Hmm, maybe if ah try it again, her face seemed to say, but the second try was the end for the concoction as the bottle was promptly covered.
“It alright, eh,” she said, “it just doh fit my taste, yuh know?”
The drink, dasheen punch, the place, Bloody Bay Recreation Grounds where the Tobago Blue Food Festival 2010 was in full swing on the 17th of October. And the main ingredient, you guessed it, dasheen, dasheen and more dasheen.
Not a big fan of provision and all that myself but I do love food. So over I went to Tobago to partake of the festivities. I anticipated that what I couldn’t hold in my belly I could at least take with me so I carried a good size bag.
When I first walked into the food festival area my first thought was, ‘whey, this place small, boy.’ Yes, when you walk in, you walk out, but don’t let size fool you. I found at least 20 different kinds of dasheen food items, and I ain’ talking dasheen carved into little animals and flowers here (though that would also have been interesting) but actual food that you may have eaten before just with dasheen substituted as the main ingredient.
“Dasheen pizza?” two girls asked in unison as they heard it announced by Wendell Mottley who ‘oversaw’ the food demonstrations. I have it on good opinion that he was not an official judge and was just there for his ‘belly’, but then again, who doesn’t come to a ‘food’ festival with their stomach in mind.
Official judges were Mayda Cowie, Elvin Witlock and Deborah Sardinha Metivier with Alana Applewhite as an assistant judge, and man did they have their work cut out for them. Exhibitions opened around 10am so the judges had good time to deliberate.
Imagine, and these are just a few of the dasheen delicacies, dasheen bread pudding, dasheen soup, dasheen jam, dasheen-colada (believe it!), dasheen rum punch, dasheen kurma, dasheen chocolate chip cookies and the highlight of the festival, dasheen ice cream with, you wouldn’t believe, Baileys,(!!) courtesy the Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute. Never in my wildest dreams did I think dasheen could go so far but hey, they did it with other foods, why not with the dasheen!
The contestants surely outdid themselves. Other than the Tobago Hospitality School, some of the participants were Shelly’s Delights, North Side Combined from Cap’n to Cook, Susan’s Delights and the wonderful Calypso Girl’s who gave us two of my favourites dasheen wine and dasheen cheese cake. I managed to get the recipe for one of the food demonstrations for dasheen pone. You can find it at the end of this review. Of course most of the dasheen delicacies were catered for your sweet tooth but if you had some serious hunger pangs and needed a full meal, there was ample a stall selling all varieties of blue food and not to mention every variety of meat. From chicken to goat to lap to fish and crab and rabbit, though I didn’t see any flying fish or shark, you get the idea, right?
Now after you had your lunch of cassava, dumplings and of course dasheen with a stewed meat of your choice and you’ve washed it down with some dasheen rum punch or wine, and while you’re snacking on dasheen sweetbread or fruit cake for dessert there were a few other items to the festival (other than the food) to be enjoyed. With Wendell Mottley for Radio Trinbago and Baker as our Master of Ceremonies, the DJ and a small ‘riddem’ section (must always have a rhythm section!) entertaining the crowd between performances there was enough fun to be had by all.
While patrons and tourists alike ‘nyam nyamed’ their goodies they were able to enjoy stage performances that kicked off at about 1pm and went on into the night. Through out the evening there were performances by Indra, Keisha Stewart, Princess Adana, Keshawn Jack, Swappy, Shurwayne Winchester and the Black Stalin just to name a few.
Off the stage you could have participated in a game of ‘ring toss’ which was set up for the amusement of the children and it seemed for the adults as well, as some of the items you had to try to place your ring over were bottles of White Oak Rum and Scotch Whisky! Needless to say, if you snagged it with your ring, you got to take the item home with you. Being the main sponsor TSTT was there giving away free handkerchiefs and pencils as well as a few Blink Vigilance packages to some lucky festival goers. The Tobago Tour Guide Association and the PSCU Cooperative Society Ltd also set up tents for patrons to view their services.
However, probably the most interesting, for me, because I just love the stuff, was a double tent set up by two artisans, jewellery makers who seemed to be enjoying the festival as much as they were there to promote their craft. And such inventive pieces! What really interested me were the materials that they used to make their jewellery out of. They had the usual favourites like hematite and shells but then one business, Naturale, used materials such as fish scales and cow horn in their jewellery.
While another Empress Exclusive went from exquisite materials like mother-of-pearl to simple yet colourful clay pieces.
Right next to them was a young artist named Dillon, who made beautiful paintings on bamboo of some of the lovely scenic Tobago locations like Pigeon Point. I particularly liked one of his paintings called ‘Bamboo Patch’ showing a bird hidden within a patch of bamboo.
At the end of the evening the first prize for best dasheen delicacy went to Shelly Ann Lewis who also took home the prize for best display and spirit of the competition.
Her winning dishes included Dasheen Coo Coo served with Calaloo, Dasheen Souse and Homemade Dasheen Bailey’s.
Second place went to Ysanne Williams-Chance who also won most innovative dish and best dessert. Her winning dishes were A’roshell which consisted of stuffed pasta shells with a dasheen filling (can't get better than that), Dasheen Kurmar and Dasheen Wine.
So. At the end of the day, I believe the only way someone could not have had fun at such a diverse and varied event was if they had an incredible dislike for blue food on a whole and even then, one could have at least acquired some exquisite jewellery. Which would have been well worth it.
- A. Semog
Recipe for Dasheen Pone: (see first picture, contains dasheen pone and punch)
Items:
3 large dasheens
1 small coconut
2 cups sugar (or to taste)
2 pinches spice (powder) or grated
2 pinches nutmeg (powder) or grated
1 pinch tonka bean, grated
Method:
Peel, wash and grate the dasheen.
Grate the coconut and squeeze out the juice.
In a large bowl, add the grated dasheen, spice, nutmag and the tonka bean.
Add a pinch of salt and the sugar. Mix together preferably with a wooden spoon.
Add the coconut milk.
Mix until smooth and bake at 100 to 150 degrees celsius.
Contacts for:
For An Original Dillon: Artist Dillon A. Richards; (868) 330-0418; mrdillonrichards@gmail.com; http://www.originaldillon.com/
Empress Exclusive: Shelly Ann Joseph; San Fernando, Trinidad; (868) 569-6710; empressexclusive@yahoo.com; You can also find her on Facebook
Naturale: Carla Thompson; Santa Cruz, Trinidad; (868) 769-4198; Carlabjorn@live.com
