Hi Everyone, It’s dinnertime. The last roti has been clapped; it collapses in a soft leafy mound atop the other roti in the bowl. The bowl of hot freshly cooked paratha roti sits in the middle of the table for easy reach by the diners. I grab the roti at the top, impatient and hungry. I tear off a piece of roti-that’s barely clinging to the whole-and press it into the red sauce on my plate and snag a piece of sardine. It’s a soft chew. The sauce-laden roti, the soft onions, the piece of fish that still holds its shape, all uniting for a taste of home.
There was a time when canned fish such as sardines were considered a treat – because of their price and scarcity. I remembered as a child that there was a time in Guyana’s history when canned foods such as sardines were banned. Today, sardines are very much everyday fare. I think of sardines as fast food, well, because they are. Sardines are a meal in a can that can be eaten at any meal of the day and in between too.