World Food Day was this past Monday. They had a whole day celebrating the thing I love the most. We were able to take the students to partake in the event as a nice little field trip.
Based on its name, I foolishly assumed there would be a variety of food available. There wasn’t. There weren’t even any snacks until after 1pm. The children just ran around the park looking at booths educating them on how to grow vegetables and raise farm animals. Ok fine, really the kids just ran off the park grounds and ate at a Chinese Restaurant down the street. There was also supposed to be an assembly with speakers from Ministry at 12pm. When I had left at 4:30pm it still hadn’t started. Guyanese Time.
Even though we didn’t have any food at World Food Day, I’m still going to write about it. The Guyanese diet is very carbohydrate heavy. It’s contributed to a little weight gain here, hence a few fat comments from the locals. During some afternoons we experiment with our cooking and once made fried plantains with a sugary brown dessert sauce. It was so good I stuck my face in the pot to clean off the leftovers. It was more exciting than World Food Day. I also said I would become vegetarian in Guyana…well that ended about 3 hours after I got off the plane. Let’s talk food now. Here's a list of some of my favorite foods in Guyana thus far.
- 7 Curry- 7 different types of curries ladled over rice. 7 times the goodness.
- Pouri (little fried bread balls) and Channa (seasoned chickpeas) given to you in a small plastic baggie for $0.10. Is it inappropriate to buy 100 bags?
- Chicken foot- It’s not what you’re thinking. It’s actually this garlic tortilla-like snack cut into strips and fried.
- Solara - Kind of like a cinnamon roll, minus the cinnamon and add some red dyed coconut shavings instead. It’s really yummy.
- Egg ball/Meatball- Hard boiled egg or seasoned ground beef wrapped in a fried cassava (potato-like vegetable root). Eat with sour, a spicy mango sauce. Not for the weak.
- Rastafarian Meals- Vegetarian meal supposedly cooked with no or little oil. Doesn’t sound appetizing to all you carnivores? Well it’s delicious. I had rice with Edoe leaf (tastes like spinach) and curried potatoes.
- Bake- Sweet airy fried dough. Mmmmm…..Eat as a meal with a fried egg or salt fish.
- Brazilian Dinners- Yes, I realize this isn’t Guyanese food, but it’s all you can eat for $7 and it was delicious and meaty.
- Roti and Curry made by Auntie Jean- Our landlord’s wife came over and showed us how to make roti (a fluffy thick tortilla) and chicken curry from scratch.
- Cook up- Rice with coconut milk, beans, and some other spices. Most people add chicken or beef to the dish.
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3 comments:
Yvonne, if you keep on eating I'm not going to ask you to marry me.
Silly, of course World Food Day is accurate. If your students think that their world is Guyana (actually I'm sure their world is the village where you are "teaching", please note "teaching" in quotation marks) and Guyana is a third world country, it is fitting that "World Food" equates to "No Food". Now if someone would teach these kids Geography (like they are suppose to learn) or Social Studies (like they are suppose to learn) then maybe there would be a greater scope for "World Food Day".
As tasty as all the food you described sounds, it all sounds like it's off the menu of an Indian restaurant. I mean Roti and Curry, come on now, next you'll see Naan. That must be it, you must be in India, not Guyana... wait... India is actually an educated society, you must be in Guyana.
Do you want to hear what I had for the last few days?
Let's see, today for lunch I had Wonton with Roast Pork. For breakfast I had Whole Wheat Toast with Organic Peanut Butter. Last night for dinner I had Memphis Style Dry Rub Baby Back Ribs, Roast Duck with Boiled Red Cabbage and Mashed Sweet Potatoes, and had Corn on the Cob and Sweet Potato Fries as sides. Yesterday for lunch I had Sun Do Bu and for breakfast Lamb and Curry over Rice. That was only Monday amd today is Tuesday. I must stop eating, otherwise you won't say yes when I propose.
LOL.
Just to educate the uneducated in this instance who commented above. What you do not know is that 50% of the Guyanese population is Indian. And more appropriately the village in which Yvonne is staying is consist of mainly Indians.As a result that would explain the predominance of the menu items for Yvonne and further more the title of her post I believe said that they are items that she enjoys there so why does it matter anyway.
umm...cassava is yucca and pouri (phouri is actually roti with grinded split peas inside) I think what you were speaking about was pholourie. keep the posts comming they're actually fun to read
-anonymous reader in NY
originally from guyana so I can relate to your stories
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