Shelly-Ann Thompson, Freelance Writer
An array of Guyanese dishes provided by Pat Isaacs-Green of JamRock Sports Bar and Grill, New Kingston. Callaloo cook-up rice with pig's tail, chicken, yellow peppers and onions. At right is saltfish cake, and at left fried plantains on a bed of lettuce. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
THE ABUNDANCE of rice grown in Guyana makes the country known throughout the Caribbean as a rice territory. However, Guyana is more than rice. The various Guyanese cultures, at least six, influence their food, providing a diverse array of indigenous food in the country.
Pat Isaacs-Green of JamRock Sports Bar and Grill is Guyanese by birth. Mrs. Isaacs-Green says that the cultures from the Indians, Arawaks, Europeans and others make Guyanese food enjoyable and varied.
"In Guyana there is no problem with food. There is much rich land, so ground provisions are readily available," Mrs. Isaacs-Green said. She recalls an 80-day strike that happened in Guyana decades ago and persons were still able to feed themselves. "People would eat plantains and ground provisions, as these can be used in a variety of ways."
Rice is the main staple in Guyana. However, other popular food items are black pudding, sous, roti and cook-up rice. Cook-up rice can also be considered as the favourite one-pot meal. "Everything is in it. There is rice, meat cooked with pigeon peas (gungo), black eyed peas or split peas, coconut juice, pig's tail and seasonings, such as onions," explains Mrs. Isaacs-Green.
Seafood is also loved in Guyana. Fish and shrimp, along with rice and sugar, are the main exports in Guyana, Mrs. Isaacs-Green told Food, because the vast river system provides very fresh seafood. Golden apple (June plum) and pineapple are the preferred fruit drinks. "All these different cultures make Guyanese food nice, rich and spicy," she says.
DISHES
Indians: Curry dishes, bhoongl, tandoori, madras and roti.
Amerindians: Pepper pot soup that is a mixture of beef, cow foot, pig trotters, oxtail, pigtail and salt-beef cooked with cassareep, that comes from cassava. The cassareep, makes the pepper pot last for weeks without being refrigerated. "Back in those days the Amerindians did not have fridges in the bush so they learnt how to cook meals that would last for days," says Mrs. Isaacs-Green.
Africans: Ground provisions and metagee (cassava, plantains, yam, dumplings cooked with coconut juice, sweet potato, pig's tail and other ingredients).
Portuguese: Garlic pork
Mauby (drink)
50 g (2 oz) mauby bark
12 cups water
Piece of mace
Brown sugar (about 900g or 2lb)
Large piece cinnamon (spice)
Few cloves
Piece dried orange peel
METHOD
1. Boil mauby bark in water (about 4 cups) with spice, cloves, mace and orange peel until liquid is very bitter (about 1/2 hour).
2. Strain it off, add the rest of water and sugar until very sweet.
3. Bottle the cooled liquid, leaving neck of bottle unfilled for froth.
4. Cover and leave for 3 days.
Serve very cold.
Metagee
450 g (1lb) green plantains
1 small coconut
100 g (1/4lb) mixed meat (salt
meat and pig's tail)
100 g (1/4lb) yam or
100 g (1/4lb) cassava dumplings
4 okras
100 g (1/4lb) pumpkin
Sprig of thyme
1 tablespoon margarine
200 g (1/2lb) saltfish or fresh
fish
1 large onion
Few garden tomatoes
Piece of hot pepper
Salt to taste
METHOD
1. Clean and cut up mixed meat.
2. Fry lightly in margarine, and then simmer in water to cover for about 15 minutes. Clean and soak saltfish for 15 minutes.
3. Peel and wash vegetables. Grate coconut, add 1 cup of hot water and strain off milk after squeezing well.
4. Remove pot from heat. Arrange vegetables, saltfish and seasonings in layers, putting the plantains and cassavas at bottom and the saltfish on top.
5. Add coconut milk and simmer for 30 minutes.
6. Place pumpkin on top of saltfish and allow to steam for 10 minutes. Serve hot.
Note: Dumplings, if used, are added to list.
Pepper Pot Soup
This is an Amerindian speciality and has become one of the national dishes of Guyana. Its chief seasoning ingredient is cassareep, the thick syrup residue from boiled cassava juice. The juice is extracted by grating the raw cassava, adding water and straining. Cassareep is seasoned with salt, pepper and sugar and is a preservative for meat.
Pepper pot lasts for some time provided it is boiled up every day. Freshly cooked pieces of meat may be added and simmered in it. No onions, vegetables or starchy foods must be used in it.
1.8 kg (4 lb) cow heel, stew
beef, pork or pig trotters
225g (1/2 lb) salt beef or pig's
tail
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 lime
1/2 cup cassareep
1 or 2 hot peppers
1 stick cinnamon
Few cloves
1 tablespoon vinegar
Salt to taste.
METHOD
1. Cut meat into pieces; wash well with lime juice and salt, and put to boil well covered with water.
2. Add cassareep and allow to simmer. When half-done, add other ingredients.
3. Put in peppers with stems and remove before they burst, or they may be put in a muslin bag slung over the sid of the saucepan.
4. Keep on boiling until meat is tender and liquid just covers it. Serve hot with boiled rice.
