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Spice up your life
DINING & ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE - JAN 2007
Spice up your life
In The Bahamas
In 1492, Columbus sailed west in search of spices. Instead he discovered The Bahamas and ultimately the New World. But he was too early?by 514 years to be exact?to find his coveted culinary treasures. If he landed here today, however, Bahamians could offer him enough spices to please even Queen Isabella.
Many of the spices Columbus sought in the Far East are now grown in The Bahamas and the Caribbean. For example, Grenada harvests the finest nutmeg and mace to be found anywhere. And modern visitors to The Bahamas will discover a wonderful selection of locally prepared spices and spice blends. Businessmen and women combine local flavours to create unique medleys.
Everybody loves spice
Bahamians like spicy foods and Indian-style curries are a particular favourite. They probably acquired their taste for them from the English or from Indians who swarmed to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations in the late 1800s and early 1900s. From there, curry made its way to The Bahamas.
Bahamian cookbooks reflect curry?s popularity. Almost every local cookbook contains curry recipes. Lady Darling?s Many Tastes of The Bahamas & Culinary Influences of the Caribbean lists 13, including curried versions of local favourites: conch, goat and fried green tomatoes. There?s a ready market waiting for the right powder. Not surprisingly, curry powders were the first seasoning mixes to be produced by Bahamian entrepreneurs.
The entrepreneur
The editor of Lady Darling?s cookbook, Azaleta Ishmael-Newry, knows a lot about curry. She recently began selling her Azaleta Home Blended Indian Curry Powder, adapted from an old family recipe.
Originally Ishmael-Newry made a little extra for appreciative friends when she mixed it for her family. Soon friends of friends wanted it and the family recipe created a business. A native of Guyana, Ishmael-Newry blends more than a dozen ingredients and salt to create her unique seasoning.
?It?s the combination of spices like my great-grandmother made after she moved to Guyana,? she says. ?You?ll see it?s very different from the bright yellow Jamaican curries that most people think of as curry ? and mine?s a lot better.?
Her distinctive flavour and darker colour results from dry cooking the spices before she mixes them. This releases oils and enhances the distinctive flavours of individual ingredients. Heat browns the mixture and adds a roasted taste.
Her curry powder and traditional mango and peach chutneys are sold at Clay Oven, Gourmet Market and Skyline Deli. She also sells at trade and craft shows in the New Providence area and will add outlets as she expands.
Tings Bahamian
Julie Hoffer?s Plantation Hill brand blends and packages an extensive line of spices, jerk and curry mixes and flavoured salts. Like Azaleta?s curry, the Plantation Hill Hot Curry Powder is roasted, resulting in a yellow-brown rather than bright yellow colour. It is used in all of the curry dishes at Plantation Hill Restaurant.
?I like to blend here locally and try to get as much spice from Bahamian farmers as I can, but only as long as the quality is there,? Hoffer adds.
A native of Long Island, she is plugged into the informal network of small farmers and the mailboats that connect the less populated Family Islands with New Providence. ?I know all the mailboat captains and they all know me because I?m always out there getting my thyme,? she says. ?The red crushed peppers are locally grown and I get my sea salts from Bahamians who rake it themselves.?
Hoffer?s flavoured salts grace tables throughout North America and Europe. Soon, a new salt with dried lemon and orange bits will join the line. Along with the blended salts, jerk and curry, Plantation Hill offers a gamut of spices.
Her most popular spice salt includes ?bay leaf, thyme, red pepper and island salt.? All are from the islands.
Plantation Hill also sells five hot pepper sauces. The Bahamas? other major hot sauce producers are D?Vanya?s and Conchy Joe?s. Their sauces, along with sauces from other producers, are sold in local grocery and speciality stores throughout New Providence and Paradise Island.
Tea by bag or box
If Columbus were to arrive today, he would also find a wonderful selection of unique teas. Despite what you may remember from history class, Europeans weren?t searching for tea in 1492; in fact, they didn?t even know it existed. The first European mention of tea was in 1559.
Just because Columbus didn?t know about tea doesn?t mean you should miss out today. Many fragrant teas have been developed in The Bahamas.
A number of Bahamian businesses prepare and sell an assortment of blends. Local tea merchants range from start-up operations that use the family kitchen to international businesses selling more than 90 per cent of their production overseas.
Between them, the two largest tea companies, islandrose and Pasión Tea, offer three dozen blends in convenient tea bags. Smaller producers generally sell their teas in bulk, but all strive to capture the spirit of the islands with unique Bahamian-inspired teas.
Of her 16 different tea blends, Hoffer says 11 feature Bahamian ingredients. ?Of course since we don?t have tea growing here, I have to bring that in from Sri Lanka, India and Japan, but it?s mixed with our tropical flavours like passion fruit.?
She likes to incorporate Bahamian ?bush teas? into her blends, too. Bush teas are traditional Bahamian teas that are often used for medicinal purposes.
?Soursop leaf is relaxing. It?s blended with lavender and chamomile. A lot of people internationally know lavender and chamomile so they aren?t afraid to try it,? she says. After they try it, they like it.
?People will buy a box and then we get e-mails every week from people saying, ?I bought this tea and where can I get it??? Hoffer says.
?I just mailed some to a lady in New York who was down to her last bag.?
The New Yorker wanted the tea immediately and gave Hoffer a shipping number for next-day delivery, which cost more than the tea. A doctor in Virginia has a standing order for a case a month. He personally uses it and shares with his patients. Due to US demand, Hoffer is in the process of signing a distributor for American customers.
Briland Passion, Berry Lemon and Paradise Strawberry are Pasión?s most popular blends.
Internationally savoured
The Bahamas? largest tea company is already selling its products in North America. Mamadi Niknejad, manager of islandrose, reports the company?s teas are popular overseas and the international market now accounts for more than 90 per cent of sales.
The company?s most popular tea, Rum Vanilla, proclaims on its box, ?Through a careful process that extracts the pure essences of natural vanilla and exquisite black rum we are able to give this special black tea its signature flavour.?
Niknejad stresses that the company applies the same high standards to all of their products. Fruity teas include finely minced bits of fruit rather than a fruit-flavoured spray commonly used in lower grade teas, resulting in a more authentic fruit flavour.
The company?s recently introduced bottled iced teas are available only in The Bahamas for now, but Niknejad expects to introduce them into the international market. Not only are they good, but ?with the rooibos and white teas, they are filled with antioxidants,? Niknejad says?a strong selling point for health-conscious consumers. Three of the four varieties use white tea, green tea or rooibos as their base. Lemon Lime Switcher, CranRas Fusion, Melon Medley and Berrylicious are widely available at convenience and grocery stores.
Columbus may have missed out, but you don?t have to. Bahamian fine spices and teas are widely available at retail outlets, as well as at a number of local restaurants and hotels.
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