The English summer beckons and with it, many weekends of great weather, picnics and barbecues. If we were recreating a typical British summer picnic (and by that I mean cooking everything, not popping off to Marks and Spencer and buying a picnic pack) we’d probably make Cornish Pasties, Roast Chicken Sandwiches, Sausage Rolls, Pork Pies, Scotch Eggs, Cucumber Sandwiches and Victoria Cake.
Somehow that list doesn’t have the same appeal to me as Saltfish Accras, Pholourie, Spicy Chicken Wings, Ham Croquettes, Festival, Bake and Shark, Black Bean Hummus and Coconut Sweetbread.
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A few days ago, I had an interesting chat with one of the leading vendors from Borough Market who also happens to be on the selection panel for new vendors. During the course of our long and interesting chat, he lamented the fact that there weren’t any Caribbean food stalls in Borough Market.
And this is not a man who wants to window shop, it’s a man who believes that Borough Market should reflect the capital city and since there’s a significant Caribbean community, it’s only obvious that there should be a Caribbean stall.
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Remember long ago whenever Black people appeared on popular mainstream TV shows, we used to call our friends to say “ay, check out channel X, there’s a Black girl or a Black fella on so and so show”? It might seem like a long time ago, especially for those who grew up looking at a lot of American TV, but Black people in the UK still have those kind of moments.
You still don’t see a lot of Black and ethnic minority people on the box here, especially in lifestyle programmes but for the last few weeks, I’ve been clearing my schedule on Wednesday evenings to make sure and catch a wonderful new cooking show featuring two vivacious Black women - Neneh Cherry and Andi Oliver.
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I know Easter was a few weekends ago, but I only just finished off a special Easter Egg.
UK supermarkets start their Easter onslaught at the beginning of Lent, which usually means weeks of tacky chocolate egg displays all over the shops. Instead of encouraging me to buy the eggs, I turn my nose up at the dime a dozen cheapo chocolate eggs and blank the idea of buying them altogether.
I really think a good Easter Egg must be thick, stuffed with extra goodies (like truffles) and very, very moreish. So to have an egg that actually fit those criterion was excellent! It was so good that the noises my friends and I made as we were savouring it kinda bordered on the pornographic.
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I’m back from a short break and during that time I chatted with three fellow Caribbean bloggers, Chennette, Trinigourmet and Cynthia to explore the reasons why Caribbean food bloggers do what they do.
I’ve found that although our blogs have very different styles, the underlying reasons for why we blog are basically the same.
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