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Jamaican
Food Saves a Hard Day
2003,
Monday, May 19 @ 09:45:04 EDT
 Sunday
at Sabina with MICHELLE MCDONALD
Fluttering
flags in the balmy breeze signalled the start of the 2nd ODI
at Sabina Park on Sunday. The sky was even clearer than it
was on Saturday, removing any thoughts of possible rain to
thwart the proceedings. The fans had left their Sunday routine
hoping to exchange it for some exhilarating cricket. Instead,
what they ended up getting would certainly have made them
wish they had stayed home to enjoy their traditional Sunday
dinner in leisurely fashion.
I arrived at the ground to find our batsmen at the crease.
"Oh, we lost the toss," the sightscreen screen man
at the Blue Mountain end quickly corrected my assumption.
Mr Lara decided to be brave and bat first. Remember, we are
'experimenting'. The experiment of using swashbuckling batsman
Ricardo Powell to open was not repeated today. One wondered
why, since it wasn't exactly a failure yesterday. But we will
not interfere with the scientists and their experiments.
These
reports are less about cricket and more about happenings around
the ground. Remember, I am a lady and I have never played
a game of cricket in my life, so today I'm staying clear of
cricketing details and sticking to what I know more about
-- food. Sunday is traditional family day in most parts of
the Caribbean and food forms an integral part of that day.
Today at Sabina was no different. While the batsmen were being
pegged back by the superior Aussie bowlers, I scouted the
ground in search of food to see what was on offer.
If
you missed breakfast, you could find a few things to break
your fast. Hominy porridge anyone? If that’s not your thing,
you might have liked the callaloo sandwich on sale by the
same vendor and then had some coffee-tea, milo-tea or plain
ole tea to wash it down. If you're wondering what these are,
I will tell you that in Jamaica, some people call anything
hot 'tea'! Ah jus' so wi stay man.
For
some people, anything goes where breakfast is concerned. I
spotted a man in the Air Jamaica stand having a hefty plate
of what I would consider dinner at 10:30 in the morning. Perhaps
he had not had any breakfast. Seems like that might have been
the case with Gayle, Smith and Samuels. For the way they were
batting they couldn’t not have had any strong cornmeal pap
or ackee and saltfish this morning. Very sluggish and obviously
in need of sustenance. Even Lara, after scoring 6 runs off
his first 2 balls, seemed to be in the same hungry state.
After
19 overs, 54 for 4. Time for a snack. You could take your
pick from bun and cheese, banana chips, peanuts, cashews,
pizza, popcorn, spicy pepper shrimp popular in St Elizabeth
(a.k.a. St Bess) or perhaps some chicken soup if you needed
something hot. While Sarwan and Powell were blazing way (they
obviously had breakfast while the earlier bats were in!),
I went in search of a patty. Jamaica is unique for a lot of
things, and one of them is the variety of our cuisine. The
patty was made popular by Vincent Chang who created Tastee
patties back in the day.
A
more recent player in the patty market is Juici Beef. I found
them on the first floor of the George Headley Stand. Ahead
of me in the line was an Australian, with whom I struck up
a conversation as I was curious as to what he knew about Jamaican
patties. My conversation revealed that he is employed by a
bauxite company, and has been on secondment here since 2001.
He loves the island, and has just extended his stay without
even blinking. Jamaica land we love, and others too! The land
of wood, water and patties.
With
wickets falling a-plenty, many fans made their way to the
food outlets for an early lunch. While living outside of the
region, I was struck by the differences in our eating patterns
as against theirs. Quite often, lunch in the United Kingdom
would consist of something light – a salad, a sandwich, soup.
In the Caribbean, that can’t hold us. We need food-food. Hot
food. The meat of choice today was chicken. Typical Jamaican
Sunday dinner. Other offerings were Jerk anything – burger,
chicken sandwich, fish sandwich and even Jerk Hotdog. If you
fancied something light, there was Chicken Chop Suey, and
if you just couldn’t stay away from things foreign, Kentucky,
Burger King and Dominoes could answer your call. There was
corn-on-the-cob, and you could pick your selection from boiled-with-meat
and boiled-without. No dry coconut to eat it with though.
They slacking up.
It
was hot, so the beverages went like…well….hot bread. Tropical
Rhythms, Zesti sparkling fruit drink, and ‘bax’ juice (in
a box) offered you something nutritious…um kind of, if you
forgot all the sugar added to them. Soft drinks in any flavour
could quench your thirst, or you might have preferred a Malta,
or even a Guinness to ‘bring out the power in you’. Hmmm.
Send out a Guinness for Powell to go with that Curry Goat
cricket he is playing. In fact, maybe they needed something
stronger. Overproof whites perhaps? No chaser.
After
the Aussies dropped Banks, they didn’t make the mistake twice.
Out caught shortly thereafter. Baugh bowled middle stump,
Drakes out after a flurry of runs, and Collymore didn’t trouble
the scorers. That’s lunch. Let’s eat. My food-food? Roast
pork, curried goat, baked chicken, rice and peas, vegetable
salad and potato pudding. If you come from the Eastern Caribbean,
that might have read roast pork, goat curry, baked chicken,
peas and rice, vegetable salad and potato pudding.
Anyhow
you take it, Caribbean food provides a welcome respite from
a dull day's cricket such as today's match was. We'll feed
the lads with food-food before Wednesday and hope for better
things from them in St Lucia.
Source:
http://www.caribbeancricket.com
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