Cook-Up and all dem tings!

Cook-Up Rice is a traditional Guyanese meal. National dish some say, but I don't know how to confirm that. Anyone? Anyone??

Now apparently cook-up is common here on a Saturday, like how we would have soup in Jamaica on a saturday. Well, we did when we were growing up anyway. Don't know about what happens these days. Cook-up rice can have ANYTHING in it. Really, anything! Traditional meats include salted pork, salted beef, tripe, fresh pork, dried shrimp, and of course chicken. To add to this choice or combination of meats, is the vegetable part. Usually these are peas or beans. Black-eye peas, pigeon peas, red beans and split peas. Even though the meats may be mixed, the peas/beans are never mixed in cook-up. So you may hear of split peas cook-up or black-eye cook-up, but the twain shall not meat in one dish. 

Sometimes, in place of the peas or beans, callaloo can  be used in the cook-up. So, everything is cooked in this one-pot dish along with Caribbean spices and herbs and done in a coconut milk base to add a little richness to the meal. The dish as you can see is very versatile, and almost anywhere you go to buy lunch on any given day will have some kind of cook-up. Except for the traditional fast food places, of course. :)  But, you know, if we were in Jamaica, some fast food restaurant would've capitalized on this already. Naturally, I mean, where else in the world could you have ever had escoveitched fish with bammy for breakfast at Burger King???

Anyway, the point of this story started last week when I decided I was going to try to eat more vegetables. Remember the "Are Guyanese healthier than Jamaicans?" post? So, I decided to start this week of with callaloo. To begin with, it is nearing the end of the month, and funds are QUITE low. So, for $100 a bag for  callaloo already cut up in the market, I was going to try to make a go at it. I asked my friend about buying some callaloo in the market. 

What kind of callaloo?

WHAT?? Callaloo. I don't know what type.

And so it began. Everyone kept asking me what kind of callaloo I wanted. What I wanted was the callaloo they sell in Jamaica. That's the only type I know. So, my dear boss took me to the market on Friday partly because he was also opposed to me buying the callaloo already cut up by the vendors. He wanted me to buy my own bundles with the stalk and cut it up myself. Ay yi yi. Doesn't he know that I don't do "hard work"? Sigh. But, I was happy for the opportunity so I went along.

In Guyana callaloo is certainly complicated. There is bhajgee (bah-gee), sometimes Pak Choy is also sold and referred to as callaloo, and then there is the eddoe leaf (which is closely related to dasheen). There may be others, but this is what I remember. So, I got my callaloo, the custodian in the office was kind enough to cut it up for me, but then she asked me how I was going to cook it?  Well, I only know to cook it up with onions and tomatoes, maybe with some saltfish in it. So, I'd never really thought about doing it any other way. That is how we most commonly eat it in Jamaica. However, she asked me if I was going to make a stew or cook-up. Aaaaaaah. Cook-up. She told me how to prepare the cook-up and I vowed to try it on the weekend. Here is how it looked...

My callaloo cook-up with beef and of course I threw in a little corn.

Are Guyanese healthier than Jamaicans?

Everytime I ask one of my colleagues what they've brought to lunch for work they give me the name of some vegetable. It's interesting. Guyanese eat... Bora for lunch. http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/images/2009/01/bora-copy.jpg

But, what is the best part, is that they're not eating bora by itself. They're eating it with meat. Bora and chicken, or bora and mince or something like that. Now in Jamaica, we'd probably say we were eating chicken with bora, or mince with bora. Wouldn't you think the same?

But, other than that, I find them talking often about how they're tired of rice. Tired of bread. (That shouldn't be too bad a thing, right?) Maybe if I was tired of bread I could lose some weight... :) In addition, they eat curried pumpkin, curried mango, boulanger (egg plant), etc as regular meals. Sometimes I see people eating just rice with black eyed peas or something like that, and callaloo is a common dish for many.

With all these vegetables featuring prominently in the lives of the Guyanese, are they all healthy? Are they healthier than the Jamaicans like myself who aren't eating as many vegetables? Don't get me wrong, Jamaicans eat vegetables with their meals - just mostly as a side dish. And, yes we do have vegetarians in Jamaica, but these Guyanese I'm referring to are not vegetarian. So, this should make for a pretty healthy lifestyle, right? Is this something I should be adopting???? Boulanger... here I come!