Last night we ate curried goat, crab with coriander and Jamaican popcorn at a Caribbean-themed supper-club in North London. Unfortunately, the otherwise excellent menu lacked a dish from Belize so, tonight, with the memory of some rather impressive flavor combinations (think chili and sugar, for example), we attempted to create something equally exotic at home.
This was the result.
Belize is yet another B that lacks a presence in London’s dining options. With the national dish containing a pig’s tail, getting onto Benin had, for a while, looked a little problematic; however, we stumbled across this excellent website with a far more edible alternative just as we were bracing ourselves for the delightfully named boiled egg and pig’s tail Bile Up. Served with the customary Rice and Beans, Belizean fish stew is made from ingredients that you can easily buy on the high street. What’s more, it doesn’t take the 2 hours that we had to put aside for the Bahraini Chicken Machboos so you can actually make it in the evening without finding yourself slaving over an oven at 10 o’Clock. Result.
Kind of.
Belizean fish stew is made from water, onions, tomatoes, peppers and white fish and it tastes exactly as you’d imagine it to. The Rice and Beans probably would have been better with a full can of coconut milk rather than the miserly half I used, but without the interesting additions to other Rice and Beans equivalents that we’ve made, it all seemed a bit bland. This obviously wasn’t helped by the fact that I added way too much water to the stew and was spooning it out half way through.
Still.
Belizean fish stew is convenient and inoffensive. Jamaican popcorn it is not.
Turns out that Belize is, as with so many countries, not quite where I thought it was. Here’s the map and anthem to end on.
Image from: By United States Central Intelligence Agency [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Mange Two 