Love is in the air, and it is the perfect time to begin ‘A Love Letter’ series in this the 16th year of Tastes Like Home. This is going to be an appreciation series with notes of nostalgia, identity, food culture and discovery.
The first ‘Love Letter’ is to our most wonderful of cuisines – Guyanese Cuisine. You know, we can love and be in love all our lives, and think that that love is known and understood, however, it is often necessary and important to express and show that love. Ask anyone of us living away from the 83-thousand square miles what we miss most, and you will hear that it is the food, the land, the way of life, the people, the sights and sounds that make Guyana a very special place.
Guyana’s food scene continues to rapidly expand. Travel, ingredients offerings, investment, the opening up of food establishments, and changing palates all contribute to the burgeoning food landscape in Guyana. It is exciting to see and taste how local and familiar ingredients are being transformed and fused with unfamiliar ingredients, and the application of various cooking techniques. As I embrace the growth and development, my love remains resolute for everyday Guyanese food.
What do I love about Guyanese cuisine? Here are a few things.
I love the variety that proudly represents our multiculturalism on every table whether for a Sunday lunch spread, at holidays, special occasions, or a lime with friends. You are always partaking in a feast and not simply a meal.
I love the daily access to fresh produce – fruits, vegetables, herbs, seafood, poultry, and meats.
I love the ingenuity and make-do nature of the adaptation of many dishes and recipes from the various ancestral lands that make them uniquely Guyanese. For example, the pulourie in Guyana is not the same as it is in Trinidad. Pulourie in Guyana is always a spiced split pea fritter with just enough flour to hold it together. In Trinidad, it is a spiced flour fritter.
I love that you can eat a different dish every day for a month without repeating the exact dish. Now, that’s some variety, don’t you think?
I love that we can take one ingredient and prepare it in a variety of ways. Additionally, we can take the style of a dish and apply it to multiple ingredients. The most readily available example is that of a curry. Fruits (mangoes, golden apple), vegetables, poultry, meats, seafood, ground provisions and legumes are all ingredients you can find curried in Guyanese cuisine.
I love the type of pastries we make – rich shortcrust – they are not simply a snack, our pastries, done well, demand a pause in the day to sit quietly to be savoured, alone or with company.
I love the Saturday offerings of herbaceous Black and White Pudding, and the most perfect of dishes with a name that truly represents what it is – Cook-up (Rice). As I have often said, Cook-up Rice is a perfect representation of our makeup; how wonderful we are, diverse but together.
I love how open and always ready we are to feed one another and strangers too.
I love that regardless of the ethnic makeup of our households, we make a broad spectrum of dishes and recipes that are representative of Guyanese cuisine. However, and this is important, it pains me when an Afro-Guyanese makes roti and curry or an Indo-Guyanese makes Cook-up Rice and Metemgee or an Indigenous Guyanese makes Fried Rice or Pastries, and their language is apologetic when showcasing what they have made. In other words, they are apologising for making “someone else’s food”. What utter nonsense! There is no need for any apology because we are GUYANESE what we are cooking, and eating is GUYANESE FOOD. What type of food should the 6th race (mixed) people of Guyana make? Let us stop apologising and making people feel the need to apologise. Let’s own our cuisine, it belongs to all of us regardless of the race, colour or creed. We are Guyanese. Food, regardless of which cuisine in the world, has a multitude of influences.
What does Guyanese cuisine mean to me?
It means home; the ability to create and replicate tastes and smells that transport to a space, place, and time.
What do you love about Guyanese cuisine? What does it mean to you?
Cynthia
cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
