Carnival Food Fair

Today was the Carnival Food Fair. I spent a good two hours wandering among the booths and tables. Even though I've tried tons of new food since we moved here, I tasted many, many things for the first time today! I wandered down to the food fair with some people from work. Shortly after I got there I called Dave and told him the fair was just as exciting and interesting and that he should come down to enjoy as well. One of the big draws of the Food Fair for Virgin Islanders is the opportunity to see old friends who have moved away from the islands who always come back for Carnival. The Food Fair turns into a reunion of sorts. Here I am with the magistrate judge's law clerk, my friend Monica.

While waiting for Dave, my boss bought a saltfish cake for me to try. (I'm holding a bit of it in the above photo.) For those of you who have visited us, it is similar to a salmon ball. Basically it's saltfish turned into a lightly fried ball of food. It had a little spice to it, and when Dave tried one after he arrived he observed that saltfish is usually the most spicy local food. It was very good and flavorful. Dave had two more saltfish cakes, sampling them from different food booths to see how different cooks make it. I was told there were over 200 booths or tables. We definitely didn't get to all of them, but we sampled a good amount of food from many of them.

I bought some stewed tamarind preserves and stewed gooseberry preserves. This is one of those things that you have to buy from the right person. Luckily, everyone I work with told me to go to the same person - Ms. Henley. At this same booth I got a piece of hard lemon candy too. I have no idea what it's called, but it is good! I also enjoyed a banana sea moss drink this afternoon. Someone had told me sea moss is supposed to enhance male potency, but it was the only frozen drink for sale that I'd never had before that sounded interesting, so I tried it anyway. It tasted a little like a banana milkshake. Dave had a taste once he arrived and said it tasted like pancake batter. I also had a sip of my coclerk's sugar cane juice, which tasted a lot like sugar water to me, but it was good. One other beverage I tasted was some homemade mango wine. It tasted a lot like pureed mango with some seriously strong liquor. I didn't buy any!

After Dave arrived, we went back for the saltfish cakes to be our real lunch. We purchased some cassava bread from the same booth. Dave tells me it's a staple in some South American countries. It was very flat and dry. I think it'd be good with some jam. It didn't have a whole lot of flavor, and it's pretty pricey. But now we can say we've had it! After dinner tonight I tried a bit of the tamarind preserves on the cassava bread - the preserves are yummy and help the cassava bread. We ate our lunch in the shade near the post office where the Rising Stars Steel Orchestra was playing on their two story "float" again. (Yes, the band is made up of school-aged children, but there is no school Wednesday through Friday this week, in celebration of Carnival.)

We also bought "potato pudding". Really it's sweet potato pudding and it's more similar to bread pudding than a creamy pudding. It's dense but good, and we've got some leftover. My favorite new dessert that I tried today though was a tamarind ball. We found a place selling huge tamarind balls for $1 each. The seller described them as hot but not too spicy. It's got some very good flavor; it's tart but it also has little kick. There are seeds from the tamarind in the ball though, but lots of seeds, so it's obvious they use a lot of tamarind in them. I'd actually tasted it before in a small package we bought at the grocery store, but they were nowhere near as good. The ones at the fair were fresh and flavorful. I hope I don't have to wait until next year to get another one!

If you remember, last holiday season, I posted the V.I. version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. On the eleventh day, the song goes "my woman gave to me, eleven benya." Today I asked what something was, expecting "banana fritter" to be the answer, but the answer was "benya!" Of course I had to buy that too. It tastes a lot like a banana fritter but it had raisins in it too, and it was a little more bread-like, and less fried. I just had a little nibble though as I was getting pretty full.

Actually, it wasn't too long before I had acquired a decent sized collection of barely-eaten food that Dave and I had tried during the day. I brought it all home though so we can continue nibbling and tasting over the next few days. Did I mention the banana and pumpkin fritters? Usually banana fritters are my favorite and I just can't get enough of them. Well, this time the pumpkin fritters won hands down. A few hours after I went back to my office, I heard that one booth had the best conch ever and it was dirt cheap. So my coclerks and I headed back to get a taste of that and some more pumpkin fritters. It was too late though - both were long gone. We had first arrived at the food fair just before 10:30 a.m. so we hadn't had that problem during our first round. But now we know for next year - be sure to get everything you want early before the cooks sell out!


The Food Fair isn't just about food - there are lots of local arts and crafts as well. Lots of people were selling sandals, scented candles, shirts, hats, and jewelry of all sorts. One of my coworker's mother makes and sells dolls in traditional dress. The mother was at the fair wearing the same traditional dress as her dolls.

All in all, the Food Fair definitely lived up to my expectations. It was a really fun day. I just wish it lasted through all of Carnival instead of just for one day. It's tough to make choices about what to eat. We didn't make choices - we just bought it all!

Well, tomorrow is J'ouvert, so we have to get to bed early. The J'ouvert Warm-Up starts at 12:30 a.m.!!! J'ouvert itself begins at 4:00 a.m., but Dave and I don't plan on making our appearance until around 6:00. I've been informed it'll last until around 10:00 a.m., so I'm hoping that's true. The non-stop weeklong party continues ....