Reggae singing celebrity cook Levi Roots has published his first cookbook, the Reggae Reggae Cookbook! I haven’t bought it yet but I had a glance a few days ago and it looks great. It’s going to be a massive hit for lovers of Caribbean food and food.
I applaud Levi (whose real name is Keith) because he’s a true example for young black people in this country who doubt their ability to succeed. In a recent interview in the Observer Food Monthly, he said that refused to change to suit corporate tastes; “At first, people thought the logo was too Rasta. Too Jamaican. Too black. But I thought ‘to hell with them’. That’s me.”
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I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cuss when I read this in the Times today: Sales of oranges are declining because people can’t peel them.
It sounds totally ridiculous! How could people in 21st century Britain not know how to peel a damn orange?
The article says; “Several reports this week have alerted us to that fact that sales of oranges have plummeted for the third year running because peeling an orange is now considered too time-consuming. And because they drip all over your keyboard, and make your hands sticky, and give off such a powerful scent that someone asks “Who’s been eating an orange?” and you end up justifying to a colleague, neighbour or spouse an act that should in ideal circumstances be private.”
What’s the world coming to? Anyway, if you think you need a refersher in peeling oranges, get your sharp knife, a tablespoon and check out the article.

I’ve just come back from a really short holiday in Trinidad. I went primarily for Joanne and Jim’s wedding and was also quite lucky to be there to pick up on the latest in the Trini culinary scene at the Taste TNT exposition.
Taste TNT was great, I ate some good food and did interviews with a couple of exciting chefs. I’m going to buckle down and write more about that soon.
I had a totally unplanned food experience at Tobago Plantations or VHL Tobago (formerly Tobago Hilton). My flight was cancelled and I had to spend an extra night in Tobago. The inconvenience was annoying but it was somewhat allayed by the dinner at the hotel. It was buffet style and I had more than my fair share of flying fish! I just wish that the restaurant staff would smile a bit more.
Having just received my luggage three days later, I feel as if I’m finally back home, so you can look forward to reviews of a couple of books I picked up on holiday and more about Taste TNT.

Someone who read my review of Creole - the excellent cookbook by Babette de Rozières - asked whether I’d read any more interesting books about Caribbean cuisine.
As it happens, I’ve been checking out a range of books about Caribbean cuisine that I reviewed for the latest issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.
Some of them are pure cookbooks, while the others are books about Caribbean food culture. Here’s an excerpt from that column.
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Sweden-based Jamaican cook John Bull from the Back A Yard Restaurant in Stockholm is a natural star isn’t he? Check out his video above, as he cooks saltfish fritters, a real Caribbean food classic.
I really enjoyed looking at John Bull cook, because it’s like being in the kitchen with an old friend. He’s got a few other recipes including Curry Goat and Ackee and Saltfish, you can see them here.

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Last week two brilliant American women provided me with much needed inspiration. Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva better known as The Kitchen Sisters came to London to speak about their award-winning radio series Hidden Kitchens and their other radio projects.
Hidden Kitchens is primarily broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR) in the US and explores the world of secret, unexpected, below the radar cooking across America - how communities come together through food.
The series gave rise to their first book, Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes, and More from NPR’s The Kitchen Sisters. The book is ‘unputdownable’ so it’s no wonder it was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 2005 and got nominated for a James Beard Award for Best Writing on Food.
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You’d have to be living on another planet not to know that the world is in the throes of a food crisis. From England to Egypt, there are shortages of staples like rice and flour, while the rising price of wheat has sent the price of meat soaring.
The head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) called the global food shortages, “a silent tsunami which knows no borders sweeping the world”.
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After all the culinary gymnastics and trumpeting of molecular gastronomy and other mystifying cooking methods, simple cooking seems to be the theme for cookbook writers this year. This is a smart move, because then they can capitalise of a huge market of time-poor people who want to cook delicious meals.
One of the best books I’ve seen in a while is One Perfect Ingredient: Three Ways to Cook It by Marcus Wareing. I haven’t had the opportunity of eating at his Michelin-starred restaurant Petrus, but I have tried his recipes, seen him at work at food shows and on television. I enjoy looking at him cook because he’s one of the most technically proficient chefs on the box these days.
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There’s always something to put you off when you plan to cook an ambitious meal. A few weeks ago, I wanted to treat some friends to a really lovely Indian dish to commemorate Phagwa and so to pay homage to this vibrant festival, I put together a menu of Caribbean Indian delicacies and North Indian inspired dishes.
My guests would be treated to saheena, kachowrie, pitod ka saag (chickpea flour dumplings in yogurt sauce), subz miloni (seasonal vegetables in spinach and garlic sauce) and gulab jamon.
It all started so well, waking up early to make the saheena and the kachowrie and moving quickly on to the chickpea flour dumplings which needed to be rested and done just before serving.
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The weather’s been very yucky in these parts lately. It’s been cold, wet and windy, not the conditions for going out and enjoying the nightlife.
On nights like this, there’s nothing to warm the bones like a bowl of steamy, comfort food. I had planned to cook a traditional oxtail soup in the style of Port of Spain’s Breakfast Shed with some meaty joints I got from Farmer Sharp at Borough Market but then I saw a tempting recipe by Nigel Slater in the Observer Food Monthly that made my mouth water.
Slater, one of this country’s best food writers is a lover of comfort food and this recipe for Braised oxtail with mustard sauce shows why he is so loved.
To give the dish a bit more kick, I seasoned the oxtail with a little bit of jerk seasoning and put some chadon beni sauce in with the onions. After two hours of cooking, the result was tender meat dropping off the bone that was flavoured enough by the seasoning and the wine to eat at that point. The creamy, tangy and delightfully rich mustard sauce isn’t going to help any weight loss efforts but who cares, it was an absolute revelation.
It’s made for a marriage with mashed potatoes and I’d strongly recommend this combination as a simple main course for a small dinner. Oxtail is rather inexpensive so the money you save on meat can go into a buying a good wine or an upmarket cider for you and your guests.

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