I had the pleasure of attending this year’s West Indian Parade in Brooklyn this past Labor Day. While scoping out the island fare I came across a man laboriously juicing sugar cane stalks. I inquired about this supposed refreshing chilled juice and was given a bit of a sample. One swig later and I was left with a not so pleasant taste in my mouth. It wasn’t sweet as I had expected and as for refreshing, I think I’ll stick with lemonade on a hot day.

I got to thinking, all that work has got to amount to something worthy of a drinker’s palate and then it hit me — sugar cane juice cocktails. Alone this drink may be less than desirable but use it as a base or even garnish to a refreshing cocktail and they may just have something here.  Chewingcane.com, a north Florida based company that sells ornamental sugar cane plants for the home, offers this list of sugar cane cocktail recipes. more…

Salted cod. Some call it a humble staple, but I’d say it’s a fantastically tasty treat. What I can’t understand is why it hasn’t caught on in America. It’s portable, cheap and practically never goes bad. Everyone else in the world has figured out how awesome it is. The Europeans love it. West Indians dig it. And a whole lot of Catholics have incorporated the fish into their treasured Easter recipes. Lucky for me, I live in New York–the ultimate city for finding hard-to-find foods.

Stewed goat and potatoes

On a recent dreary, rainy day (in a stream of never-ending rainy days) I got a hankering for salted cod, so I decided to check out a place my friend had recommended. Fritz International Jamaican Restaurant in Bed-Stuy doesn’t look like much from outside. Well, it doesn’t look like much from inside either, but my stomach didn’t seem to care. more…