Thursday, December 14, 2006


the place to be this evening. . .

. . .is at the big history of yoga talk here. sadly, i've too many errands to catch up on to make it myself.

so you all go, dear readers, ok?

i also hope to get around to posting a couple more coffee pix from the blue mountains shortly; nice use of a berezza, for example. twyman's coffee made a surprisingly nice cappuccino, according to breakfast reports.

i also found the best bread at the well-known, chinese-owned coronation bakery in port antonio. jamaica has its own tradition of breads, most of which are sweet and very soft (these are usually called "french bread"), altho' there is a hard-crust light sourdough to be found at the coronation.

the "french bread" tends to be a heavy but not dense white sandwich-type loaf, usually very thickly sliced in a manner similar to what americans would call texas toast. but of course the jamaican bread is bakery bread, not supermarket bread.

while traditionally in jamaica people ate breadstuffs made from cassava (they are more resistant to mold in a tropical climate), the island has a strong history of wheaten breads, such as the still-popular lebanese syrian flat bread, soft coco bread about the size of hot dog rolls, and the old-fashioned unleavened buns/biscuits/stiff cakes called bulla, which have a cookie-like texture and are usually spiced with ginger.

jamaicans eat bulla with avocado slices and/or cheese. sometimes they are made with whole-wheat flour for the kneading and rolling out.

the coronation doesn't have the latest or greatest commercial equipment, which is fantastic from a bccy point of view, as it means the bread still has a lot of hand-involvement and actually tastes like something.

i can also recommend the sliced plain yellow cake and the thick, moist bread pudding, heavy with currants and real rum. it's almost more like a quick bread than what we americans would normally call bread pudding.

on the chocolate front, we have to be honest: jamaica's chocolate tradition is quite weak. thus americans ordering chocolate cakes, mousses and pies are usually disappointed.

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