Through Bajan Eyes

I've noticed some similarities between foods that come from diverse cultures. At a Uzbekistani restaurant I ate some thing called 'plov'. Plov was basically what we in Barbados would call 'pelau' and other places would call 'pilaf'. You take rice, meat and vegetables and you cook them in the same pot.

I also had some soup in Siberia that was nearly like Bajan soup – there was mutton, potatoes, carrots and other vegetables. The only thing missing was the dumplings.

I find that all across the tropics, you find similar fruit and vegetables. Some are exactly the same as we would find in the Caribbean. For example in Thailand you get guavas and mangoes and tamarinds. Judging from the different cultural events I've attended here in the UK, you get things like plantain, yam, sweet potato and cassava, in many different places. Actually I've noticed a similarity in cuisine within many parts of the African Diaspora.

Some fruit and veg are similar, not quite the same and you know that there has got to be some relationship. For example there is a variety of tamarind in Thailand that is sweet. And another related fruit called 'look yee' (photo below) - it's like a tamarind but the shell is dark. Then there are fruits like rambutan (photo to left) and lychees, which are similar in form to what we Bajans call ackees. I ate so many rambutans that it became my nickname. There is also a fruit called Durian (renowned for it's smell), and another one called Jackfruit, which have just got to be family to the soursop and/or sugar apple.

When I was in China, I came across some fruit that looked a bit like dunks. So I signed to the shopkeeper (cause I don't speak Chinese) that I wanted to try one. The flesh was very much like the flesh on a dunk, but it wasn't as tart. And the seed was a different shape from a dunk seed. I just know that whatever it was called, it had to be family to dunks. I bought some and, just like dunks, two to three days later, they started to go a bit 'pappy'.

Here in England, I have friends from many different nationalities. And every now and again we like to have a dinner party where we each bring a dish from our native land. At the last one we had dishes from Barbados, China, Colombia, Croatia, Italy, England, Romania, Scotland, Uzbekistan, Wales and Zimbabwe. So even when I'm not travelling, I still get to enjoy my international cuisine.

I like my belly bad. I love to partake of local cuisine when I travel.

For me food is a major part of the travel experience. I love to sample the local delicacies when I visit a place. And I’m not satisfied to just eat in tourist-trap restaurants which serve sterilised version of local cuisine. I want it cooked up in the traditional way – even if that means it was cooked on a few rocks in someone’s back yard. Restaurant fare often differs from home-cooked food. It’s too sophisticated. I prefer what I like to call ‘folk food’. I.e. what the people prepare and eat in their homes, far from the tourist trail.

So to this end, I will buy food from roadside vendors; old women with baskets and I especially love if I’m invited to someone’s home for an old-fashioned, home-cooked meal. This has provided me with some memorable culinary experiences. For the most part these have been quite good, but there have been one or two incidences that I’ve chalked up to experience though.

Some of my best culinary experiences were in Thailand. There, I was staying with a friend who lived with local Thai women. One of these women, Kung, cooked for us and was also able to take me to some of the more 'local' restaurants and food establishments. Spice food is extremely spicy, so it was good to have some local knowledge as to which dishes were hotter.

My favourite Thai restaurant was at Laem Hin. It was part fish-farm, part restaurant. You can only get to the restaurant by boat and the fish is caught fresh from the fish pens that are actually part of the restaurant.

Another Thai experience that I remember fondly was when I visited a small village near Surat Thani (read more about that here). The women of household I was staying with, prepared for me traditional Thai dishes. This was a fantastic experience even though some of the dishes were too 'spicy' for me.

I love trying new foods. Some of the 'stranger' things I've eaten were reindeer and moose meat in Norway, along with lungemos (which is similar to chitterlings, I've been told). I also drank horse milk and ate the cheese made from it in Mongolia. In China, I ate cuttlefish and things that I still don't know what it was (and I'm probably better of not knowing).

Some tips that I use in deciding what to try:

1.If it looks strange and smells bad, don’t eat it.
2.If a restaurant seems popular with locals, then it’s probably worth a try.
3.Take tips from locals – ask them to recommend things or if something is good.

Most of the time, I've enjoyed my new foods. But there have been things that I thought were horrible . . . and things that actually made me ill. But that won't deter me. When I travel, the food is a very important part of the culture and so I will continue to indulge in 'folk food' wherever I go.