As promised I'm on to the better part of my trip home. The food was amazing!!!!!!! every time I return home my taste buds reawaken like sleeping beauty. Maybe this is due to the fact that Trini pepper is so much hotter than pepper I've tasted in other parts of the world. Or perhaps because Trini's, especially those in South and Central consume pepper in more copious doses than other people. Whatever the reason, the food "sell off" (yeah the Jamaican rubbing off huh)
I ate doubles everywhere. Some were good, some bad and some in-between. But it was doubles fresh from ah doubles man with everything, slight pepper, so it was all good to me. I was a bit taken aback because doubles were 3 and 4 dollars for one. When I still lived home it was 2 dollars by sauce but the longer you live the poorer you seem to get huh. So to everyone who knows me yuh know ah coulda never go home without making ah trip to Curepe to buss ah lime. Ah will admit, to my mother's eternal shame and disappointment, that bein on the pavement in front Bobby's bar with d sprangers and other nocturnal creatures of ill repute I felt peaceful, happy and content.
Yes, a car pulled up and when the doors opened weed smoke drop kicked me in my face. And yes, there was a woman delicately and discreetly vomiting in the drain. And yes, there was a drunk Indian man walking around for hours telling people "iz meh birthday, gimmie ah bounce nah". Yet there's always an electricity about nocturnal places like St. James and Curepe. People come to eat, drink, buss ah lime. There's a weird camaraderie with night limers, shoulders rub and lives intersect. Strangers connect over half drunken conversating.
Me and meh pardners (Andre and Ruhia) started off at Spanky's. I beat some Johnny Black and we holdin ah lime. Braps!!! this pink Sunny pass and bounce down ah old man. He escaped without serious injuries, thank God. Would you believe the fuckers drive off. Ah was so vex ah coulda buss. Later on that night two other men almost get bounce down on the same corner. We came to de decision that the corner hadda be blight. So until somebody wash down the road with lime and blue we decide to trod on up to Bobbys cause yuh hadda be careful wid blight yuh know.
I love Trini for our diverse street food culture. That night we munched on fried wantons, smothered in pepper, soy sauce, ketchup and garlic sauce. Yum. Well it goes without saying that we had doubles.....is curepe, we drinking, and sauce dey. So nuff said. Ah even stop drink liquor to beat out some Green Sands(a pre mixed drink consisting of lemonade and beer). I grew up on Green Sands and was so happy when they brought it back on the market. Needless to say it not available in Jamaica. STEUPES!!!!!
At the end of the night we went to Gringos Grillerz.........Bap Bap Bap!!!!!!!!!!! Gringos to di worl. For those who went to UWI and was delinquent like me muss know Gringoes. After spending a night either drinking or in Grand Central playing pool Gringos was the flick. Before they moved into the storefront they were just a cart on the side of the road where Papa Johns is now, with ah dutty red man as de cook who used to chat up all d women dem. Anyway I read the menu and wanted everything. I've had almost everything on the menu so trust me when I say its all good baby. I had a roast beef sandwich, it was still humongous, it was still reasonably priced at $35. Most of all it was still ridiculously delicious. Just as I remembered. Each mouthful brought back memories of being a newly independent young girl, slightly intoxicated, tremendously happy and plenty in love. Ahhhh nostalgia at my happy reckless youth, now sadly past.
To end in a happy place I left my Bake and Shark for last. Shorts, sweat, Chow from the lookout, ah beer and a big beautiful fully loaded Bake an Shark, sand between my toes. I put all the condiments (tambrin sauce, garlic sauce, shado beni sauce, pepper sauce) except ketchup and mustard. I refuse to defile the delicate cadence of flavours with such common and vile sauces. I leave those to baser creatures like beef burgers. I also put all the toppings including pineapple. Needless to say it was beyond bliss. My only complaint is that the pepper was not hot. I have a serious problem with Trini pepper not bein hot. Ah know Richard's probably tone it down because of the tourists but let me just say this, if we diminish the fire in our pepper for the white people where does it stop? Is it hard to imagine that soon we'll be toning down the fire in our souls to suit the white people? Why Richards? Wwwwwhhhhhhhyyyyyyyy???????
