The messages in ads for world peace advocacy are along the lines of we are all the same even though we are in different places, speak different languages, and have somewhat different experiences – beneath it all, we are all the same. This comes out quite blatantly in food preferences.
And never did this "similarity in difference" stand out to me than in a discussion of rice preference. Freshman year I met a teaching assistant from Costa Rica, we nicknamed him Juanes since he was such a replica of the Colombian artiste that it was ridiculous. We were going through our countries, and explaining and comparing our cultures with some Asians and a pair of twins from Dom. Rep., and we got to food. This is where east separated from west, unintentionally.
Juanes was going over rice and beans compared to Jamaican rice and peas. This Costa Rican was talking bout cooking the beans and the rice separate. What? No cooking them together with thyme, coconut and Miss Bonnet/ Sra. Habanera? What kind of meal is that? It seemed unfathomable, but to each his own yeah? Yep.
Of course, there is yellow of Spanish rice and the dark brown of sauce in fried rice. But what are they missing? Thyme, coconut and Ms. Scotch. I just can't runaway from their allure. Differences in appearances and culinary processes aside, these kinds of rice all taste good of done correctly... with love.
Recipe:
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 3 tsp salt
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 1tbsp margarine
- 1 cup red peas (kidney beans)
- 1 scotch bonnet/habanera pepper
- ½ can of coconut milk
- 1 ½ cup rice
How:
If using canned peas (Goya, etc):
Bring wet ingredients and spices to a boil. Then canned peas and add along with rice, and cook until rice comes to softness preference.
If using dry, bagged peas: soak them for two hours or over night. Then throw peas and all ingredients to a boil.
If rice isn’t cooked enough, steam with a wet grease sheet under the pot cover.
Eat with anything really: stew chicken, roast fish, coconut shrimp, oxtail as below, and others.
Curry Oxtail with Rice & Peas
Three years later, senior year, I presented rice and peas, oven baked chicken breast, and raw vegetables buffet on a culture Friday event. A member of the audience asked, “How did you get the rice to be the brownish reddish color?” I took a second. You know that “really?” second, yep one of those. After which I put the tour guide face on and explained that it was “because the peas sweat onto the rice, like when your darks bleed unto lighter colors… only, you want this that effect.”
So please embrace my disappointment when I walk into a restaurant that advertised “Jamaican Happy Hour – Jamaican mixed drinks and food” and saw them serve white and red peas separately – the peas were optional. Call me immature if it’s synonymous with being annoyed by the apparent butchering of my culture. Naturally, I asked my friends if we could leave and go downtown to where Jamaicans actually live, to which they responded with an already tipsy chorus of “Calm down lady, allow di Captain [Morgan] to mek it irie!”
I was grateful for the humour since they pronounced it almost as perfect as Brad Pitt did in Meet Joe Black. The humour continued straight into Sunday dinner when they looked up the recipe for rice peas and brown stew chicken. Great friends! All that was missing was fried plantain (check next entry!)
Eat well friends,
Bless up,
Gillian M.
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