Spice, Fruit, & Fish

 

I found myself in the West Side Market in Cleveland last weekend, and the bounty of options was beyond absurd, considering its location in Northeast Ohio. I’ll dub last Wednesday’s experience as one of those days of mental (and palette) expansion.

                Vendors had everything, except nutmeg. What I love about that experience was how easy it was to compare the market day in Cleveland to a market day at Coronation Market in Kingston. Though Mum and I really only went there during Christmas season, every time we do go it's an event. Firstly, West Side opened at 7am, by that time the fresh produce from the vendors at Corinaytion would have been gone,  we have to either get there or leave your house by 5/5:30am, which, in high school, was comparable to sleeping in. Please don't ask me to do that now. Note: Corinaytion is not a spelling error, that’s how the creole pronunciation molded the English pronunciation.

                Second, you have to reach downward for a sweet or yellow yam at Corinaytion versus the unpleasant endeavor of reaching upward for melons, cilantro, celery, jalapeños, and juicy mangoes…Yes, I found them (The variety is a different issue altogether -  see the next entry). 

                The final comparison I will make (because there really are so many) is the presence of delightful addition to my melon files. Until that fateful Wednesday I had watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew in my melon file, but here came a fellow of Mid-Eastern decent with a plate of some pale coloured fruit, “Try it,” is all he said.

                Now had I been at home or on the rough streets of God-knows-where, of course I would have decline, but my hand did this involuntary reaction of using a toothpick to grab a piece of the very soft fruit. It just melted and gushed natural sugary juiciness; like a soft, white cantaloupe. Before I had could swallow, the man again just said, “Canary melon.” The only response to be formed by my flabbergasted mouth was “Seh wah?” Of course, I had to translate myself to, "Say again?"

                So henceforth, with a response like that, Canary melon is the newest addition to my list of great loves. And today for dinner, after considering pork, chicken and ramen, I decided to go with fish and… yes, Canary melon. A canary-jalapeño syrup as a matter of fact.

              Fi di syrup:

1 pinches of salt

2 cups of canary melon – diced

1tbsp of brown sugar

1/8 cup of jalapeño - diced

1/2 of 1 lime - juiced

 How fi do it:

Throw the diced melon, jalapeño, salt, and sugar into a small sauce pan with a 1/4 cup of water; mix them together over high heat until it boils. Then change low heat while the mixture thickens as seen below:

An' den di fish:

2 cuts of filleted tilapia (or any other white fish)

Carrots, green pepper, celery – julienne; 1 cup of each

2 tsp of black pepper

2 Tbsp of coconut oil

 2 tsp of garlic salt

2 leaves of Iceberg lettuce

How?: 

Place fish in your casserole dish or on your sheet tray and spoon coconut oil on them. Add the julienned ingredients as well as the salt and pepper.

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Place fish in oven for 22 minutes (just enough that it doesn't dry out)

Empty the casserole's content unto a bed of lettuce, like dis:

Nyammins:

On this occasion I went ahead and made this a carb-free dinner, but I imagine it would taste good with veggie rice (or regular white rice), mash potatoes, basil or oregano-roasted fingerlings, or place them atop pasta shells to go with the daydream of being on the beach on a Sunday evening for dinner. 

3 weeks a long time, sorry bout dat,

Eat well til sooner,

Gillian M.