BY AMANDA CUMMINS When I was a little girl in Trinidad, I ran away from home. Teddy clutched in my arms, and emergency supplies (I can’ t remember what they were, but they were important) in my school satchel, I opened the garden gate which was usually locked (more to deter incursions than for containing a 5-year-old). I remember it vividly. Standing on the road … Continue reading Trinidad Runaway
BY AMANDA CUMMINS For some inexplicable reason, the other day I was looking through my paternal grandmother’s recipe book – or, more accurately, given that she started writing in this ledger in 1916 prior to her marriage, her Collection of Receipts. It makes fascinating reading. It is heavy, and I use the word in its most literal sense, especially in respect to puddings. Nothing seems … Continue reading Christmas Day in Trinidad
BY AMANDA CUMMINS Step a little closer, and I shall tell you a secret. Well, it’s not exactly a secret-secret, more a pointer to something rather special. Going out for Sunday lunch – a planter’s buffet – in Barbados is something of a tradition. Convivial company, a groaning table of delicious choices and likely a rum punch or two. Hotels and restaurants throughout the island put … Continue reading Lunch at Lancaster Great House
BY AMANDA CUMMINS My father’s paternal grandfather, born in 1828, was married not once or twice but thrice. With prodigious issue. His first two wives were young ladies from Barbados, a place he visited during his service as a surgeon in the Royal Navy. Both these brides were from “old Bajan families”. Inevitably, they were cousins. Both died young. My great-grandfather returned to County Cork … Continue reading Pink in Barbados
BY AMANDA CUMMINS The Great Houses in Barbados and other parts of the West Indies were attached to estates, primarily sugar estates. Some houses were greater than others, many are now dilapidated shells and sometimes their previous existence only lies in the name of whichever estate they were at the heart of. The areas one drives through have names such as Friendship and Harmony Hall. … Continue reading St Nicholas Abbey – Pride of Barbados
BY AMANDA CUMMINS There are those for whom hot sauce is a never-to-be-repeated experience. In the same way that I, ever the child of the Caribbean, shriek at putting even one toe into the waters surrounding the UK (“you’re trying to kill me”, I said to Granny, circa 1973, Aberdovey), hot sauce is not necessarily something for everyone. Before I go any further: the correct … Continue reading Barbados Hot Sauce
BY AMANDA CUMMINS On my parents’ return to Trinidad it was to a bigger job, a bigger house and a bigger diary. They had attended, and given, many parties during our first stint in the West Indies. Parties mainly for friends, with very little business entertaining. And very good parties they were, too. However, this was different. This new life meant entertaining Big Time. Diplomats, … Continue reading Return to Trinidad
BY AMANDA CUMMINS Certain smells, and I mean smells in a good way, take one racing back to a certain time and a certain place. One thing which triggers my memory bank is a sudden whiff of the scent my mother wore which brings a smile of remembrance: the swish of a many-layered skirt, pearls around her neck and a kiss at bedtime before going … Continue reading Trinidad Thyme
BY AMANDA CUMMINS Rum punch. The Caribbean. The first lunchtime back in the West Indies is always a moment of delight, with a tantalising glass to the left of me, a seductive sea to the right, all beneath the sun. Stuck in the middle of perfection with loved ones. A proper rum punch is a drink of magic. It’s an amalgamation of sweet and sour, … Continue reading Rum Punch
