Christmas Dinner – Part 2

• Eggplant
• Bora (stringy green beans)
• Garlic and onion
• Sweet pepper
• Yard chicken
• 2 pounds fresh fish
• Farine (local staple)
• Eddo (ground provision – like a potato)
• Snap peas
• Chives
• Limes
• Mangoes

…. That is what the ladies found and brought for the Ladies’ Dance Group Christmas Dinner. We decided to cook together for our holiday party. We set ourselves a few guidelines:

• Avoid frying
• Find local, fresh food
• Avoid MSG and ‘cubes’ (bullion containing MSG)
• Prioritize fruits and vegetables
• NO carbonated drinks

So, the day of the party, ladies started showing up with whatever they could find, and we piled it on the table. Quite an assortment. Now, what to cook?

We came up with a lovely menu:

Curried chicken, eddo, eggplant and bora

Roti (Like a flour tortilla/nan bread - We used flour from the shop! Oh the shame…)

Fish damoriti with fahrine (Local food – boiled fish with fresh hot pepper)

Steamed vegetables

Limeade

Mango milkshakes

Mango cobbler

… And it was amazing! I love how fluidly and fluently women here cook. I have a feeling with that variety of ingredients and no plan, it would have taken American women any number of hours to produce a meal that effectively used them. But my ladies had dinner on the table in about an hour and a half.

Healthy, mostly local, and a lovely variety.

Sisters

Roti maker - you must clap the dough after cooking, while it is still hot!

I can roll roti!

Renata makes excellent greens:

So glad we found fresh fish!

Thanks to Eustace who went into the Savannah to the Rupununi River to get it.

I’m so proud! Now, if I could just merge my knowledge of nutrition with their cooking skills, I’d be so happy!