What’s For Supper?

There is arriving, and there is daily living. There are the basic questions our bodies are asking us. Most pressing: What’s for supper?

To be clear, we are not roughing it here. Our Villa has electricity and running water (albeit not recommended for drinking). The kitchen is equipped with necessities for cooking and eating. Even so, it’s been a while since we’ve had a completely naked-inside refrigerator. We brought some dry goods in our suitcases, including the mac & cheese, but needed to stock up on everything else.

Foodland—”Your Family’s Favourite Food Store!”—is an easy walk, just under half a mile down the main road. So far, it has been a good place for basic things, plus jugs of bottled water. Food prices here are generally higher than home, with some items being astonishingly expensive. Our menu choices will bend to what is most reasonably available. This island of spice grows crops like nutmeg, and local fare features curry flavors. Walking the neighborhoods, the smells of stewing curry and grilling meat hit you in waves.  

Within our family, we have a spectrum of palates. Stella prefers neutral tones, featuring vanilla and dairy products and predictability. She will try many new things as long as they are not fruit or fish or weird meat. Sam will eat any fruit, fish, or weird meat. He prefers to have some control over what and when he is eating. I will eat most things as long as they don’t disagree with my gut and are not things like fish eyeballs. Andrew will eat anything. Anything, I tell you.

St. George’s has a whole world of food beyond Foodland. On Day Two, Andrew and Sam headed out in pursuit of fruit and didn’t have to go far to find a stand along the street. They brought home passionfruit, mangoes, bananas, ripe plantains, limes, and a soursop that needed to ripen a few days. We’ve been squeezing limes into our water and tried the soursop today. The flesh is soft and fibrous, with a tangy flavor between papaya and melon or something. Its smooth black seeds remind us of pawpaws, but are smaller. Passionfruit is very seedy with a strong tart flavor all its own.

On Day Three, we all walked into downtown St. George’s, which is double the chaos of our own neighborhood and deserves its own blog posts. We delighted in the market, where we stocked up on the spices that make Grenada famous—nutmeg, curry, cinnamon, paprika, bay leaf, all sold in little baggies. We also bought produce—breadfruit, papaya, callaloo, cabbage, onions. One vendor, a woman about my age, was kind enough to explain the identity of some clumps of dried, squiggly, tan-colored stuff everyone was selling. Sea moss. She also explained how to make it into a smoothie, so I bought some.

Meanwhile, Andrew and Sam wove their way to the fish market. They returned with a tuna chopped into steaks, plus half the head, all packed on ice. That night we seared the tuna steaks for supper, then the next night, seasoned them into fish burritos with cabbage in lime dressing and a side of fried breadfruit, which tastes like potato.

As a treat, we sat down for lunch at BB’s Crabback Caribbean Restaurant—”I Can Resist Everything But Temptation”—in a lovely spot beside the harbor. As the food took an hour to be served, it was good practice in sitting still and taking in the light on the water and the salty breeze. We had the lunch special of creole fish or chicken, fried plantains, and rice & beans, and one order of mac & cheese and French fries. It was all delicious and soothing to the spirits.  

Not all our meals are so exotic, though. We are also eating spaghetti and peanut butter sandwiches, and the kids have tapped the pop tarts we brought. It seems true that where ever you go, there your appetite is.