Lily’s Blog, Dragon Absconded!
Baking Until I Drop

I just explained what macaroni pie is

Well, it seems Bajan macaroni pie is a tad bit different.

Anywayz, the last thing on Chennette‘s list of things to do in Barbados was to eat macaroni pie and flying fish.

A few days after trying to get it at Cave Shepherd (and a failed attempt to go drive around the coast…we slept), we went to this little diner close to the grocery store.

So, I got macaroni pie and fried flying fish (hmmm) and cole slaw.
She got macaroni pie and fried flying fish and fried plantain bites.
It was very nice and cheesy and had a tinge of red.

I liked it!
We spent about B$28-$30¹ on this and two bottles of water a bottle of coke.

*nice*

And, since I had my camera, I took a couple pictures :-)

1. US$1 ~= B$2

*yum*

I love macaroni pie.
Really.
Or I did.
It changes daily.

Do you know macaroni? When trinis talk about macaroni they mean the long thick straight noodles.

Macaroni pie will be different in different houses.

So, you boil the macaroni and then drain.
Put it back in the pot with eggs, cheese, milk, seasonings, mustard and anything else that’s normal for you.

Then you put it in a greased dish (casserole? baking tray? brownie tray?) and top it with cheese or butter or crushed biscuits or something and then you bake until it’s good and ready and set.

Cut it and eat it with some good stew chicken and you have a good meal.

Now before you ask all the questions like, bake how long, put how much eggs? cheese? milk etc…maybe you should read this article from the Caribbean Beat magazine.

I read it last September on a BWIA flight to/from Guyana.
I found it hilarious.

I wondered about the author of the article as in when did she leave Trinidad.

Basically, it’s an article written by a Trinidadian living in New Jersey who all of a sudden had a craving for good home cooked food, i.e. macaroni pie.

But she had no clue how to make it. So she got a recipe from her Tantie.

Well she got waylaid by a few things, milk and cheese and her new low-carb way.

She didn’t know what kind of milk to use. She wondered about half and half and other such things. Man! As a trini, I didn’t know what half and half was. I never saw it before I went away. I still am not really sure what it is.

She also didn’t know how much cheese to put.
Well, it’s been said in our house, when you think you put enough cheese, put more. It’s a rule for both macaroni and cheese and macaroni pie.

But what really totally amazed me is her trying to figure out what kind of cheese to use. In T&T we didn’t really get a whole lot of different cheeses. I remember we lived without cheese for awhile too because we couldn’t get halaal cheese. All we had was cheddar cheese so it could really only be cheddar! (there were restrictions, we got cream cheese once in a while so it was a real treat when we travelled!)

So, she used swiss because it was healthy.
yuck
swiss in my macaroni pie?
She must’ve moved when she was really young.
I really felt for her! :)

But seriously..cheddar cheese!

I love macaroni pie.

However…

I don’t eat it as often now for some TMI reasons.

Some people put meat in it…like minced beef…ewwwww! :(

Anywayz this is all an introduction for bajan macaroni pie! :)

Chennette is in search of a sweet and sour dish she had once.
I think I had it too.

You know how Chinese food differs not just by region but also by the country it was imported to?
Well we had a very tart (was it lemon, orange or sweet and sour) chicken in Trinidad, recently. It wasn’t what we expected, good but as I said unexpected. I can’t remember what it’s like anymore…except I know it wasn’t the Sweet and Sour stuff I got in massachusetts.

We figure it must be from the restaurant in Mid Centre mall because where else did we used to go and eat chinese food.

Anywayz, after my day in Bridgetown, since Tamnak Thai was not open yet, we went to the International Mall, open until 9PM!

Now that’s nothing to sneeze at. We were both studying in places with malls that closed early or stores that close early. And I think malls close early here in T&T too.

Well.

I wasn’t impressed.
It felt like how the inside of Gulf City used to be (it had like all the temporary stores in the middle). Note, just the inside stores, nothing else.

And it was very small. It looked much bigger from the outside. She said it seems the grocery took up most of the space.

But we were hungry and so went to check the chinese buffet. The buffet wasn’t open but they were open.

We had sweet and sour fish, shrimp stuffed mushrooms and some appetizers I’m sure but I can’t remember what. I think we paid about US$50 for our food. I *think*

I really loved those mushrooms. They were kind of spicy and unexpected. The fish was good too. Very red. She doesn’t think her camera takes such great red pictures.

Continue reading Barbados: Sweet and Sour and malls open until 9 PM!!!