So the longer one cooks food, the less nutrients it has. Guyanese like to destroy their food. They pressure or fry their veggies until all semblance of color is dispersed. We try to tell them that when they do this it takes away the nutritional value, but I don’t think they like the hardish texture of not obliterated veggies. For example, we had a salad one time with fresh lettuce, tomato, carrot, cucumber, and a homemade vinigarette, and our Guyanese guest just looked at it and said, “Wha' that!?” Anyway, this is a nice little dish that is quite good and doesn’t destroy the veggies. One of our goals here is try and get some Guyanese to eat healthier and this could be one of our target dishes. However, there will be challenges since carrot is primarily for color, not nutrition here, and bora is rarely served when it’s not in fried rice or chow mein.
Bora (green beans)
Cabbage
Carrot
Tomato
Chicken
Salt and Black Pepper
Butter
If you want Chicken, saute it in some of the butter. Once the Chicken is cooked, take out of pan.
In another pan or cleaned kaharee, saute the bora, cabbage, and carrot in butter. After a few minutes, once some of those veggies have been cooked (you still want them to have texture), stir in Tomato and Chicken. Add Salt and Pepper to taste.
Gonna have to disagree with some of your assumptions here. I've seen too much limp and overcooked green beans (particularly that icky French's version) broccoli, artichokes, brussel sprouts etc., to buy overcooking as a particularly Guyanese trait. Some Guyanese like their food overcooked, others not so much. Also bora makes at least a bi-monthly appearance on its own (usually cooked in coconut milk) in most Guyanese homes.
ReplyDeleteAs for salad, when I was in Guyana I was served salad many times (especially one made with raw cukes) but you can be sure there was no vinaigrette to be found...it usually came with a spicy pepper sauce. Your guest probably had no reference for/desire to try salad with a probably slightly sweet dressing. Sort of like if you try to sell a SoCal resident used to straight-up Mexican on some kind of Tex-Mex concoction...like barbecue brisket tacos with beets (which for the record actually exists...why?)
Guyana is a teeny country comparatively, so it is really easy to make assumptions based on the likes/dislikes of a small group of people but I'd caution against it. I just found out recently that there are actually more Guyanese outside of Guyana than there are in Guyana. For eg. Guyanese are the fourth largest ethnic group in NYC and I can bet you that their tastes versus the large number of Guyanese in Toronto versus the large number in Georgetown versus the large group in London versus the large group in the rest of the Caribbean vary quite a bit. You know...just like Americans.
P.S. I served two years...hope you are enjoying your stay.
Dear MK,
ReplyDeleteAs one of the authors of Hobbit Food, I am happy to see we have such passionate readers. However, we can only hope you understand that this blog is not a commentary on Guyana, Guyanese food or anything of the like. This blog is about the food that we cook and eat here. We are making observations about the food we actually have eaten and have been served in Guyana. These are not assumptions, but facts. I am sorry that you got offended when I made a blanket statement about "Guyanese people". Perhaps I should rephrase to say instead, that the Guyanese people I have met in my year here have cooked their veggies to obliteration. You are right, I have no reference for what Guyanese eat in NY or Canada since I don't live there, but that is for another blog. Sincerely, Hobbit Tim