Eating/Grazing/Food observations - Updated

If you are familiar with Bermuda you know most of its food is shipped from the US (most grocery stores especially the fruit and veg produce section looks remarkably like any produce aisle in the US) which makes everything really expensive. Like $1.89 an apple expensive (not $1.89 a pound) or $10 for the liquid hazelnut coffee mate that my parents enjoy so much (sorry parents, guess I outed you there!) which can be found often for $3 in the US. So I'm trying to be thoughtful in how and what I buy. However should I run out of money and have to survive off of foraging the island, here's how I would survive. 

1. Fish. Yes, I love looking at them under water but if push came to shove...

2. The island is teeming with wild chickens. I asked my first airbnb hosts if any local residents ever snatch a chicken out of the tree where they roost at night. It was a definite no. Guess people are not going hungry here in Bermuda.

3. Fruit of the island - prickly pear, Bay Grape (sea grape or cocoplum in other parts of the world), Surinam Cherry, Natal plum, loquats -  and of course in season you can find bananas, mangos and oranges also that people have growing in their yards. And should you need some allspice, the trees are abundant everywhere as well!

Prickly Pear, Surinam Cherry, Sea/Bay Grape

Prickly Pear

Surinam Cherry

Surinam Cherries are new to me having a citrusy taste especially when less ripe (with hints of not fully ripe mango) and as they darken up becoming quite sweet. It's not really the season for them right now but they are popular at this time of year, looking like little pumpkins! More info on the Surinam Cherry here.

Sea/Bay Grape

Natal Plum

Loquat blossoms - fruit coming in Jan/Feb

Fruit update March 1...So since Loquats are/were new to me, I wanted to add a couple photos of this fruit that are ubiquitous at this time of year in Bermuda, growing wild and in gardens all over the island. I don't even know how to describe what they taste like...sweet, tart, (the riper the sweeter for sure) juicy. Though loquats are in the Rosacea family (apple, peach, plum, pear, nectarine) it's nothing like any of those. You'll have to visit Bermuda in March (or California or Florida or many other places around the world - my mom told me she ate them in Kenya as a child.) They even grow in South Carolina but don't produce fruit due to the frost. 

Another new fruit to me that started ripening just a few weeks before the loquats are the Barbados Gooseberry. These are definitely on the tart side and while I ate quite a few raw, I also boiled them down into a syrup, adding sugar and had it on french toast and in yogurt. Once cooked I could taste a little hint of passion fruit - but other than that, it was a brand new experience. The plant is actually a leafy cactus and is considered an invasive weed in many parts of the world because of its ability to quickly spread and take over - but it sure is pretty and an unusual looking fruit with little leaves (leaflets) sticking out of the actual fruit.

                                                 

Here's a fun link describing some of these home grown edibles including some recipes. 

Other random food observations:

1. Being here surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean, I thought that surely there must be somewhere to buy fresh caught fish from local fisherman rather than buy the salmon and fish in the store that was shipped from the US. It took me a while but I finally found one of the local road side stands that sell fresh fish (whole or fillets) and went home with some tasty red snapper and wahoo fillets.  I had several meals - grilled with sticky rice (you can take the boy out of Thailand...) and a Filipino soup...which leads to my next observation...

2. The 'international' aisle in the grocery store  consists of mainly two sections - Filipino and Portuguese. Having an aisle full of Filipino products included very expensive Magnolia icecream reveals what a large Filipino population there is here on the island - most having come here to work. 

3. The first night after moving to airbnb #2, I walked down the street to the famous Woody's restaurant and ordered one of their famous fish sandwiches. Fish sandwiches in Bermuda come on raisin bread that is toasted which and then with tartar sauce, hot sauce and cheese - tastes better than it sounds! And of course it needs to be sampled with a little ginger beer/dark 'n stormy.  

And finally, the other famous fish dish that I have experienced here is the traditional Bermudian Sunday Salted Codfish breakfast/brunch usually served with boiled potatoes, avocado, a boiled egg, banana and either a tomato or butter onion sauce.  Here's my sample from Island Cuisine served on elegant paper plates (courtesy of Covid!) It was filling...and good! However if you are looking close, you'll notice there isn't any banana on the plate. Banana's have been in short supply for the last couple weeks. That's island life!

Duncan