underdogishere

Asina Nos ta Cushina

compiled by Jewell Fenzi

One of the greatest pleasures of traveling is enjoying the local cuisines. Cooking seems like such a straightforward human activity, yet each culture and even sub-culture has found food to prepare and a way to prepare and even eat it which is completely original and unique and just as amazing and enjoyable as every other culture's and even sub-culture's cuisine.

Isn't that amazing?

I mean the multiplicity of wonderful cuisines, not the really long sentence.

So isn't that at least part of why you travel? I mean, there are some people who go to Italy and eat at McDonalds, but don't you eat Italian? And there are some people who go to France and eat at Taco Bell, but don't you wallow in French? And there are some who go to Japan and camp out every mealtime at Kentucky Fried Chicken, but don't you seek out authentic Japanese?

I know you do.

So why is it, I ask you, that people regularly travel to the islands of the Caribbean, and proceed to dine in restaurants that feature... Italian, French, and Japanese cuisines? (Not to mention McDonalds, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken.) But they do. In droves. And it's not to say that the Italian, French, and Japanese restaurants in the Caribbean aren't great -- they are (I guess). But, you know, you can eat great Italian, French, and Japanese cuisine back where you live, in the great United States of America. So why wouldn't you indulge in an exquisite cuisine that you probably can't get back home, that's right at your fingertips: Caribbean cuisine!

But it seems hardly anyone does. To be fair, part of the problem seems to be in the marketing: Local Caribbean cuisines are swept under the rugs, like an embarrassing mother-in-law who drinks and wears housecoats all day, while top-notch Italian, French, and Japanese chefs are drawn to the Caribbean by the big tourist bucks. But, to be even fairer than fair, the fact is that native Caribbean cuisine is the equal of any in the world. It just gets shorted in the islands.

Why make a Federal case about all this? Well, we just got back from a visit to the Dutch West Indies, where as usual we ate some awesome West Indian meals, but, more important, we brought back a cookbook! A cookbook with an exclamation mark in the title! This is the Way We Cook! Subtitled, in Papiamentu, Asina Nos ta Cushina, which means "this is the way we cook." It's packed with recipes from the native cooks of Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten, as well as illustrations sketched by Helen Dovale.

And here's how this can be great for you, too: This is the Way We Cook! is available here from Amazon! You'll notice that there are a bunch of used copies available for next-to-nothing, and new copes available for prices in the $18 range. You should have this wonderful cookbook addressing this wonderful cuisine, and if the less expensive used copies are all you can afford, then that's what you need to buy. But be aware that the writer makes no money on these sales, so if you can afford it, buying a higher-priced new copy will put a couple bucks in the writer's pocket, and I'm sure would be much appreciated.

To whet your appetite, here are a few recipes that I've reproduced from This is the Way We Cook! Try them, and become convinced that you need this cookbook:

• Empana (Filled Corn-Meal Crescents)
• Callalu Soup
• Keshi Yena (Filled Cheese Shell)
• Island Curry
• Pigeon Pea Soup & Dumplings
• Coconut Milk and Coconut Rice
• Pigeon Peas & Rice

Bon probecho!

Labels: Bonaire, Curacao, Travel

The big news around these parts isn't the sequel to Indiana Jones, it's the latest installment in the butterfly garden. It's open for business, and Judi is more excited than I can describe. There are going to be a lot of pictures in this post -- my apologies to those on dialup. But before I get to the new garden, look how the first garden has grown and filled in (you can click on any of the pictures in this post for a larger view):



Compare that to how sparse the garden originally looked, which you can see if you page down the March 25th post, or by clicking here.

Here's a more detailed picture of the first garden now:



On to the new garden. It looks a bit sparse at the moment, but it, too, will fill in over time:



Here's a close-up:



The new garden is completely different from the first one: The first garden has some flowers, but emphasizes bushes. The new garden is almost all flowers, and includes the first tree, a Cassia. It's only about three feet high now, but it will get bigger.

Here's a giant milkweed flower:



A zinnia flower:



Pink verbena:



Here are both gardens, the new one in the foreground and the first one in the background:



You may have noticed the adirondack chairs and the table. Here they are, center stage:



The choice of colors was inspired by our travels in the Caribbean, where objects are commonly painted bright colors. Witness these chairs in the courtyard of the Rose Inn, in the town of Rincon, on the island of Bonaire:



If you are ever in Bonaire, by the way, I highly recommend traveling to Rincon (you will need a car) and lunching at the Rose Inn. You will have some fabulous local cuisine, including some dishes that are specialties of the Netherlands Antilles, like tutu. It's Judi's new favorite place to eat on Bonaire.

Back to the butterfly garden: There has been a steady stream of clientele, and Judi has been busy snapping with her camera ("burst mode" on your camera is your friend). A Giant swallowtail in flight:

Photo: Judi

What we think is an Orange Sulfur, spied over the leaves of the Cassia tree:



A Gulf Fritillary on pink verbena:

Photo: Judi

Gulf Fritillary in flight:

Photo: Judi

The underwings of a Viceroy Monarch:

Photo: Judi

And, finally, an example of the mellowing effect that a butterfly garden can have on a personality: Judi used to hate dragonflies, but when this unusual-looking one alit in her garden, she was moved to take a picture of it:

Photo: Judi

Labels: Bonaire, Butterflies, Travel

Here are some pictures that Judi and I took during our trip to Bonaire and Curacao:

http://beaglewriter.com/albums/boncur07/

(Technical request: If any one of you four or so that read this blog happen to be using Safari on a Mac, I'd appreciate if you'd let me know how the pages with multiple picture groups look. Each group of pictures is in a <fieldset>, and the fieldsets are supposed to "clear" (appear in a vertical progression, one after the other, down the page). In IE, Mozilla/Firefox, and Opera they do clear, but in Safari for Windows they don't -- they nest instead. Since Safari/Win is still beta, I don't know if this is a bug, or if it happens in Safari/Mac, too. Please let me know.)

Labels: Bonaire, Curacao, Travel

I took, believe it or not, almost 1,500 pictures during the two weeks we were gone. Over 100 a day. Although, honestly, I took more than 100 pictures each day in Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome, Pompeii, and Venice. And most of the pictures I took on this trip were taken while snorkeling. When snorkeling, you take pictures of the same thing over and over, because you're trying to look through the tiny viewfinder of an SLR (encased in a glorified plastic bag, no less), at the eyepiece-length of a diving mask, while the fish you're trying to shoot is rocketing around like the ball in a pinball machine, and the waves are pitching you and your camera up and down and back and forth unpredictably, so you take a bunch of pictures of the same thing in the faint hope that at least one will come out. I've already deleted more than 400 that fall into the category of "What in the world was I trying to take a picture of in that one?"

Also, I have a really, really good tan on my back. Not so good on my front. If I stand in one place and spin quickly, I flicker like a disco ball.

I will try to get some of the pictures posted later this week.

Labels: Bonaire, Curacao, Travel

Yesterday we went kayaking in a mangrove forest. In one of the open areas, yellow-tailed snapper were jumping out of the water. Judi raised her camera.

"You can try to get a picture of one," our guide said, "but you're not going to be able to. Lots of people have tried, and no one's ever done it."

Judi explained how, at the Butterfly Farm in St. Maarten, they had told us it was impossible to get a picture of one electric-blue butterfly with its wings open, and that no one had ever done it, but she did.

"Try if you want," said the guide skeptically.

Voila:


caught in mid-jump

(click on the image for a larger version)

Labels: Bonaire, Travel

(Click on any for a bigger version)

Labels: Bonaire, Travel

Well, we are here. Finally. We have traveled for two days and flown on four flights to get here. And every single flight was delayed in leaving. Every one.

We did this because the only direct flight from the US gets in at 9:00 pm, and the return flight leaves at 8:00 am, so basically an entire day is lost. This way we hoped to get in at 2:30 pm. What with the delays, we got in at 5:00 pm, so that didn’t exactly work out as planned. And, to add insult to delay, there were sundry ordeals. And, to add cost to insult, there were expenses.

But now we’re here. Sitting at the little bar on the edge of the water. Waves lapping on the shore. Sun setting in a spectacular red and gold show on the horizon. On island time.

Life is good.

Labels: Bonaire, Travel