Caribbean food adventures in Singland

I invited a Chinese friend over for dinner and she insists that I cook local Dominican food (not Asian which is my favourite). She grew up in Asia, so it’s understandable that wants to eat something different. Most of my friends like to eat a specific dish made of ripe plantains ( a type of banana ) with meat and vegetables, with rice, etc, so I’ll cook the bloody dish..

Last week I ended up visiting the local Hindu Market called Tekka Market, which is incredibly clean and tidy, and very cheap compared to the supermarkets where most of us ‘westerners expats’ go to. There I met a stall owner who happens to sell plantains ( you can’t find them everywhere here, as opposed to London) so I thought I found gold…

Most of my friends don’t really know much about this vegetable, so this is a photo of a plantain :). Looks like a banana, but it’s actually a vegetable

 

…The lady (called Keeh) didn’t have ripe plantains last week, so gave me her phone number and asked me to call her back today to ‘order’ them. So, I called today and this is how it went:

– Hi Keeh. This is Paola.  Can I order 10 ripe plantains as discussed last week?

– “Yes, ME HAVE 10 GREEN PLANTAIN”

– No, I want 10 RIPE plantains. Ripe, as in yellow, can I collect them on Saturday?

– “YES, YES MISS , I HAVE 10 GREEN PLANTAIN, NOW, HERE”

Right, I gave up and asked her if I could collect them TODAY so that they’re ripe by Saturday. And then she told me in her very thick Chinese accent:

– “Yes, the ripe plantains, you – can – collect -them on Saturday, OK”. After 10am ! DON’T-COME-BEFORE-10AM”.

– Ok Keeh, see you on Saturday

– “Ok. BRING – 20 – DOLLAR!”

– 2 dollars per plantain?!?

– “YES – 20 DOLLAR!!”

 

It was the most hilarious conversation, so at the end I went to the Little India food market, bought the expensive plantains, cooked the dish and thankfully it was yummy 🙂