Posts Tagged ‘snack’

Steve
Steve

Taste of the Caribbean: Excelsior Genuine Jamaican Water Crackers

Excelsior Genuine Jamaican Water Crackers/SBPR

PANIC!
The Miami Rum Renaissance Festival starts today, and my favorite West Indian grocery store is low on the life-saving Bajan biscuits that got me through my marathon judging duties at last year’s Caribbean Rum & Beer Festival. Eclipse Crackers helped me survive 40 rums in four hours. For the Miami event, the drink menu measures more than 100 rums!
Clearly, I need a replacement. Something light, yet hardy. Something tasty and capable of taming rum’s rough side.
What I need are Excelsior Genuine Jamaican Water Crackers.

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Steve
Steve

Taste of the Caribbean: Jamaica Ginger Biscuits, Piquant Pride in Every Bite

Excelsior's Jamaica Ginger Biscuits/SBPR

Crackers? Two weeks in a row?
Yes, it’s true that we’ve  lowered our variety quotient over the past two Taste of the Caribbean posts, but this is The Month of Rum, after all. If you’re the big winner of the two VIP Passes to the 2012 Miami Rum Renaissance Festival (and $500) up for grabs in our VIP RumFest Escape sweepstakes (ENTER HERE), you’ll want to have a healthy supply of the right kind of crackers around when you cash-in your prize.
For those who love the taste of ginger – I mean REALLY LOVE the taste of ginger – these are very much the right crackers.

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Steve
Steve

Taste of the Caribbean: Eclipse Crackers, What to Eat When You’re Judging Rums

Eclipse Crackers from Barbados/SBPR

February 2012 being The Month of Rum, as designated by us, you might find it odd that we’d feature these plain-Jane crackers from Barbados as our lead Taste of the Caribbean post for the month. Truly, there’s nothing rummy about these biscuits, aside, perhaps, for their trace levels of sugar content and their shared home-island heritage in The Birthplace of Rum.
On a personal level for me, though, Eclipse Crackers and rum go hand-in-hand… especially when you’re trying to keep your hands (and everything else) steady while sampling many, many rums.

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Steve
Steve

Taste of the Caribbean: ‘Tis the Season for Sweet Bread

Sweet Bread/SBPR

Black Cake, Ponche de Creme, Coquito, Rum Balls – all wonderful Holiday Season treats from my Trini/Crucian heritage that my family has spent the past few weeks enjoying in the run up to Christmas Day…
Well, most of my family anyway.
In truth, the grown-ups have been doing virtually all the enjoying. Why? This recent question from one of my sons illustrates the answer:

Does all Christmas food from the Caribbean have rum in it?

Hmm… I must admit, this one stumped me initially.

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Steve
Steve

Taste of the Caribbean: Channa Nuts, Trinidad’s Onetime Favorite Movie Treat

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While the good old days are alive and well in many ways throughout the Caribbean, as I argued a few days ago, it is undeniable that certain cherished elements of island life have long ago faded away. For instance, if you grew up in Trinidad during the 1950s and 60s, then the sight, smell, taste or mere mention of these somewhat spicy treats may jog memories of a special night out at the movies.
You’re looking at Channa Nuts, one of the most beloved snack foods to ever come out of Trinidad & Tobago.
Channa are essentially fried or roasted chick peas (garbanzos), seasoned with salt and peppers (some hot) to taste.

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Steve
Steve

Taste of the Caribbean: Plantain Chips, a Sign of Good Parenting

Plantain Chips/SBPR

Like a lot of West Indian parents living outside the region, I go to great lengths to ensure my kids know and appreciate their Caribbean roots. Hosting pig roasts on Christmas Eve help. So do “Bush Doctor” elixirs and beating on Bobolees at Eastertime. All these things work to give my kids a good sense of a heritage that, though foreign to them in many ways, represents a healthy share of who they really are.
Most of the time my efforts are met with success, a result owing as much to the fact that my kids are way more amazing than I have any right to deserve, as to my careful adherence to one of the most tried and true rules of parenting:

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Steve
Steve

Taste of the Caribbean: My Friend Karen’s Top Secret Johnny Cake Recipe

Crucian Johnny Cakes/SBPR

Johnny. Cakes.
Few words solicit greater joy and elation among born and bred Crucians (like me) and those who have been lucky enough to visit my home island of St. Croix. These fluffy-fried, golden-sweet, semi-flattened spheres of pure goodness are THE staple snack food back home, found on every menu at every local restaurant worth anything everywhere across the island.
In fact, if you should ever come across a local restaurant in St. Croix that doesn’t serve Johnny Cakes, you best make a bee-line for the door. Seriously, a Crucian eatery without Johnny Cakes is like a ballpark without hotdogs, a burger joint without fries, or a roti shop without doubles or this sweet stuff…
Johnny Cakes are just a must for local Crucian restaurants, period.

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