Jessica B. Harris - Sky Juice and Flying Fish: Tastes Of A Continent

TRADITIONAL CARIBBEAN COOKING

JESSICA B. HARRIS

FIRESIDE
New York London Toronto Sydney

ALSO BY JESSICA B. HARRIS

HOT STUFF: A COOKBOOK IN
PRAISE OF THE PIQUANT

IRON POTS AND WOODEN SPOONS:
AFRICAS GIFTS TO NEW WORLD COOKING

TRADITIONAL CARIBBEAN COOKING

SKY JUICE
AND
FLYING
FISH

JESSICA B.
HARRIS

A FIRESIDE BOOK PUBLISHED BY
SIMON & SCHUSTER

FIRESIDE
Simon & Schuster Building
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10020

Copyright 1991 by Jessica B. Harris

All rights reserved
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.

FIRESIDE and colophon are registered trademarks
of Simon & Schuster

Designed by Bonni Leon

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Harris, Jessica B.
Sky juice and flying fish: / traditional Caribbean cooking / Jessica Harris.

p. cm.

A Fireside book.

Includes index.

1. Cookery, Caribbean.

I. Title.

TX716.A1H374 1991

641.59729dc20 90-48012

CIP

Creole Feast: An Island-by-Island Look at Caribbean Cooking originally appeared in slightly different form in an advertising supplement entitled Creole Feast: The Culinary Caribbean, in the April 3, 1989, issue of The New Yorker.

To my mother, Rhoda A. Harris, and the memory
of my father, Jesse B. Harris (ibae), who dressed
me in gold and gave me the world

To my Caribbean sisters, June Bobb (Guyana),
Carol Cadogan (Barbados), Michle Marcelin
(Haiti), Marcella Martinez (New York), Patricia
Lawrence (New York), Maryse Pochot
(Guadeloupe), and Maria Williams (Jamaica), who
assure me that my not being from the region is
simply an accident of passport

And to the memory of relatives and friends who
have gone on leaving the taste of rum, coconuts,
and chile on my tongue

ISBN 978-0-6716-8165-4

eISBN 978-1-4391-4665-1

www.SimonandSchuster.com

No one can create a cookbook without relying on those who came before. So I must first acknowledge a debt to all of those known and unknown Caribbean grannies, granmeres, abuelitas, and welas who have left us their culinary legacy.

Then, I want to thank all of those who enabled me to take this Caribbean odyssey: Myron Clement and Joe Petrocik of Clement Petrocik; Ccile Graffin of the French West Indies Tourist Office; Markly Wilson of the Caribbean Tourism Organization; Meridith Pilon and Nora Broussard of the Rowland Company; Jacques Guannel and Muriel Wiltord of the Martinique Tourist Office; Erick W. Rotin and Guy Claude Germain of the Guadeloupe Tourist Office; Karen Weiner Escalera and Marilyn Marx of Karen Weiner Escalera Associates; Maryse Chancy of the Haiti Hotel Association; Linda Kundell of Herman Associates; Peter Rotholz of Peter Rotholz Associates; Joe Scott and Tony Tedeschi of Scott Tedeschi; Patricia Nehaul of the Barbados Board of Tourism; Joan Bloom of Hill and Knowlton and the Saint Lucia Tourist Board; Lou Hammond of Lou Hammond Associates; Dinaz Boga of Jensen Boga; Joan Medhurst of Medhurst and Associates; Leona Bryant of the U.S.V.I. Division of Tourism; Abraham Pokrassa and Fina Soto of the Curacao Tourist Office; Margaret Zellers, Barbara Gillam, and the M and Ms at Marcella Martinez Associates.

My international Caribbean family, who fed me, let me into their kitchens, and put up with my questions, must also be thanked. Stella St. John in Barbados; J. Irving Pearman, Gary Phillips, and Regina Fleming in Bermuda; Nelly and family in the Dominican Republic; Mama and Betty Mascoll in Grenada; Carmelita Jeanne (Maman Guadeloupe), Jennifer and Bruce Pochot, Simone and Andr Schwarz-Bart, and Grard, Marie-Claude, and Liaura Virginius in Guadeloupe; Beryl and Preston Bobb in Guyana; Roger Dunwell, Adrienne and Michel-Ange Voltaire, Max Beauvoir and Antonio Fnlon in Haiti; Averile Bodden, Norma Shirley, Larry Bailey and Asif Williams in Jamaica; Uncle Greg and Aunt Mona Jones, and the folks at Bacardi in Puerto Rico; Candy Montano and family in Trinidad and Tobago; Janet Foster, Margaret Mroz and family, Jan Gernon and Leona Watson in the U.S. Virgin Islands; Cecily Rodway, Ron Phillips, Joseph, Sybil, and Karen Clarke in New York.

Thanks also to the numerous librarians, culinary historians, and well wishers who shared information and helped schedule: Mary Hanratty, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, Mabel McCarthy, Maricel Persilla, Ruth Warantz, and all those at the reference desk at the national library in Kingston, Jamaica.

A particular thanks goes to those who came, ate, and commented: Richard Alleman, Kamau Bobb, Lurita Brown, Cynthia Bunton, Linda Cohen, Lynne and Pat Eck, Ayoluwa Fenner, Karen Kopta, Yvette Burgess Polcyn, and Felami, and Cheikh Oumar Thiam.

A large Whew! with thanks for my editor, Sydny Miner, and my agent, Carole Abel, who got Sky Juice and Flying Fish from the beach to the kitchen and into the bookstores.

Finally, a thanks to my mother, Rhoda, for always being there.

For many people, the Caribbean region means sun, sand, and sea. Matters culinary, if thought of at all, are a reference to ackee, rice, saltfish are nice/ and the rum is fine any time of year, or the Yellowbird and Rum Bamboozle cocktails at the managers cocktail party. For all too many, food in the Caribbean is made up of insipid hotel dining with toned-down local specialties and continental cuisine, or a stop at a beach bar for a bad hamburger. This situation doesnt have to be.

For the adventurous, the Caribbean region provides vast opportunities for culinary explorations. Eat with the folk in small restaurants where foods are lovingly prepared by local chefs. Check out the roadside stands or amble into one of the many rum shacks for a chat with the resident bar association. In these places, seafood, fried, stewed, or boiled, is usually the order of the day accompanied by a starch or a bread. Helpings are copious and there is no extra charge for the friends youll make and the local lore youll pick up. Each island has its own variations on the regional cuisine.

In the small restaurants where it is possible to sample local fare, decor usually leans heavily toward brightly colored floral plastic tablecloths, which are topped with Woolworths bud vases filled with bougainvillea and hibiscus and an astonishing array of pepper sauces. Dont let the decor fool you; some of the best food in the region is available in these humble-looking spots. You might enjoy delights ranging from a perfect chicken creole, like the one that I tasted at Chez Mak on the French side of Saint Martin, or the stewed fish and funghi that I sampled in what seemed to be a transplanted version of the same restaurant in French Town in Saint Thomas, or the fried fish and bammie that I gobbled down in a waterfront restaurant in Port Royal, Jamaica.