Soca pioneer David Rudder believes it is important to return to the roots of social commentary in calypso developed by African slaves.
Trinidad musician David Rudder: Calypso as commentary
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Category Archives: Caribbean
Reggae legend Gregory Isaacs died Monday morning after a battle with cancer.
The Jamaican reggae singer, who was nicknamed the Cool Ruler, was best known for the song ‘Night Nurse’.
Ahh….Antigua
It’s a cold, miserable day here in Michigan. I wish I was down-island…maybe someplace like Antigua.
Stir It Up
Jamaica offers a parade of drinks to satisfy your soul.
From the Blue Mountains’ epic views of Kingston to the Nassau Valley’s wild forests and the North Coast’s inspiring beaches, Jamaica’s landscape is a stunning blend of tropical beauty. Infused throughout this backdrop are stories of welcome and playfulness, hard work and discovery, but most of all about the idea of being irie. Irie is the cool, relaxed, joyful mood shared by most Jamaicans—a mood that’s more than a little contagious. Slipping into it is easy, especially when sipping one of the island’s laidback elixirs.
Read more at Imbibe.
Old Bahamas
The best fish I’ve ever made
Tonight I prepared what became the best fish dinner I’ve ever made.
Start with:
1 pound tilapia fillets (mine happened to be a frozen package I purchased from Meijer’s on sale a few weeks ago)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon of The Spice House’s “Trinidad Lemon Garlic Mix”
Thaw the fillets to about three quarters of the fish is thawed. Place the fish in a shallow container. Mix remaining ingredients well and pour over the fish. Marinate for an hour.
After marinating place the fish into a pan and pour the sauce over top of the fish. Cook until the fish is done, then remove the fish. Crank the heat up to full whack (that would be high) and cook down the sauce a bit. Keep mixing while it is cooking down.
Plate the fish, and using a spoon pour a little of the sauce over top, and serve. If the oil in the sauce separates, use a spoon to skim off the non-oil and use that on the fish.
I served this fish with roasted potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, and parsnips, which where cut into 1 centimeter sized pieces and pan roasted with full cloves of garlic.
Get Your Jamaican Jerk on in ‘John Bull’s Reggae Kitchen’
There’s much more to Jamaica than beautiful beaches and great rum. The food is delicious as well, and one of our favorite treats from the Caribbean Island is jerk chicken. But to get just the right flavor, you’ll need the sort of authentic instruction that can only come from chef John Bull’s Reggae Kitchen.
The best part…John Bull’s restaurant is in Sweden.
Bacardi to Open Concept Store in the Bahamas
Hershey’s, Apple and Nike all have stores to showcase their brand and products. Now Bacardi will have one, too.
Thursday’s grand opening of the Bacardi store in downtown Nassau, Bahamas may be the first of its kind in the spirits industry.
The store will sell all the Bacardi portfolio of brands, plus a variety of branded accessories never available to the public in an independent retail store.
“This is a way that people can interact with the company and learn about the brand in a different way then just going up to a bar and ordering a rum and Coke,” said Joaquin Bacardi, president and chief executive officer of Bacardi Corp. in Puerto Rico, who manages the operations of the entire Caribbean region.
Brand concept stores, which have been around for years in other retail segments, have grown in popularity as a way to make a direct connection with the consumer. Ultimately, those kind of connections help to build brand loyalty.
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When in Martinique…
Martinique produces some fine rums on more than a dozen estates scattered around the island. Habitation Clement, an 18th Century distillery near Le Fracois, offers a tour of its facilities, a cane-field locomotive, and warehouses redolent with the scent of aging rhum, as well as gardens featuring exotic palms. You can also walk through the Clements’ magnificent Creole house on the hill, site of meetings between between Presidents George H.W. Bush and Mitterrand. The tour costs $10 and includes audio commentary and a rum tasting. www.habitation-clement.fr for more details (in French).
Virgin Islands radio stations that stream on the Intartubes
Here is a small list of USVI based radio stations that stream their audio on the internet.