St. Vincent & The Grenadines: Mwen grangou! (I'm hungry!)

Guatemala was a fabulous experience. We had a quick tutorial in Salsa dancing and a brief lesson in Spanish. Apart from that, we learned how to make Banana Bread (To be honest, I wouldn’t know how to spell Banana if it weren’t for Gwen Stefani). Central America had such flavour. Yes we spelled flavor with an extra ‘U’. After all, we haven’t yet been to Britain and we’re practicing.

Next on the list of the list of travels was “Saint Vincent and the Grenadines”. If you’re anything like us, you’ve just opened a tab in Google right now wondering, “Where in the world is that? Sounds hot.” Google and Wiki have schooled us again: It’s an island in the ‘Lesser Antilles chain between Grenada and St. Lucia’. “Oh.”, you might be saying to yourself, “I knew that”. Or, you can be like, “Antilles, wut?”

We learned some quick “Vincentian Creole”, picked up a case of Red Stripe, (hey, Jamaica is close!) and off we went to find the true national drink. We found the authentic cocktail of St.V&G, The Golden Apple Drink. Now, when we read golden apple, we think golden DELICIOUS apple. So that’s what we made it with...along with a full pint of the Captain Black Label instead of 2 tablespoons. I mean, really? Then, as it soaked with the shredded apple, we turned to google again to define the Golden Apple. Turns out, apart from the mythological tie to the Judgement of Paris, Aphrodite and Helen of Troy (holla!), the Golden Apple is not an apple as we know it here in the States, but a Caribbean fruit with a taste similar to pineapple. It also is called June Plum, Dew Plum, and Pommecythere. Our confusion aside, our golden delicious turned out, well, delicious. The apple mixed with rum, clove, cinnamon, lemon juice and a little bourbon felt like a cool breeze on a tropical night. Heated up it was like a warm blanket on a Slovakian night. Next time, we plan on saving the shredded apple for a rum-induced pie.

For our main dish we had Guinness Bottle Chicken Stew. Don’t worry, you don’t eat the bottle. You can, however, ‘taste’ the ingredients frequently. After all, we wouldn’t want to over saturate the chicken would we? I prefer to fry my chicken in true Vincentian manly fashion. Shirtless. This dish requires chili powder, so be cautious as not to over season. On second thought, you do have Guiness on hand, so powder away.

For a side, we had stuffed sweet potatoes. Now I’ve had my sweet potatoes boiled, baked, candied, and even grilled, but never stuffed. But to quote my favorite Creole chef Emeril, you throw some bacon, onions, diced meat, and kettle corn together, and ‘BAM’, Vincentian stuffed sweet potatoes. We left out the diced meat and kettle corn, but it was outstandingly tasty nonetheless. No need for a dessert with this meat and potato combination, the sweet potato was enough to satiate any sweet tooth.

It’s hard to leave the gorgeous white sand and blue water if the Caribbean, but next week we head to an international vacation spot: Monaco. Until next week we say, “Mwen swaf anpil - I'm very thirsty “

* Music this week was provided by Reggae!