The Whole Hog

The Whole Hog

On Caye Caulker there is this delightful restaurant called La Cubana. As with many places it has a pitchman outside luring tourists in. No exception here. The pitchman was Adam – someone who seemed to know of every activity, every scam, every fun thing to do on the Island. Gaunt, irrepressibly vivacious – almost manic. He can never remember the actual details of the stories, but it doesn’t matter they are such good ones. Every night La Cubana offers a whole roasted pig.

That means that every day a pig gets roasted. So, around the back we went to find Marlin and his lads roasting a pig over a pit. They take turns at the spit, rotating the pig slowly for several hours. Starting at 8am and the beast is ready for serious eating at about 5:30. Oh yeah.

Of course we (The Beard, The Little Fella, and I) get there on the dot of 5:30, after all there are only 2 ears and a small quantity of jowl meat on a single pig and we wanted more than our share.

It was lean, succulent, delicious. Who cares about sides when there is this exquisite porkiness to be had? The jowls were to die for. Warm pork fat trickling down my arm as I shoveled the tender meat into my mouth. And then some crispy skin to act as a contrast? The ears were great too, that wonderful cartilaginous texture – again a contrast with the softness of the jowls, but with a very pronounced porkier flavor. Probably because they didn’t have the same amount of fat to baste them, so they were done more. Whatever, they were delicious.

You can’t leave a hog without going after the belly though. So of course we had to have some of that too. Another entirely different taste/texture contrast. Almost a bit gamey – and that’s fine by me.

The next day at lunch time – Cuban sandwich from the previous day’s leftovers. And of course a Belikin. The finest 24 hours of anticipation and eating imaginable.

Best Local Food in Caye Caulker Belize. The Budget Man.

The Budgetman

We (Chef D, The Beard, and myself –The Birdman) took a recent trip to the remote island of Caye Caulker, Belize for some quick sun, Belikin, and new food finds.  We never planned ahead for meals, or really anything for that matter, but the reoccurring question that always came up was “Where should we have lunch?”

And every day we came back with the same answer. The Budgetman. So for the 6 days on Caye Caulker, we had lunch with the Budgetman for 5 of them. The one day we were out fishing so missed him.

Everyone on Caye Caulker seems to have a self given nickname. Charles Coote is no exception. By day he is Budgetman and by night Charles (never Charlie, always Charles). His superhero costume is a floppy chef’s hat over the top of a baseball cap. He’s got himself a pretty nice life. He rocks up at about noon, sets his table on Front Street located right on the main beach, has a couple of the local lads put up a tent to keep himself in the shade.  Yes, even the locals in Belize like the shade.

He dishes food (15BZD for one protein, 25BZD for 2) into Styrofoam (made in China of course – like much that is sold on Caye Caulker) plates. There’s always rice, always some kind of seafood, always some kind of animal protein, vegetables and coleslaw. Sometimes its jerk pork or chicken, sometimes curry.

Sometimes with coconut, sometimes not. What are consistent are the flavor and the quality. The vegetables were stewed every day – always some potato and garlic, sometimes plantain. Other occasional mysteries. Every day this simple food tastes wonderful.

Belizean jerk meat is different from Jamaican. In Belize it always seemed to be stewed or braised with achote, while in Jamaica it is usually a dry rub and grilled. Either/any way is just fine by me.  The bold hot flavors coating my mouth, staining my shirt as I greedily scarfed down the whole plateful. And the portions were huge. Didn’t seem to matter, I always finished mine.

What’s his secret? I guess there are several. Tireless self promotion – and always in the 3^rd person; really well prepared food that doesn’t have to be done at the last minute; little or no overhead other than the cost of ingredients. He arrives with the giant pots filled with goodness cooked at home, lays them out and he is open for business. The food is never hot, nor cold. It is sold at street temperature. Sometimes a little Marie Sharp habanero sauce, but on the better days he brings his own, home made, hot pickled onions. Oh yeah, on top of the coconut curry chicken, I am still tasting it.

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