Day/Country #10 -- St Vincent and the Grenadines

 Vincentian Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 389 km²

Population: ~103,000

Capital: Kingstown

GDP (PPP) per capita: $11,700

Official Language: English

Known For: La Soufriere volcano, picture-perfect

beaches, filming location for Pirates of the

Caribbean movies.

At last!  I've found time to take my turn at cooking and we've made it (gastronomically if not geographically speaking) to St Vincent and the Grenadines!

Other than being vaguely aware that the country consisted of islands (32 as I discovered) somewhere in the Caribbean I did not know anything about the place...but after just a few minutes of googling I was delighted by what I found--it's the first place I've googled and immediately felt like I want to go there!  This might have had something to do with the enticing website A Taste of Vincy.  However, on reading the entry for SVG in my Lonely Planet Travel Book I further found out that SVG is a popular spot for the rich and famous; suffice it to say I am neither of these things and suspect I probably cannot afford to go there!  But it might be worth looking into one day none the less...

Anyway--back to the food!  My few minutes of googling convinced me that cooking SVG food was going to be next to impossible due to a lack of readily available (even un-readily available!) tropical ingredients here in the deep south.  Happily there is a wonderful website The Cook's Thesaurus which tells you not only what all the unfamiliar ingredients are ('what is breadfruit?' for instance) it also tells you what you can substitute for that ingredient in a dish (in the case of breadfruit you can use potatoes...I suspect it's nothing like the real thing, but it works for our purposes).

Consequently I came up with a trifecta of dishes including Callaloo Soup (which calls for callaloo and tannia but I used spinach and sweet potato); the national dish of SVG, Bul Jol (roasted breadfruit and fried jackfish; I used potatoes and hoki); and for our first forray into the realm of sweet treats: Arrowroot Cakes--I was intrigued by a recipe that called for a whole pound of arrowroot! Anyone who has used it before most likely only used a tablespoon or two to add starch to their cooking...we didn't have a whole pound (~450g) of it to use, but I dumped a 200g box in and hoped for the best.

The results...a nice and surprisingly filling meal!

The soup consisted of chorizo and spinach boiled in water and coconut milk with chives, sweet potato, onion and garlic (on a whim I used chorizo instead of beef like the recipe called for; it was a tasty alternative that I dry-fried initially to crisp off and get some of the fat out).  Mum loved the final product but I think the soup could have done with a little less water and a little more time to let the flavours infuse and strengthen (I made the whole meal in a little over and hour, but like all soups I think it will probably taste so much better on the second day).

As for the improvised Bol Jul, roast potatoes are always nice and the fish was also good, seasoned with chives, garlic, onion and thyme, then coated with flour and crisped fried in a pan, served with a tomato, thyme, garlic and onion sauce/salsa.

Finally, dainty little arrowroot cakes lightly flavoured with lime juice made a zesty desert and a sweet end to our SVG-themed meal (although they could have done with another two minutes in the oven...).



But lets not forget the cocktail!  Mum came up trumps today with another original she's dubbed 'Soufriere' after SVG's famous volcano which has a nasty once-in-a-generation habit of erupting and wiping out people's crops...a big deal for a country who's economy is built primarily on banana plantations!

Minus the ash and smoke but with a lovely rich red colour and intense fruity flavour Soufriere was a refreshing hit of creme de cassis, cranberry juice, sugar syrup and rum--we are in the Caribbean after all :) 

Thanks SVG for inspiring a lovely meal!

Rating (out of 5):

Callaloo (er...spinach) Soup 4/5 (would recommend making this in the morning then reheating in the afternoon to eat if you want a stronger flavour).

Bul Jol 3.5/5
Arrowroot Cakes 3.5/5
Soufriere Cocktail 4/5