10 things I love about Barbados

Chefs share the unique ingredients, traditions and dishes of their favourite locations. This month, we find out about the Caribbean island where David Carter, chef and founder of Smokestak in London, grew up

We discover the Caribbean island where Smokestak’s David Carter grew up

1 Grilled mahi mahi

The best is at Oistins – a local fish market by day, fish-fry/ grill by night. It has fast become one of the islands most famed hot spots, especially on a Friday night. Locals and tourist alike converge in masses to take in the atmosphere. Expect big open grills, picnic trestle tables, open-air market vibes, and hearty portions. Beyond the food, there are street hawkers selling local crafts, steel-pan drums and karaoke with some questionable local ‘talent’. Mahi mahi, known locally as dolphin, is a local meaty white fish. It takes to the grills particularly well. Undeniably, my death row meal.

2

Pudding and souse

A traditional Saturday staple lunch for many a local.

It’s a dish with roots back to slavery when the offcuts and less favourable parts of the pig were given to the slaves. Taking ingredients from the land, they used local sweet potato (the flesh is whiter in colour and it is much starchier than orange sweet potato) and made a blood pudding of sorts. The sweet potato is mixed with pig blood, scotch bonnet chillies, chives, thyme, marjoram, cloves and other spices, before being stuffed into pig intestines and steamed. The souse is pickled pork off-cuts, essentially – pig ear, tail, trotters, snout. The pork is boiled and mixed with more scotch bonnet chillies, lime and finely chopped cucumber. In recent years the dish has become gentrified, substituting a brown colouring for pig’s blood and it is seldom seen stuffed in intestine. More commonly, and much less labour-intensively, it is seen in a mash format and the souse now uses any cut of pork, including prime cuts.