Band Pasta

Hey blog peoples, I hail this morning from Frederiksted on the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. I am currently on tour with the DC rockabilly band The Grandsons. This is my second year on this tour and unfortunately it meant missing Luke and many other of my favorite players on BandHouse Gigs’ tribute to Neil Finn and Crowded House last at the Barns at Wolf Trap. Nevertheless, I have been really enjoying myself and eating wonderful, new and interesting foods on this trip. Culinary highlights thus far have been a tasty grouper sandwich at The Fat Turtle, late night eggs at Betsy’s bar with her homemade hot sauce, and bbq chicken on the beach for valentine’s day (made by our booking agent, Chicken Charlie).

Yesterday, we headed over to the St. Croix Agricultural Fair. It was a huge weekend-long fair and everyone on the island came. They had multiple music stages, tons of crafts, and rows and rows of food. They even had food competitions. My bandmates tried the regional Callaloo, which is a soup made from taro leaves, okra, conch, onions, garlic, and possibly pork fat all cooked down to a stew. It’s traditionally a Jamaican dish, but Puerto Rico, the west indies, and other parts of the Caribbean have their own variations. It smelled wonderful.

I tried a Samosa, which is a south asian pastry (pictured above). It contained potatoes, peas, onion, red peppers, coriander, and curry all wrapped in a triangular pastry. In grand Caribbean fashion, I put extremely hot sauce on it (few of the hot sauces have labels and are usually made from a regional pepper that isn’t a habanero or scotch bonnet). Either way it was delicious and I enjoyed every bite, if you are ever in these parts or in a city with a good asian food contingent, give a Samosa a try. I even bought a bottle of homemade hot sauce to bring back (Luke, I’ll let you try it). I’m sure I’ll have more to report before this trip is through, till then, happy eating.