A Taste of the Caribbean

If there is anything I lament about the house I bought almost a year ago, it's that my neighborhood isn't a gourmet hotspot. In the past, I've had the privilege of living in apartments that were close to, or directly above a fantastic foodie shop or eatery. Now, there is little more than a reasonably stocked green grocer two blocks away and a decent Vietnamese restaurant around the corner. Good luck trying to find cheeses not made by Kraft, organic meats, or a fresh baguette.

The one roti/jerk chicken place I liked folded shortly after I moved in. It took several months for a replacement to fill the location, but now there is a small bakery there that offers cakes, cookies and other sweets from the West Indies. The store owners need to improve their shop layout and address the complete absence of a window display. But I truly hope that their business will thrive and expand my dietary repertoire.

Recently, I purchased some coconut turnovers (above) and a wedge of cassava cake (below).

The turnovers had a light and fluffy dough, stuffed with a spiced coconut mixture. There were a couple of days when that was all I had for lunch and it was incredibly filling as well as energizing.

The cassava cake was a bit of a leap for me. I've always seen cassava on grocery shelves ("it looks like a waxy sweet potato," was how I once described it) but never knew what to do with it. I hadn't realized that it is the third largest source of carbs in the world, or that cassava root flour is used to make tapioca. Recipes for it range from the West Indies, to South America, to East Asia , to Africa. Interestingly, Googling "cassava cake" brought up a bunch of Filipino recipes.

I liked how thick and moist the cake was. I'm sure the sweetness came from sugar or condensed milk rather than the cassava, but I can easily see its application in other recipes that call for a rich, heavy texture. Much to my chagrin, one of my cats ate half of it while I wasn't looking. Baaaaad cat.