Cooking with Jal and Alana

We have introduced you to Jal, the property caretaker, Alana and Jontiel. Now, we have engaged dinner invitations, in which they will cook for us and then we will cook for them.

They decided that we would grill the fish that I -- oops Syl - caught as well as pumpkin soup that Jal makes. Everything was delicious. Take a look.

Tuna and Old Wife

Pumpkin Soup

De boys - at the grill enjoying a Carib

Alana preparing the fish

Tuna and Red Snapper

Tuna and Old Wife

Preparing the soup

 The meal

The "normal" way of buying fish.

Fish is a major staple of Bequia. There a lot of people who get out fishing, and make their living by selling what they catch. Buying fish can be a hit or miss proposition, as there may not be fish on the day that you might want it.

Sometimes you buy it from Syl, if he has what you want. Other times you might buy it from a guy walking down the street who has a bag of fish, or you might buy it from Flex, a guy who goes out, catches and then sets up at the almond trees. You could also drive "all the way over to Paget Farm" about 3 miles to see what they might have.

However, the "normal" way is to listen for the conch horn sound. There is this guy who alerts everyone that there are fish at the fish market. What he does is blow the conch shell and the horn like sound tells all to "come and get it"

You arrive at the fish market and see what they have -- no telling what there is. Could be tuna, kingfish, snapper, old wife, parrot, or "robin"

Here is the selection from one fellow.

So you buy what you want -- price varies day to day, fisherman to fisherman. This day we bought about 2lbs of robin fish for $4US. And you can take it home whole or have it filleted by the "filet guy" He is just outside the fish market, at the shore. You pay the fisherman, then you pay the filet guy -- who typically gets $2US! to filet anything - we give $4.

The filet guy

Here he is filleting our "robin" fish. Time from the water to the fridge -- 3 hours. FRESH FISH!

it is really fun and an adventure buying fish in Bequia!

Another lunch at Jack's

We have taken to having lunch at Jack's since Ken and Ari are fun guys to hang out with and because Ken prepares some very nice meals.

Here we are at a recent lunch... we are eating "ken's special" which is not on the menu. Barracuda.

Friday was Ari's last day at Jack's -- he now moves to Shogun Villa for the high season - where you can rent the whole place for $50,000 US/week....  check it out.... http://www.shogunmustique.com/

Getting ready for Halloween

Pumpkin - Bequia Style

Different on the outside - same on the inside.

Living in Bequia - the roads

Driving in BQ is a bit of a challenge since you drive in the left. Now, you need to add to that that the roads are quite narrow - and best to have a small car (no Suburbans in BQ).

The roads are stuffed into places that have been carved out of the very hill terrain that makes up BQ. Since they have no snow here and not a lot of room to make switchbacks, the roads tend to go straight up when necessary. It is also necessary to make the roads narrow where needed, so many places have only single car passage. If you meet up with someone, somebody will be backing up.  It is customary to back up if you are the downhill car.

The biggest thing for us was that there are no street signs and that many streets look like driveways. So, just drive until you get stopped by something.

Oh, NO stops lights, not any stop signs that I have seen, no street lines, but they do have street lights.

Here are some of the bigger, better roads

This is NOT a driveway

This IS a driveway - a steep one to Ravenala

The windward side of Bequia

We are in admiralty bay, located on the leeward side of Bequia. Up and over the hill about 3 miles, you get to the windward side. The lee side is the Caribbean, the windward is the Atlantic. The winds blow, on average, an easterly direction at about 10-15MPH. Given this arrangement, the windward side has the more rough beaches, in this case Friendship, Spring and Industry beach. They have rougher water, and a bit of undertow. They also collect more water born floating stuff - weeds, yacht trash, etc.. As a result, Friendship, Spring and Industry are less used than Princess Margaret and Lower Bay.

We've taken a couple of trip over to that side and find it a little different. The terrain is flatter, with a bit better soil, and large groves of coconuts - not found on the lee side. Bequia Beach Hotel, the island's largest, is on Friendship bay, but their beach is quite narrow.

At Friendship

Overlooking the Friendship area.

Spring beach -- notice how the trees have been contoured by the wind

Boat at Spring Beach

Coconut trees at the water's edge

General look at the beach at Spring - not a lot of room for a lounge chair! and the tide doesn't change much at this latitude

The Conch T'ing

Our friend Debbie was visiting us for 6 days, mostly hanging out and relaxing -- She works too much and needs the rest.

For one lunch we chose to eat at Coco's, which seems to be the only other restaurant open at this time (most restaurants will begin opening in end of October). One interesting item on the menu was - The Conch Ting. Take a look. (prices are in EC - about 2.5 to one US)

The ladies

I ordered fish chowder to see how it might compare to New England fish chowder. It was more like fish stew or fish soup. It was delicious. The chef came out later and after telling him how good it was, he said "I gave you the king fish rather than the barracuda". I didn't even know that I had a choice.

King fish is a large, meat type fish about the same size of a skipjack - 2-3' long.