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Nate and Kara Buchanan eat their way through Bridgetown with historian Claudette, tasting flying fish with cou-cou, pigtail, fish cakes, and sorrel drink. They visit Independence Arch and learn how sugar shaped Barbados starting in the 1640s.
Nate and Kara Buchanan eat their way through Bridgetown with historian Claudette, tasting flying fish with cou-cou, pigtail, fish cakes, and sorrel drink. They visit Independence Arch and learn how sugar shaped Barbados starting in the 1640s.
It's just weird because the vertebrae are coming apart individually.
Today is day three here in Bar Barbados, and we've just taken the local bus to Bridgetown because today we're doing a food tour with licorice tours.
We are super excited about this food tour. All we've had is the fish dinner we had the other night. And ever since we discovered food tours last year in Poland, we just can't get enough. We've done so many because you get to eat good local food and learn about the history. I don't know if everybody feels this way, but when I picture the Caribbean islands, I just picture, like, honeymoon destination. I don't ever think about, like, the history or the culture. So, yeah, I'm really excited to learn more about Barbados.
Yeah. Good timing.
Hi, guys.
How are you?
Good morning.
I'm Claudette.
Welcome.
No horses.
No horses.
We just met our tour guide. Her name is Claudette and she's actually a historian, which is really great for this kind of tour. So she just brought us up to speed with how Barbados who came to be. And she was ice waters, which is great because it is hot here at the marina.
We are going to have corned beef fritters, deep fried. And that's what the fritters are about. Try and enjoy it.
We are starting with ginger beer and corned beef fritters. Apparently these originated as, like, all of the leftovers put into a fritter, but now it's one of their main dishes.
That is so delicious. Like, the herbs or whatever's in there is so good. And they're, like, kind of crunchy but not greasy at all. That was a great first stop. I had way too many fritters. Claudette said I need to pace myself because we have seven stocks today.
The Independence Arch. The arch was established in 1987 once Berlins had become 21 years independent.
Yeah.
So that's why the fountain is established here. The authorities in their wisdom decided, you know what, it's time for us to pipe fresh water in the bridge now.
Hello.
It should have happened a long time ago.
No way. Fingers. So this is finger food.
Enjoy. Thank you. Thank you.
The only way to eat it with your fingers, you get the best of it that way.
That kind of looks like a tail right there. So stop number two, we are having pigtail. It's not actually the tail of a pig, but it's still really interesting. It is the vertebrae of a pig and it's drenched in barbecue sauce.
Got sauce all over my face right now. It's really good.
It tastes just like barbecue ribs. It's just weird because the vertebrae are coming apart individually, but it has a fantastic taste. She told us that traditionally the vertebrae was just used to, like, flavor stew and stuff, but recently the young people have kind of, like, started doing this more hip thing and they started barbecuing.
That meat was super salty, just the way I like it. But now we are going into a market where we're going to try a drink and spritz. She just said, whatever he has.
And this goes back to our history. We're in the 1640s, when sugar became a cash crop.
Cheers. Cheers. So we've just come to this local market market where we're having sorrel, which is their local drink. They said they drink it around Christmas time a lot, but it's cold. Kind of looks like a tea that comes from this little sorrel flower that she showed us. It smells really good.
It tastes like Christmas. Like, it tastes like Christmas cider that's been in the refrigerator.
So the next part we're going to is the synagogue context, The Jewish synagogue.
Fabulous interactive museum.
This is my kind of place. Thank you. Got some fresh fish cakes.
Oh, my gosh.
They're amazing. Hot. They're super hot.
That is so good. And kind of spicy. Kind of reminds me of a hush. Puffy, but like, a little more moist. Like, not as dry. Perfectly crunchy on the outside. Claudette said those are the best fish cakes on the island of Barbados. And I believe they were so good. Who knew, coming from that little trailer, we never would have found that place on our own. But we did put some spicy sauce on our second one, and it was hot.
Our next stop is at this beautiful restaurant overlooking the street, and we are having Bajan soup. It's basically pureed pumpkin chicken soup. It's, like, really hearty, really yummy. Kind of like a chicken noodle soup with some dumplings in it. Apparently, Bajans are the only people who put sugar in their dumplings. There's also, like, cinnamon and nutmeg. So that's kind of fun, like having, like, a sweet dumpling and a savory soup. It is delicious.
Okay.
Because what you've got, you've got a ginger one and you have molasses. And so there are different.
The molasses is made from fresh grated coconut, brown sugar, aminescent cinnamon. The ginger is the opposite.
Yeah. Just ginger added to the same spices. Love it. The sweet lady normally has a little sweet stand right here, but not on Mondays. And today is Monday, so she came especially for us to bring us some little cakes. This one is ginger sugar cups.
Yeah.
It is so sweet. You make good sugar cake here. Okay, bye.
That was fun.
Ate molasses once a year on Christmas. It's kind of like a tradition in the Buchanan family. And this cookie just reminds me of Christmas, and it's so, so good and so sweet.
We are ending the food tour with the national dish, which is flying fish, and cuckoo, which is, like, cornmeal with some herbs.
Kind of looks like mashed potato.
It's really nice. Kind of has the texture of, like, grits.
With some really good spices and, like, a fishy gravy.
Our food tour just ended. We are both completely stuffed and the usual. In addition to eating a ton of good food, we also learned a ton about the history of Barbados.
Seriously, before coming. Coming to Barbados and the Caribbean, the only, like, Caribbean food I knew of was jerk chicken, rice, and beans, and plantains, and we didn't even have any of those things today, so we learned a ton. Claudette was a great guide. I'm so happy we got to do this. And now I think we're gonna go veg out on the beach.
We have our own private beach. We have to take advantage of it.
Sam.
