Living in Bequia -- Bread

Okay, so we wanted some good bread. The first attempt was Knight's and Doris's. Doris doesn't have bread, and what Knight's has reminded us of Wonder Bread. Oh my, what to do?

We scoured the internet about Bequia and found the "Gourmet Food" shop, and went looking. They have frozen, you-bake, baguettes. Didn't prove out that well. Then we tried Lena's, a small cafe that sells lattes, and found their baguettes to be okay, but you have to get there before they all sell out - like 9AM.

Much of the bread we first tasted was doughy. Lena's baguettes were okay but not great.

So back to the internet and TripAdvisor... Bingo! we found The Upper Crust (www.theuppercrust.com) a shop run by Andy and Indra. They bake in their own home and deliver. Fresh baguettes, pork pies, chicken pasties, rolls, home made sausages, hamburgers ... yum!

Their deal is you order online or call, and they deliver, but only on Thursdays (they found that delivery is way cheaper for them than a store front). He's a Brit and she is Trinidadian.

We placed an order and got special delivery on Monday, then placed another order and got reinforcements on Thursday. We're now on the Thursday schedule.

Absolutely great! By the time high season comes, these guys will be super busy! We wish they would move to Maine and give up this paradise living thing.

Clockwise: farm fresh eggs, breakfast sausage, sweet rolls, baguettes, mini pork pies and chicken/mushroom pasties. Everything was delicious!

Living in Bequia - result of produce shopping

After we found a Modern Caribbean Cooking cook book at Ravenala House, Alicia and I went shopping.  Some of the recipes looked very appealing to Alicia and she was anxious to get cooking again.

We drove up to Darkie's produce stand and shouted, "Do you have any Callaloo?" "Yes" -- "We'll be right back"

The results:

Top: Soursop, Dragon Fruit, Callaloo (A bit like Swiss Chard)
Bottom: Mango, Avocado (yes, Large, purple and exceptionally ripe) 

Living in Bequia - Buying produce

Buying produce in Bequia, or for that matter, anywhere in St. Vincent and the Grenadines ("SVG"), is interesting. Supermarkets generally do not have fresh produce. You buy it from street vendors.

These vendors most often sell from carts that they haul around and hawk from wherever. Most, if not all, are centrally located in Port Elizabeth here in Bequia, so you just walk around to see who has what. Some have bananas, avocados, and sweet potatoes  - others have oranges, mangos, peppers, etc, and still others have eggplant, tomatoes and beans.  It's a free market, much like Haymarket in Boston. Some vendors seem to be there regularly, while others seem just to come and go.

At first, we mostly asked, "what is that" and get a reply "Eddo" or "Christophine" or "Callaloo".... or "Dragon Fruit", "Soursop" "Breadfruit" or whatever, .

An interesting thing was that when we asked, the vendors would say  -- take one, "Charity". They all did it. So, we were able to experiment or try a sample.

Ultimately, Alicia realized that Christophine was what she knew as Chayote.

After a while, we hooked up with Darkie, the lady who runs a produce stand on the main road. Darkie is a sweet woman who just wants to get you what you want. Her selection changes on a daily basis. The good news is that given that we drive a right hand car, you can actually drive right by Darkie, stop and ask from the driver seat, "Do you have XXX?" and when she answers "Yes!", you go park.

When Alicia decided to start cooking Caribbean dishes (from the Caribbean cookbook here), she first needed spices. First stop - Darkie's - where she was able to get many small bags for reasonable prices. When you buy produce, you walk away with a lot of stuff for not much money _ except if you are shopping at Doris's!

Sometimes it is eggplant and apples, if it was 2 days later,  bananas and peppers. If you want something, you ask and you can get it the next day (since most of the produce comes over from St.Vincent)

It's a very nice relationship between your produce supplier and your chef (or my chef)

Living in Bequia -- buying food.

Well, as noted there are no "real supermarkets" on Bequia and lordy, lordy -- No Whole Foods. What to do?

Well, the travel books suggest that you shop at either Knight's or Doris's. The good new is that Doris's is the closest thing to Whole Food that you can get, and Knight's is mostly just a big (small) grocery store. You can get most things by shopping at both stores - not unlike what Alicia does at home.

Knight's does not have any fresh produce, while Doris's has some. Neither have any fresh fish, but Doris's has frozen beef, pork and a few other things. You can get chicken at either place.

Inside at Doris's --- notice the  hanging spices, and on the right Starbuck's coffee on the shelf. The Coffee is double or more than in the States  You can get most all you need for a price at Doris's  -- even Dom Perignon - it is obvious that Doris sells mostly to the non-islanders.

Doris is an Indian woman who speaks fluent German, and is very aware of what sells to the arriving tourists and boat-people. Smart businesswoman!

 Doris's ... and Alicia checking to see if she has enough money!

Knight's

If you want fish, you have to go into town, look around and see if anyone has any fish that they are selling. Sometimes there is fish at the fish pier, but you can't tell when or if it is open. Or, you can create a list of fishermen and call around to see who has what and set up a meeting to make a purchase. Syl might have some, or Flex or.... buying fish can be a hit or miss proposition. You can also go over to the same place as the lobsterman at 11:30 to buy fish, but we haven't tried that yet.

We were in town to get some money and there was a guy outside who had a bag full of about 12-15 red snapper. "Do you want any?"  - "sure"  - "Will you filet it for us" - "sure - meet me back here at the pier in about an hour" _ So we did. And got a ton of fresh red snapper for not a lot of money.  He was a local who seeks to make a few bucks selling his catch of the day. You might not see him again for a week. His final comment. "How about an extra $5 for fileting the fish and I can get a beer" (that $2 US ... we happily obliged).

We will try for fish pictures later.. but it feel a lot like buying a nickel bag. Want any fish?

You can also buy fresh meat, but only on Saturday mornings - from a guy who comes over from St.Vincent. He has fresh mutton (goat), beef and pork. He sells direct from the street. People here are a mix of Scottish and African - who both came to the islands many years ago. This guy's red beard and hat is a Scottish give away.

Here we are buying a leg of goat. Soon to be a Caribbean Curried Goat.  The young lady in pink is Alyssa.

Living on Bequia - Buying a lobster

Although we did get to grocery stores before this, a post on grocery stores will take a while.

So, this post is just about one other way to buy stuff.

Lobster is not available in any grocery store, nor are there any lobster shacks, lobster piers, or the like. Definitely no lobster bibs. But you can buy lobsters directly from the lobster guys.

They  catch lobster the same way Mainers do -- setting traps - even if the traps are a bit more low tech than those used in Maine.

The lobsters are on the other side of island so it is a small trip to get there, an adventure. But, you need to know where to go... that's where Jal was helpful.. he took us there.  And, as necessary, translated. Everyone speaks English, but we have found that there is what is called "standard" -- for talking to non-islanders and "local", for talking among the islanders (and doing it very fast).

Standard - "to make the boat". Local - "fa mek de but" (long u) said very quickly.

Anyway, we bought lobster.

We got the lobsterman's attention ( well Jal did ) and said we wanted 2 lobsters. "OK", and away they went. To where, we did not know. Well, they keep the lobster in big crates, sitting in the nearby bay. One guy swims out and begins to pull the crate to shore. No concept of a pulley system?

Here is Alicia going to meet them 

They pull this "little" guy out of the box -- first thing Alicia says is "I think we only need one!"

These are Spiny Lobster --typical in Carib.. no claws!
But the price is actually about the same and must be priced right because Jal also bought one.

 

That one is ours... and NO that guy is not smoking ganga!

Too big for the pot.

Done, and ready for lobster salad and avocado sandwiches.

Living in Bequia --- introduction.

There are a few things that we were interested in discovering during this housesit: how to drive a right-hand-drive vehicle without crashing it, how to buy food, meeting people, does the internet really work here, how does the phone work (given the chaos of cell plans),  the best way to buy things, etc, -- simply how to you live in a place like this. Unlike St.Vincent or other larger islands like Jamaica or Barbados, Bequia is laid back. In comparison, the bigger islands are "urban" -- up to a point.

Living here (if only for 6 weeks) is FAR different from staying at a resort for 4-7 days and getting waited on hand and foot. You have to go shopping, use the services that the locals use, and just make do. No need to make do in a full service, all you can eat hotel.

If fact, we chose this housesit, not only because the place is beautiful, but because we wanted a new experience.

Well, we got one and are living it right now.

To begin, we were a little bit unprepared and so were very happy that Jal, the resident caretaker and all around handyman, was staying on the property (up in the owners' house ... we are in the tourist/rental house). We are here to take care of the pets. Jal takes care of the grounds and everything else. We simply did not realize that when we needed to buy food that there are not really any supermarkets here.. certainly no Whole Foods or Starbucks -- but more on that later,

So, with Jal as a guide, we found our way around to places that the casual visitor would not have considered.

In the next few posts, I will give you some insight into how to live in Bequia.

A sing-along

"If you like pina coladas .... getting got in the rain..."
It's absolutely pouring behind Alicia ...