Pixie in Paradise

(If you read until the end, let me know if the title above works or if “Chicken Doesn’t Count” is better. Sometimes the hardest part of writing is coming up with a snappy title!)

Two days ago while in my usual “office space” at the cafe – second stool from the left, direct view of the ocean fifty feet away – DahRoot, the fruit vendor, showed up. He wheeled in singing as usual and parked in his spot on the beach in between picnic tables. I knew he would be bringing some greens with him but thought I’d be running an errand on the mainland that day and asked him to bring more the following Tuesday. Instead, I decided to stay on the island and was lucky enough to grab his last bag of callaloo.

Callaloo is like spinach or kale, full of vitamins, thicker stems at the bottom like chard but round like asparagus. Tastes like spinach and collard greens combined when cooked. We talked about serving callaloo, which needs onion and bell pepper (and probably hot pepper) and coconut milk (that’s a Jamaican callaloo recipe) – served with boiled green banana, or in banana water for the vitamins? I got lost again. Based on our discussion on how to prepare callaloo, DahRoot gave me four green bananas and one ripe one, but I have totally forgotten why he gave me one ripe yellow banana too.

We talked about the need for nutrients, protein as a vegan and I explained to him that my body can’t tolerate veganism. He can have my produce business but he ain’t taking my Carnivore Card. I launched into my story about how I was on a detox a few years  ago, and the first ten days of this regimen only allowed vegan foods. By day eight I was tired, sick, and lifeless and had lost six pounds that I didn’t really have to spare. I stopped into the chiropractor office where the doctor was who was supervising the detox. He took one look at me and said, “Go get an organic rotisserie chicken!” I bought two of them since I was feeding four people on this meal plan but as I drove, I sat one of those chickens in the passenger seat and ate probably half, before making it home. 

DahRoot talked about drinking banana water because of the great health benefits and said because he’s vegan he rarely drinks water alone, it’s empty calories for him and he has to hydrate with vegan foods – fruits and veggies. I explained that I understood and detailed the difference between hydration being absorbed interstitially versus intracellularly. So there I was fifty feet from the beach having a physiology lesson with a Rastafarian, while buying and selling fresh produce. Did I mention the cooking lesson? 

Then he explained the difference between the produce down here and that back in the U.S., full of chemicals and genetic modification. DahRoot has very strong feelings about GMO corporations. He said it was one of the reasons he and his wife moved from New York! We didn’t even unpack that. While I knew my new fruit vendor had 11 children, I wasn’t sure of any details of his personal life and definitely wouldn’t have guessed he had lived in the States. But now I’m wondering if he’s originally from Belize or possibly another Caribbean country.

After DahRoot left, my friend and I sat there and segued into a Garifuna cooking discussion. We talked about making hudut: boiled, mashed green banana as a side, especially in the Garifuna signature dish, Sere, a coconut milk and fish stew.The Garifuna use callaloo and green bananas in many dishes. Their food is Afro-Caribbean and Latino, combining the roots of several cultural influences. The dishes I’ve researched so far seem very Jamaican-inspired.

Leaving the cafe with my produce to pick up a few ingredients for one-pot pasta at the grocery, and unsuccessfully getting chicken breast from my butcher who was sold out, I headed home realizing I was about to make a lot of vegan dishes! I made Jamaican callaloo sauteing onion, green pepper, garlic and tomato with the chopped callaloo stems first, adding coconut milk, seasonings and the green leaves last to simmer.

Making one-pot pasta next with sauteed onion, garlic, and green pepper. When the vegetables were happy I threw in canned plum tomatoes, one cup of milk, two cups of chicken broth and  12 ounces of pasta. At the end, callaloo leaves instead of spinach. The pasta was tasty and will be even more filling once I bother my butcher for that chicken.

I also boiled two green bananas and saved its broth for the next day. I will warm it up and drink it like tea or just drink it right out of the fridge. Banana tea isn’t very flavorful but adding honey or just chugging a little will be  worth it to get the nutrients and calories DahRoot promises it has. Even though he said to eat the boiled banana with the Callaloo dish, it was bland that way. Mashed green banana really does taste like white potatoes and would probably taste amazing with cheese, green onions, bacon and sour cream on top. 

Remembering a Garifuna recipe for green banana porridge I looked it up quickly online. Jamaican Green Banana Porridge popped up a lot with this search so I made a version of that, simmering some coconut milk, cinnamon and honey together with the mashed and boiled green banana. I’m looking forward to eating that for breakfast. I had left over chicken caesar salad this morning that Princess the cat and I were eating yesterday, so there was no chance of heading into a vegan crisis yet since there was still some bird in my system. Don’t tell DahRoot.