Now I know we live in a time where sex tapes can lea gid to you becoming a mogul of sorts. Heck, even YouTube has led to some people stretching their 15 minutes of fame (see Antoine Dodson and that girl who sings about Friday). But is it okay that we as regular citizens perpetuate certain things like sharing a screen shot of a minors involved in sexual acts?? How far is too far? Continue reading
Monthly Archives: March 2013
Chicken in the Bag
In America, there is Popeye’s and KFC. In the Bahamas, we’ve got places like Bamboo Shack and Sammy’s. They are the go-to spots when you’re looking to get an old fashioned greasy chicken and fries kind of meal. We have KFC too, but there’s something about the way ketchup and hot sauce merges with grease from a deep-fried thigh, fries and roll on the side, all wrapped with a wax paper covering and put into a brown paper bag, hence chicken in the bag.
Conch Snack from Bamboo Shack
While the photo above may not be chicken, it’s another great thing about our chicken in the bag joints: it doesn’t have to be just chicken. We are a people that loves us some seafood, so on most menus, there is going to be a seafood option(s). Fish burgers, conch burgers with a side of fries can hit the spot after a late night of partying. Imperials is known especially for the late night party goers because they stay open until 5 a.m.. The food isn’t anything special but I’ve heard it’s good for soaking up the alcohol in your system.
My favorite food from Bamboo Shack is the jerk thigh snack with mild jerk sauce. The hot jerk sauce is literally life altering! Jerk is mostly known for being a Jamaican dish but Bahamians have made a good name in having some pretty good jerk as well. This sort of food should not be eaten everyday but rather occasionally as a guilty pleasure food.
Right now Bamboo Shack should be paying for all this free advertising (lol), but if you’re in Nassau and craving some greasy food, check out their CARIFTA (Caribbean Free Trade Association) Games specials they have going on. I did not know they served ribs and they even have veggie burgers now!
Native Eats…Coco Plums
Known in scientific terms as Chrysobalanus icaco, the coco plum is one of my favorite native fruits to eat.
It’s like a field of white gold!
Coco plums can be found growing in and around cypress swamps, low areas, tree islands, beaches, sand dunes, canals, riverside, ocean side thickets, by lakes, ponds and even in some landscaping. They have a meaty white texture and like most fruit, the meat covers the seed in the middle encased by a hard outer shell. When I was a kid, I would eat a coco plum clean and then crack open the shell to get to the seed. The seed did not taste good! It was tarty and bitter.
Coco plums don’t just come in the off shades of white and yellow. Some of them have blushes of pink. There are also ones that are called black coco plums, but they aren’t really black. They have a really deep or dark blue color.
There was a coco plum tree right across the street from my house so I would raid it as soon as they got ripe. I would come back home with a shirt filled with them. As much as I enjoyed them, too many of them in one sitting could lead to a bit of constipation, lol. But to me, it was well worth it. I would knock a spider out of their home in the bush if I needed too. Spiders seemed to frequent these sorts of trees for some reason.
Coco plums can be used to make jellies or preserves but I have not had the privilege to try it in that form. I don’t even know anyone that has ever made it into a jelly, but it is possible. One of natures sweet delights that can be eaten as it, the coco plum needs no alterations to be a cool little snack and you can make an adventure out of it trying to pick them!
Bahamian Literature…What are you reading?
I recently came back from a trip to New York and I’m currently on spring break. I hope to use this week to not only study, but to also catch up on some casual reading because I bought some new books but haven’t had the time to read them as yet. Thinking about this and trying to come up with a new blog topic baha-related, made me think about the Bahamian books I’ve read over the years. Honestly, there haven’t been many. Bahamians sometimes seem allergic to reading and thus there is a void in the Bahamian literature arena because we know that Bahamians aren’t doing much reading so it can be a downer for future Bahamian authors who want to be successful writers back home. Continue reading
Ringplay… Is it extinct?
If your girlfriend doesn’t know about playing ringplay when she was younger, she’s probably too young for you (lol). Seriously though, I can not remember the last time I saw children playing ringplay.
I’m trying to think of a most appropriate way to describe what a ringplay is… It was what kids, mostly young girls from the neighborhood or in the school yards did before the days of CD players, cellphones and all of that. We stood in a circle and sang traditional ringplay songs. “There’s a brown girl in the ring…sha-la-la-la-la”, “Show me your motion…tra-la-la-la-la”, “Naughty Johnny” and so many others. Sometimes a person would get in the middle of the circle and whine up and then got to pick the next person in the middle. I can even recall playing this in junior high during physical education class.
I wonder if my little sister plays this in school. Kids nowadays grow up too fast and speed through their childhood. I was one of those that couldn’t wait to become an adult too, but, I still enjoyed being a kid. Being able to play hide and seek, catch and freezes, porkin’ and breaktime was actually fun time.
It may seem like it’s a bit vulgar, but it was all in due fun and sometimes even adults would join in. There was also some ringplay songs that required no dancing but were more so a fun game like “Down by the river, down by the sea. Johnny break the bottle and blame it on me. I told ma, ma told pa. Johnny get a lickin’ with a ha ha ha.”
Thinking about these games brings back good memories but I wonder if in a few years, it’ll become a lost aspect of Bahamian culture and something that we talk about and tell our kids like the days of playing hop-scotch and jacks (which I did too, and enjoyed). We have to preserve our culture and not allow it to water down and waste away.
Baha Life 