My Barbados Blog

Last Wednesday the U.S. Agriculture Department announced that Barbados, along with Indonesia have fully complied with international trade standards and will begin allowing complete market access for U.S. beef and beef products of all ages.

In a statement released by USDA, Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner applauded the decision, noting it was based on science and in line with international guidelines.

He expressed optimism regarding what the agreement could mean for U.S. beef exports to Caribbean region countries such as Barbados, which he stated boasts one of the strongest economies in the Caribbean and high per capita income, with more than half of the islands gross domestic product coming from tourism.

Currently, more than 100 countries allow the entry of at least some U.S. beef and beef products.

Exports of U.S. beef and beef products to Barbados were roughly $2.7 million in 2007 (January-November) with partial market access.

Source: Agriculture News - Texas Farm Bureau

Stop by Barbados Restaurants Blog and see the review for one of the islands most elegant restaurants on the west coast - The Cliff Restaurant.

Barbados Offers Package Tied to Food Festival

Barbados will host a culinary festival entitled the "Taste of Barbados" from Oct. 11 through Oct. 14, 2007.

The festival will include food demonstrations, wine tasting, rum tours, beach barbecues, chef seminars and sugar plantation tours.

"Dining by Design," hosted by the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association, is another highlight to the "Taste of Barbados" program.

This is a pairing of designers and chefs to create special dining spaces and cuisine that compliment each other.

Guests can choose the chef and designer of their choice and will receive personalized service during the event. The package cost is $500 per person, a choice of six Taste of Barbados attractions and 25%  discount off all participating attractions.

Price does not include air or hotel.

While Jamaica and St Lucia have lifted their ban, Barbados has decided to keep the ban on British meat after an outbreak of Hoof & Mouth Disease was reported in August.

Another outbreak has been confirmed in Britain last week, and is about 30 miles from the farm that reported an outbreak back in August.

Banned products in Barbados include: live cattle, pigs, goats and sheep; fresh, frozen and chilled beef, pork, mutton/lamb, goat meat and foods containing these meats; smoked, cured and pickled products containing beef, pork, mutton and goat such as bacon, ham, sausages and pork tails in brine; soft cheeses and dairy products made from unpasteurised milk; and hay, forage and straw.

Efforts are under way to curb the spread of the West Indian Fruit Fly - especially on the Island of Barbados.

Since 2006, the US Department of Agriculture has overseen weekly shipments of wasps to Barbados. These wasps help reduce the fruit fly population without the use of harmful chemical pesticides.

Entomologists from the USDA visited the island to document the eco-friendly biological control program, and admit the fruit fly population in Barbados isn't as bad as many other island in the Caribbean.

USDA Entomologist, Dr. John Svinski, admitted that Barbados was somewhat unique, especially when compared with some other islands such as Puerto Rico, which has an extremely high fruit fly population.

Most Barbadians do want to use pesticides on the fruit trees in their backyards, and the wasp control program has shown to work well in past years.

Last Friday, the U.S. halted Haitian mango imports after inspectors in Florida found fruit fly larvae in three shipments on June 25 and July 2.

State of Florida health personnel are inspecting the fruit trees throughout the state. The discovery of the fruit fly is cause for concern, but "there's no need to panic," Florida Department of Agriculture spokesman Mark Fagan said

A widespread infestation of fruit flies could be a major problem for the state's agriculture sector, one of Florida's major industries which include avocados, grapefruit, guavas, lemons, mangoes, oranges and tangerines.

With a wide host range of more than 100 different fruits and vegetables, including various citrus fruits - fruit flies are one of the most potentially destructive pests in the world.

She adds, "It has never been a favourite of mine, nor have I ever craved it. In fact, I knew little of the many ways it can be prepared until I came to Barbados".

Now, I like the taste of roasted breadfruit with a little butter, salt and pepper, but have not acquired a taste for the other methods of cooking this fruit. In the Pacific islands the islanders roast the breadfruit on pre-heated rocks in underground ovens - umm good! - Linda

Bajan born Rihanna continues to top the Billboard Charts at the number one spot for the 7th week in a row. Some of the folks back home in Barbados don't like her new image, but we are not "hating" at My Barbados Blog!

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Caribbean Beat Blog says that Brooklyn sometimes feels like it is part of the Caribbean. In part because of the many Caribbean immigrants that call it home, in part because of its Carnival.

The Brooklyn Museum is hosting an exhibition of Contemporary Caribbean Art from August 31 to January 27, 2008.

On show will be nearly 80 works in a wide range of media, created in the past six years by 45 emerging and established artists with ties to 14 Caribbean nations, including Barbados. 

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Shane Brathwaite - World Champion Gold Medal Winner

Barbados Free Press congratulates Shane Brathwaite - Gold Medal Winner, and we also send wholehearted congratulations - carry on to the Olympics! Read more about Shane at the Free Press.

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Barbados Restaurant Blog - Says that Danar serves good local food and the bar is well stocked. It is a great opportunity to try such local delicacies as black pudding, souse and coucou. There are daily specials too. Tasty food and generous portions. Check out other restaurant reviews.

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Barbados Hash Harriers - Run 1258

Saturday, July 14th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Location: Windsor Plantation, St. George
Hares: George "Running Man"
Signs Posted From: Bussa Roundabout, ABC Highway.
- Bring your own Meat, Mugs, Money - 

The Barbados Hash House Harriers was founded in November of 1985. Although we are a group primarily focused on running and walking events, we also promote charitable projects for the less fortunate. Boasting over 100 regulars, we meet every Saturday and Bank holiday at different locations throughout our beautiful island of Barbados. All are welcome to join us, just show up to run or walk, and to socialize... On On!

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Kathleen Springer writes Travel Q & A for the Washington Post and the current subject is "An Eye Out for Hurricanes"
She says "Even in a worst-case scenario in which, say, you took 50 one-week vacations to Puerto Rico (relatively hurricane-prone) in September (the busiest month for storms), you would probably get hit only once. In short says Chris Landsea, of the National Hurricane Center, "if I got a chance to go to Barbados or Jamaica in September, I'd go." I could not agree more! - Read the full article at Washington Post

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Pink Sand & Cocktails posting at travelblog

After posting a few bars of Rihanna's hit "Umbrella", blogger "Adventures in the West Indies" concludes that Barbados was a nice dose of civilization with fantastic restaurants and beautiful beaches - especially Crane Beach.

Caribbean flavours evoke warm, indolent, sun-drenched days -- and hour upon hour of slow, flavour-infusing braising in the kitchen.

But busy urban cooks can evoke those intense Caribbean tastes in just half an hour with ingredients found in any Canadian supermarket, says Barbados chef Peter Edey in Vancouver for the 5th annual Eat! Vancouver, The Everything Food Cooking Festival at BC Place Friday through to Sunday.

"Our parents could never get the tender cuts of meat, so you had to use these long, slow methods of cooking," says Edey referring to African ancestors brought to the Caribbean islands as sugar plantation slaves. "It was the only way you could get the meat tender."

Read Sunny taste of Barbados article at Canada.com

About.com features an article on dining at The Crane Hotel restaurantsl, along with many related property links.

L'Azure restaurant at The Crane specializes in fresh seafood and Caribbean dishes artfully prepared. The resort's newest restaurant, Zen, serves Thai and Japanese cuisine overlooking Crane Beach. Zen also has traditional Tatami rooms, a sushi bar, and a private dining area.

On Sundays guests can have brunch accompanied by live Caribbean gospel music in the morning or savor a traditional Barbadian Sunday buffet lunch.

Go to About.com for links and related articles on The Crane

Surfing around the Net I ran across an article at the Scotsman.com's travel section. The article talks about cricketers, restaurants, Bajans and a lot more . . .

About Cricketers -

Barbados names roundabouts after its famous cricketers. The trouble is, there just aren't enough of them - roundabouts, that is. The national hero is Sir Garfield Sobers. Drive around at weekends and you'll see cricket matches taking place in the streets, villages and industrial estates.

About Restaurants -

Barbados boasts the greatest concentration of restaurants in the Caribbean, and in the evenings I eat fried flying fish and spice-charred snapper, ruthlessly avoiding the universal bangers and mash that is laid on to appease many of my fellow British visitors.

About Bajans -

The great charm of Barbados is the friendliness of its people. I have lost count of the times strangers have stopped unbidden to offer directions. "You're welcome" and "Have a nice day" may become somewhat tiresome through repetition, but there's no doubting the warmth and sincerity behind them.

Read the full article "Howzat Barbados!"  by Alastair Scott

http://living.scotsman.com/travel.cfm?id=450082007

On Friday March 30, 2007, the Barbados Culinary Team will hold its first Gourmet Evening to prepare for the upcoming competition. Guests can also experience the mixes of the Bartenders.

The Gourmet Evening will be held at the Barbados Golf Club, Durants, Christ Church. Tickets are now on sale at BDS$80.00 per person and can be obtained at the BHTA Secretariat, 4th Avenue Belleville, St. Michael.

Other Gourmet Evening Dates: 

April 13 - The Savannah Hotel

April 27 - TBA

May 4 - Bougainvillea Beach Resort

May 18 - TBA

May 25 - BMEX - Sherbourne Conference Center

June 8 - TBA

Frog Choir, Driftwood and Leaping Lizard are, as wine connoisseurs might know, well known wines from the Margaret River region of Western Australia.

These names have now been transported to the Caribbean island of Barbados and appear on the doors of the new luxurious suites opened at the exclusive Little Good Harbour (shown at left) resort.

Little Good Harbour is already well known in celebrity circles for its award winning Fish Pot restaurant and the wine connection is through Andrew Warden , the resort’s Australian owner whose family own vineyards in the Margaret River area.

Read rest of article at Easier Travel

Dining On The Beach

Fish Pot Restaurant, Shermans, Barbados, lunch and dinner, $13 to $35, including curried chicken and crab salad. (Cover-ups required for your bathing suit at this one.)

Il Tempio, Fitts Village, Barbados, lunch and dinner, $14 to $46, Italian cuisine.

Karibuni Restaurant, Ilet Pinel, St. Maarten, grilled entrees, lunch only, $16 to $33.

La Plage Restaurant, Plage de St. Jean, St. Barts, lunch and dinner, $20 to $55, described as the type of meal you would "expect on the Cote d'Azur."

Snack Zen, Shell Beach, St. Barts, sandwiches, lunch only, $9 to $12.

Scilly Cay, Island Harbour, Anguilla, lunch only, $25 to $50.

Chill Out, Long Bay, lunch and dinner, $5 to $27, "unabashedly Jamaican" food, like fish with rice and peas.

I was reading the Jamaica Gleaner, and low and behold I ran across an article "Let Us Do Barbados", which mentions some of the best places to eat in Barbados.

And the article includes a few places not on the tourist track - which is a great, and inexpensive way to experience the true Bajan food culture. In fact the next time I'm on the island I will have to check out Cuzz on Pebble Beach, Scarlet on the West coast, and Elbows in Holetown.   

There are so many good places to eat in Barbados, and one of my all time favorites in the Fish Pot, located at Little Good Harbour - which is pictured here. I could go on and on, but let's get back to the article . .

The article says, "Restaurants are plentiful in Barbados. Some comprise little huts that sell 'cutters' (a Bajan bread with various fillings - best one is ham and egg or saltfish), saltfish cakes to 'a lead pipe' (can fill an elephant). There are also middle-o'-de-road-sized and priced spots and highly-sophisticated gourmet ones"

Read the full article
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070215/cook/cook1.html

The Barbados Agriculture Society reintroduced this event in 2005 after a 30-year absence to showcase the talents of local farmers. It highlights the best of Barbadian crop and is aimed at the general public as well as those in the industry.

Read the rest of this article at Totally Barbados

Source: Totally Barbados

See previous posting on Barbados Food Imports at alarming levels

With food skyrocketing year after year, the Ministry of Agriculture has now identified 16 items which can be produced in Barbados - onions, cucumbers, sweet peppers, tomatoes, poultry, hot peppers, fresh milk and table eggs.

Barbados' Food Import Bill has reached alarming levels, and an effort is being made to cut costs, identify items that can be produced locally and give incentives to put idle lands into productive use.

Last year, the food bill was tagged at approximately $374 million, seven million dollars more than what was spent the year before.

Full article located at Barbados Nation Newspaper

Bird Flu Outbreak on English Poultry Farms

In a move to protect the islands poultry industry, Barbados agriculture officials have placed a ban on all poultry and poultry products originating from England. 

The ban will remain in place until further notice, and includes all avian species including pet birds as well as animal products such as feathers.

Over 160,000 turkeys have been slaughtered in Britain in an attempt to contain the bird flu outbreak.

It's a day of blogging on fine food in Barbados - And I found this article on a Doctor's Review website! Linda

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Barbados' culinary renaissance is part world-class talent, part island inspiration by Rosie Schwartz

Barbados' magnificent beaches, lush gardens and historic buildings make the island a favorite of Canadians, my husband and I included.

But its culinary treats are less well known. My husband, a Toronto family doc, and I set out to explore the island's eateries. Even though we thought that we had eaten our way around the island on previous visits, the offerings once again delighted and surprised us.

Barbados is undergoing a food renaissance. Traditional Bajan (the name for anyone or anything originating in the Barbados) dishes are garnering newfound respect.

They're not only served in neighbourhood restaurants but are also getting a makeover at upscale eateries. At the same time, the Bajan food scene is attracting chefs from other countries who are adapting their cuisine by using local ingredients.

Read the full article:
http://www.doctorsreview.com/archives/2005/no_11/nov05-p46.html

The (Nearly) Naked Lunch (and Dinner)
by Ian Keown - Feb 2007

Sometimes you just don't feel like putting on clothes to have lunch.

Sometimes you just want to go straight from fish-gazing in a Windex-tinted, bath-warm ocean to sushi-grazing under a shady palapa on a crescent of baby-powder sand.

For those of us who tend to eat indoors and fully clothed—and that, sadly, would be most of us—there's something supremely sexy and liberating about a dining room with no walls or ceiling and within sight, sound, and smell of the sea.

Beach dining in the Caribbean has come a long way since the days when everything was grilled over charcoal on an upended steel drum.

Today you're likely to find Vietnamese spring rolls, linguini vongole, and tabbouleh alongside the classic grilled langoustine and jerk chicken.

Beach restaurants now come in all sizes and shapes—beach shack, rum shop, brasserie, café, temple of haute (or almost haute) cuisine—and all you have to do is summon up the energy to choose. Sometimes the basic shack is all you need, with its welcome oasis of shade, its ice-cold beer and fresh fish—and a side order of beachy camaraderie.

At the other end of the spectrum are the restaurants where the tablecloths are as soft and white as the sand itself, the uniformed waiters better dressed than you.

 "We have people come in off the beach and order caviar and a bottle of Château Cheval Blanc," says Rory Rodger, general manager of the Lone Star restaurant, in Barbados. Whether you're after sevruga or flying fish, these are the of places where you can hop, skip, and jump across the scorching sand directly to your meal - towel to table, nonstop."

As one waiter put it, "Our dress code is come as you are - just don't come naked."

Sizzlers on the Sand: The pick of the best places to eat on the beach.

(I only included "sizzlers on the sand" for the island of Barbados, head to the source website below for other Caribbean island "sizzlers" - Linda)

Fish Pot Restaurant, Shermans
You hang a left beyond Port St. Charles, skirt the shore, cross the fishing village of Six Men's Bay, make another left, keep going until you come to a coral stone fort beside the beach.

You hang a left beyond, skirt the shore, cross the fishing village of Six Men's Bay, make another left, keep going until you come to a coral stone fort beside the beach.

This is the Fish Pot, a charmer ingeniously fitted into a 17th century remnant of the old British garrison and now part of the equally charming Little Good Harbour Hotel, across the street.

Bajans drive up here for chef Stephen Belgrave's masaman curried chicken, snow crab salad, and grilled lobster with cilantro and garlic butter, served on a deck with ten colorfully laminated tables or in a seven-table, art-filled inner room suffused with sunlight filtered through apple-green shutters—but hotel guests usually settle for room service on their big Balinese daybeds in the sand.

Cover-ups and sandals required (246-439-2604; lunch and dinner entrées, $13–$35).

(The hotel, Little Good Harbour is a small boutique hotel, and reservation need to be made well in advance to secure a room. Very nice beach, and large upscale accommodations with roomy balconies overlooking the Sea. If you are unable to book a room, make a trip to the Fish Pot - Linda)

Il Tempio, Fitts Village
What is something called filetto alla Pavarotti doing on the menu of a beachside restaurant on Barbados? This is the great tenor's favorite Italian restaurant when he stays on the island - he even has the chef prepare special meals and ship them to his villa.

True to its name, "The Temple" has Doric columns and a "mouth of truth" fountain, but this is still very much a beach place: Outdoor showers and tables overflow from the terrace onto the sand for beach lovers who want to tuck into homemade lasagna alla Vesuvio and pizza baguette al salmone without giving up the feel of sand beneath their feet.

The beach is public, but it's quieter than others along the fashionable Platinum Coast. And it's not just portly tenors who find Il Tempio worth the trip: The restaurant has also hosted former Czech president Václav Havel and Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood—they just don't rate a namesake dish (246-417-0057; lunch and dinner entrées, $14–$46).

(Il Tempio is one of the restaurants still on my list to visit - Linda)

Daphne's, Payne's Bay
Part Italian (chef Marco Festini Cromer is from Milan) and part Japanese (earth-toned teahouse-inspired decor), Daphne's restaurant has an airy elegance and an outdoor terrace just yards from the surf.

The homemade pastas are delicious, but the scallop and baby zucchini risotto is a must (246-432-2731; lunch entrées, $13–$35; dinner entrées, $27–$46).

(Absolutely romantic, elegant and the food is wonderful. Get a table on the outside terrace - Linda)

Lone Star Restaurant, Alleyne's Bay
This chic pavilion restaurant on the posh Platinum Coast has an elaborate wood bar with five huge mirrors reflecting the mise-en-scène: white tablecloths and celeb diners such as Hugh Grant and Tony Blair.

There are even tables set right on the sand for those who don't want to slip on a cover-up at lunch (something required at dinner). The menu includes Thai salad with chicken and mango, a meze plate, and an upscale (as in $25) shepherd's pie (246-419-0599; lunch and dinner entrées, $13–$40).

(Thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and a pricey lunch on the beach. Haven't experienced dinner at the Lone Star - very pricey - Linda)

Mannie's Suga Suga, Mullins Beach
Taken over several years ago by Mannie Ward (formerly of the acclaimed Cliff Restaurant), Suga Suga serves sushi as well as "fish cutter" (fried fish on a bun), vegetable roti, and other rum shop specials.

Barrels and an ocean-themed floor mosaic create a decidedly nautical atmosphere (246-419-4511; lunch entrées, $13–$53; dinner entrées, $33–$53).

(This is a MUST DO for any visitor. While lounging on beautiful Mullins beach, all you have to do is wave a flag for food and drink service. Great fish cakes, flying fish, and do catch the buffet. GREAT food, service, price and beach - Linda)

Source: Conde Nast Traveler
http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/detail?articleId=10588