Lambi Cooking Class & Food Festivals in Grenada

September 22, 2011

Our Summer Camp for the AARP crowd continues, with more and more creativity!  Dockside, the get togethers continue on a weekly basis at a minimum.

Dockside Cooking Class

Martin & his sister

This week we’ve learned all about conch - lambi as it’s called in these islands.  Our friend, Martin and his sister demonstrated exactly how to catch the conch in the sea grass; taught us how to poke the hole in the shell and slip a knife in to release the 'animal'; how to skin and clean the conch - what to eat and most importantly, what NOT to eat.

Showing how the inside part & how the conch is attached inside

Various type of conch - To my surprise -some are poisonous 

'Skinning' the conch 'animal'

Conch before cutting it and hammering it to make it tender

Conch MUST be tenderized

Pounding away with a hammer to tenderize the conch

Green & red peppers, onion, carrot chopped to make the Lambi Fritters& Lambi Salad

Lambi fritters being stirred up

Fritters ready for the pot

Deep frying fritters - the best I've eaten as these had lots of 'stuff' added

Cracked conch - conch rolled in flour w spices & deep fried

Lambi Water - we call it Conch soup! 

 We all pigged out on the Lambi Salad (like a civichi),  Lambi Fritters, the Cracked Lambi and finished our meal with Lambi Water.  To say we were stuffed would be an understatement!  We had a great time watching, learning and especially eating!

Afterward, Martin & Bill from the catamaran 'Ultra' showed us how to further make holes and cut the conch shell so one would have a proper horn to blow.   There is an art form to making a proper conch horn and practice and skill is needed to make it sound like music.





 

That little piece must be cut out to make a proper horn

Listening to the boaters 'making music' with the conch horns, it was tough to determine whether we had (a) moose in heat (b) stuck pigs (c) boaters with bad gas on the dock.  Hilarious!
  

The colors inside a conch shell are beautiful

Awaiting our bites and tasting samples of it all

The drinks along with the recipes

              UNIQUE HAPPY HOUR
We celebrated something - whatever/anything - with a unique Happy Hour on the dock last night.  Each boat brought their favorite drink in a pitcher to share with all, including the recipe and also brought a food dish to share.

Finally!  I got rid of Vodka and got rid of Melon Liquor that I’d had on board for nearly 4 years....bottles purchased for some long ago party and never opened.

Sooo many tasty foods!

My Melon Breeze is equal parts vodka (used Citron) & melon liquor plus equal parts pineapple juice and cranberry juice.  I doubled the amount of juice vs the liquor.  Serve over ice.  Many thought the drink was a rum based one.  Amazingly, this was one of THE hits of the party, along with every other drink made, including PainKillers, various Margarita drinks, White Russians, Sangrias, Bloody Mary type drinks and on and on...whatever was in the bilge of a boat needing to be used up.  Imagine, so many pitchers on a table and so many boaters sampling, sampling, sipping, sipping.  I worried about boaters trying to get back on their boats from the docks after sampling so many drinks!!!
Most of us have to walk a narrow plank from the back of the boat to the dock - scary when sober.

                                                 LOCAL   FOOD    FESTIVALS
Food Festivals abound on the island.  Each week in Gouyave, a 30 minute drive from here, is Fish Friday. a seafood culinary event attended by many from all over Grenada.  One wanders the street full of vendors cooking up all kinds of seafood in all kinds of ways.  One can purchase a bite or an entire meal.  We sampled small platefuls, sipped a rum drink, a beer or water and just enjoyed the ambiance! (See my earlier blog in July regarding our visit there.)

Gouyave

Once a month, not to be outdone, the little town of Victoria, further up from Gouyave, hosts their Food Festival.  Ah, all kinds of food is to be had, including some things one might not want to know you’re eating, such as male body parts off strange animals.  Ah, all was delicious, including a plate of liver I got!

Our group chatting with the locals

My favorite - the drums

Even played a couple of USA songs for us!

Everyone had a great time!

At one of the food booths

Food, Food & More Food