie

On Friday, bloggers from around the world gathered at our virtual kitchen table to pay tribute to food blogger Jennifer Perillo's husband, Mikey, who passed away suddenly a week ago.  I didn't get to make a pie on Friday or Saturday, due to a myriad of work and life commitments that kept me out of the kitchen.  I made two pies on Sunday, around the time that Mikey passed.  The pie pictured above was made with love and a few tears.

This news sent me reeling back to a few months ago, when my own husband, Frank, faced open heart surgery.  He is nearly fully recovered now, all the better for having been to hell and back to repair a genetic heart defect.  Right before his surgery, we talked about what I would need to do if he didn't make it through.  We went over his last wishes, where all the important paperwork was located, even though we didn't want to think about the possibilities.

The night before his surgery, Frank laid out his will and Advanced Medical Directive on the dining table. I wanted to stab the pile of papers with a kitchen knife every time I passed the table. It was the last thing I wanted to think about, but the possibility of death loomed around us like a bone-chilling fog.  I could only hope for the best, but be as prepared as I could for the worst.

I now realize what a luxury it was to be braced for the idea that Frank might not make it. Jennifer didn't have the opportunity to steel herself against the possibility that Mikey might not be there for Sunday dinner, or to enjoy his favorite pie with them one more time. Both Frank and Mikey are a reminder of how fragile our hearts are, and though they can mend, sometimes they break beyond repair.

I hope that everyone who makes this pie, or some variation of it, does so to honor the lives of Mikey and Jennifer and the beautiful family they built together. Life is is all too fleeting and its sweetness should be savored every day, like the very last bite of peanut butter pie.

For the recipe, see Jennifer's blog post, For Mikey.

San Francisco Chinatown: Fun Things to Do on a Budget

One of my favorite movie musicals as a child was Rogers & Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song, mainly because it was the first movie I ever saw that had Asian and Asian-American actors in leading roles. It didn't matter to me that the plot was ridiculous or that some of the actors weren't even Chinese (or even Asian in some cases).  I just remember being proud of the fact that people who somewhat resembled people in my family had made it to the big screen. 

One of the most memorable songs was the song called "Grant Avenue".

A western street with eastern manners,
Tall pagodas and golden banners
Throw their shadows through the lantern glow.

You can shop for precious jade
or teakwood tables or silk brocade
Or see a bold and brassy night club show,
On the most exciting thoroughfare I know.

We call it
Grant Avenue, San Francisco,
California, U.S.A.
Looks down from Chinatown
Over a foggy bay.

I had this romantic notion of San Francisco's Chinatown as a child.  I thought of it as an exotic, bustling thoroughfare of commerce and cable cars in the town where they invented Rice-a-Roni, quite possibly on Grant Avenue itself.  I think I made up that last part, but it made sense to me, since that was all I knew of San Francisco as a kid in Ohio in the 1960's was what I saw on television.  When I was about five, I used to stomp around the house singing "Grant Avenue! San Francisco! Cal-i-forn-i-a! U! S! A!" until my mother informed me that we were not Chinese and I needed to knock it off.

Anyway, San Francisco's Chinatown holds a special place in my heart.  Last weekend, we did a little mini-vacation and spent the weekend in San Francisco.  We stayed at the Orchard Garden Hotel, courtesy of the We Blog Travels Travel Writing Contest that I won last year with this post about San Francisco for kids.  We decided to see what we could do in San Francisco on a tight budget, and we started off with a walk through Chinatown.

The Orchard Garden is located next to the the Chinatown Gate, on Bush and Grant Avenue.  We were able to walk down the famed Grant Avenue, checking out a thousand and one souvenir shops, selling everything from silk purses to shoes to sculptures to tourist trinkets.  I have to admit, I had the "Grant Avenue" song stuck in my head as we walked along, stopping at nearly every souvenir shop along the way.

Althought it's called "Chinatown", the wares sold on Grant Avenue are sort of Pan-Asian, so you can find imports from Korea, Japan, India, and Thailand as well as China. Some of the best buys are comfy shoes and slippers, porceline dishes, and souvenirs of San Francisco. Alex salivated over racks of reproduction Samurai swords in one shop, and we beat a hasty retreat out of another that featured posters of nude Chinese women from the 1940's.  Every time my mom comes to town, we go jewelry shopping in Chinatown. The jewelers are usually open to bargaining on prices if you chat with them, and will usually throw in a jade bracelet or earrings if you press them. 

Some of the shops feature upscale artwork, Buddha sculptures, pottery, and fake designer bags.  I like the more Zen-inspired ones, with incense, stone garden Buddhas, and inspirational paper weights. 

World Cup: Where to Watch in Palo Alto/Stanford (San Francisco Peninsula)

My hometown of Palo Alto, California is a melting pot of cultures, and as international community as you are likely to find anywhere in the world.  Home to Stanford University, Palo Alto is an upscale mecca for students, entrepreneurs, and regular folks alike.  When the World Cup takes center stage every four years, Palo Altans and our neighbors from around the world gather to celebrate our national allegiances, and commiserate our losses to soccer powerhouses like Germany, Brazil and...Ghana?

This time around, I was determined to find a way to celebrate the event with other people, so I investigated where there were gatherings to watch the games being held in South Africa.  Although the HD TV in my house is just fine for viewing, it's more fun to watch with a group.

Here are some of the places I've watched these past few weeks, in case you're looking to watch the elimination games in Palo Alto or Stanford:

Pasta? Palo Alto: Pasta? as the name suggests is an Italian Restaurant in downtown Palo Alto on University Avenue.  The food is good, but the mood was somewhat subdued on the day I dragged my co-workers out for lunch to see the game. It was not nearly as exciting as some of the other venues, because I think the crowd was a mixture of soccer fans and people who just wandered in for lunch.  Pasta? is located at 326 University Avenue, Palo Alto, and is normally open from 10 am - 10 pm. 

Tresidder Student Union & Coffee House (CoHo): The Stanford Coffee House or CoHo as it's known on campus has two large HD TVs set up for game-viewing.  The day I was there, a group of Dutch students were lined up in front of one of the TVs like big orange birds on a wire wearing soccer ball hats, cheering on their team.  CoHo has not only coffee drinks, but also a great selection of salads and sandwiches.  It gets crowded at lunch time, so plan those 11:30 am games ahead of time.  I was also told that there are TVs set up in the lounges in Tresidder for viewing, but I didn't see where these were located.  CoHo is located at 459 Lagunita in the Tresidder Student Union, and is open 7 am - midnight weekdays and 9 am - midnight on weekends.

Restaurant Review: Piperade in San Francisco

I have been dying to try Chef Gerald Hirigoyen's Piperade Restaurant in San Franciso since hearing him speak at the Cooking for Solutions event in Monterey. I tried the Garlic Soup with bacon, egg and shrimp as the first course. The soup was tangy, but not overpowering with garlic flavor.  I would never have thought of putting shrimp, bacon, eggs and bread together in a soup.  It was like a sophisticated omelet soup. 

For the main course, I had a perfectly grilled halibut steak topped with crispy garlic and a spicy pepper on top.  The dish was flavorful, and the fish was buttery and delicious.  Frank had a tender duck that melted in your mouth.

I didn't know much about Basque cuisine going into the restaurant, but our friendly, cheerful Basque waitress was more than happy to explain things to us and make recommendations.  She recommended the Gateaux Basque for desert, a dense cake with a layer of cream and a compote of sherry-infused cherries.  I had a custardy mousse made of almonds, pistachios, and cream with sweet, crispy almonds on top that the waitress explained was a result of the Arab influence and history in Spain.  Wherever they came from, both were the perfect note to end the perfect meal.

I can't wait to go back to Piperade to find out what else Chef Hirigoyen has up his sleeve.  I bought a copy of his book, Pintxos: Small Plates in the Basque Tradition at the Monterey event, and now that I have some reference to what it's supposed to taste like, I might have to try a few things.

I saw one older child in the restaurant of about 11 or 12, but I would not recommend this for kids. I don't think that kids would be unwelcome, I just don't think that you or the kids would be comfortable.  Our son was not with us, so I don't know if they have a child-friendly menu, but the flavors are probably a little too powerful for small fry. This is a great place for a date night or a special celebration with friends.

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