Jamaican Food Saves a Hard Day
Mon, May 19, '03
Sunday at Sabina with MICHELLE MCDONALD
Fluttering flags in the balmy breeze signalled the start of the 2nd ODI at Sabina Park on Sunday. The sky was even clearer than it was on Saturday, removing any thoughts of possible rain to thwart the proceedings. The fans had left their Sunday routine hoping to exchange it for some exhilarating cricket. Instead, what they ended up getting would certainly have made them wish they had stayed home to enjoy their traditional Sunday dinner in leisurely fashion.
I arrived at the ground to find our batsmen at the crease. "Oh, we lost the toss," the sightscreen screen man at the Blue Mountain end quickly corrected my assumption. Mr Lara decided to be brave and bat first. Remember, we are 'experimenting'. The experiment of using swashbuckling batsman Ricardo Powell to open was not repeated today. One wondered why, since it wasn't exactly a failure yesterday. But we will not interfere with the scientists and their experiments.
These reports are less about cricket and more about happenings around the ground. Remember, I am a lady and I have never played a game of cricket in my life, so today I'm staying clear of cricketing details and sticking to what I know more about -- food. Sunday is traditional family day in most parts of the Caribbean and food forms an integral part of that day. Today at Sabina was no different. While the batsmen were being pegged back by the superior Aussie bowlers, I scouted the ground in search of food to see what was on offer.
If you missed breakfast, you could find a few things to break your fast. Hominy porridge anyone? If that?s not your thing, you might have liked the callaloo sandwich on sale by the same vendor and then had some coffee-tea, milo-tea or plain ole tea to wash it down. If you're wondering what these are, I will tell you that in Jamaica, some people call anything hot 'tea'! Ah jus' so wi stay man.
For some people, anything goes where breakfast is concerned. I spotted a man in the Air Jamaica stand having a hefty plate of what I would consider dinner at 10:30 in the morning. Perhaps he had not had any breakfast. Seems like that might have been the case with Gayle, Smith and Samuels. For the way they were batting they couldn?t not have had any strong cornmeal pap or ackee and saltfish this morning. Very sluggish and obviously in need of sustenance. Even Lara, after scoring 6 runs off his first 2 balls, seemed to be in the same hungry state.
After 19 overs, 54 for 4. Time for a snack. You could take your pick from bun and cheese, banana chips, peanuts, cashews, pizza, popcorn, spicy pepper shrimp popular in St Elizabeth (a.k.a. St Bess) or perhaps some chicken soup if you needed something hot. While Sarwan and Powell were blazing way (they obviously had breakfast while the earlier bats were in!), I went in search of a patty. Jamaica is unique for a lot of things, and one of them is the variety of our cuisine. The patty was made popular by Vincent Chang who created Tastee patties back in the day.
A more recent player in the patty market is Juici Beef. I found them on the first floor of the George Headley Stand. Ahead of me in the line was an Australian, with whom I struck up a conversation as I was curious as to what he knew about Jamaican patties. My conversation revealed that he is employed by a bauxite company, and has been on secondment here since 2001. He loves the island, and has just extended his stay without even blinking. Jamaica land we love, and others too! The land of wood, water and patties.
With wickets falling a-plenty, many fans made their way to the food outlets for an early lunch. While living outside of the region, I was struck by the differences in our eating patterns as against theirs. Quite often, lunch in the United Kingdom would consist of something light ? a salad, a sandwich, soup. In the Caribbean, that can?t hold us. We need food-food. Hot food. The meat of choice today was chicken. Typical Jamaican Sunday dinner. Other offerings were Jerk anything ? burger, chicken sandwich, fish sandwich and even Jerk Hotdog. If you fancied something light, there was Chicken Chop Suey, and if you just couldn?t stay away from things foreign, Kentucky, Burger King and Dominoes could answer your call. There was corn-on-the-cob, and you could pick your selection from boiled-with-meat and boiled-without. No dry coconut to eat it with though. They slacking up.
It was hot, so the beverages went like?well?.hot bread. Tropical Rhythms, Zesti sparkling fruit drink, and ?bax? juice (in a box) offered you something nutritious?um kind of, if you forgot all the sugar added to them. Soft drinks in any flavour could quench your thirst, or you might have preferred a Malta, or even a Guinness to ?bring out the power in you?. Hmmm. Send out a Guinness for Powell to go with that Curry Goat cricket he is playing. In fact, maybe they needed something stronger. Overproof whites perhaps? No chaser.
After the Aussies dropped Banks, they didn?t make the mistake twice. Out caught shortly thereafter. Baugh bowled middle stump, Drakes out after a flurry of runs, and Collymore didn?t trouble the scorers. That?s lunch. Let?s eat. My food-food? Roast pork, curried goat, baked chicken, rice and peas, vegetable salad and potato pudding. If you come from the Eastern Caribbean, that might have read roast pork, goat curry, baked chicken, peas and rice, vegetable salad and potato pudding.
Anyhow you take it, Caribbean food provides a welcome respite from a dull day's cricket such as today's match was. We'll feed the lads with food-food before Wednesday and hope for better things from them in St Lucia.
