Tastes Like Home

Writing this weekly column is often like some dishes that require significant preparation, multiple stages and sometimes long periods of cooking.

Don’t you just love the various ways in which you can prepare sweet potatoes?

Long lines stretched longer by social distancing, and empty shelves have been the experience of many people across the world, as the global pandemic took hold and countries went into various periods of lockdown/shutdown.

Here (in Barbados) we came out of our second lockdown about 2 weeks ago on Monday March 1.

I’ve been meaning to share with you about these tasty coconut chutneys for ages but I’m only now getting around to it.

My fridge is full. It is pulling double duty – not just for my perishables and things that are meant to be in the refrigerator, but it serves as a storage facility.

You know how every week we are think of ways to cook the ingredients – particularly vegetables – that we buy every week?

It’s no secret. The ingredient is love. To cook, to bake, to make something for someone is the one of the sincerest ways to say, I Love You.

Baigan (eggplant) Choka and Potato Choka are not complicated things to make.

Do you have eating phases? You know a period of time when you can’t seem to get enough of a particular food or drink; you make it regularly and consume it almost daily.

Do you remember those crisp old time Coconut Biscuits that we used to get regularly?

“Soooooo delicious! Now I don’t wanna ever eat plain white bread again!”

My eating is erratic. I only eat when I am hungry.

The only thing constant is change – Heraclitus (Greek philosopher) How many of your 2020 New Year’s resolutions did you achieve?

One of the more constructive things to have come about as a result of COVID-19, is a return to home cooking.

Many holiday meals are about the big and best cuts – prime rib, crown roasts and whole legs – of pork, beef or lamb.

In last week’s column I asked what you were cooking this holiday; whether you were going all out as usual or bigger than usual given the kind of year we’ve had, or, if you were planning something simple and low-key.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve stumbled into December trying to keep my balance.

It’s Independence Day here in Barbados on Monday, the island’s 54th.

Curry of any kind, dhal, fried (sauteed) vegetables, and choka(s) are the many things we eat with roti.