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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Travel to Yangshuo, Guilin China. New West Street Best Food

After my little siesta and slow recovery from the carb overload, we headed out with one of the front desk girls that was getting off of work.  I invited her to join us for dinner under one circumstance… she picked the place.  She agreed and was so happy that she was able to practice her English… so I kept her talking for the better part of 5 hours as little by little I had her show us around the real Yangshou!  I know, natural genius!

I was deeply saddened for Rachel that the dog restaurant (see photo above) was already closed for the night-she got off the hook.  We sampled some fresh fish soup, local ice cream, the “on a stick” stand, and granted some more noodles!

Fish Soup- great experience we picked out the fish (a bit demented) then were escorted up the stairs to our table.  Out came the portable stove with a pot of water.  This is one I had not seen yet.  The pot was fired up with a plethora of fresh aromatic herbs and green onions off to the side.  I had to remind myself I was still in China, not south east Asia!  Then from no where the assign appeared with his new victim cut up into 10 or so pieces (bones and all). We differed to Sara (our new local friend) to do the honors.  She started dropping the aromatics in the pot along with the fish heads.  The room is filled with a strong bouquet of ginger and floral scent of herbs. 15 minutes goes by, then Sara drops the rest of the fish in pot and turns it off.  (Now I am all for eating some crazy things but there is no way I am eating 1/4 cooked river fish).  Sara then advises we wait (I think it was a ploy for her to keep practicing her English)… waiting… waiting… waiting…. We finally stop talking in Chin-glish and Sara reaches for the pot.  The Chinese will always serve others before pouring or taking for themselves, how refreshing!   The soup she conjured up was superb, minus the 450 pin bones. I would note the restaurant but my crash course in Mandarin didn’t cover the characters, let it be known as “FISH POT”.

Local Ice Cream-Tarro for me please!-I grabbed a quick snap shot of this as we were in the mix of people packed down West Street (the main artery of Yangshou).  The ice cream was a perfect temperature, very smooth in flavor, but was hoping for just a little more of a savory flavor.  The ice cream base had to much sugar and masked a fair amount of the tarro.  Rachel & Sara had chocolate something-or-other.

Stick Stand- there is not a country in the world that does not cook something on a stick!  I can say back at home (Texas) it’s the famous Fleichman’s corn dogs, amongst other things.  Asia and the middle east take the cake with the sticks!  You can find just about anything from tofu to dog meat, its all for the taking, and for those more adventuresome you can often find innards.  (I will leave that for Zimmern).   Again, we deffered to Sara and let her pick a few items and we all shared.  I think Sara was in true heaven, she was really getting into showing me the true eats of Yangshou!  I’m sold!

Guilin Noodles- Sara was the PERFECT person to have with us for this last experience of the evening.  We went to a place off on some side street (apparently she frequents), and she showed me how the noodles were made.  I found it weird that she just walks up grabs a bowl and helps herself, but hey it was her show! The noodles that she made for the table were topped with some extra chili and more of those crushed peanuts.  She had the magic touch, she laughed at me when I started telling her about the Lamien noodles from Shanghai.  She put her hand on my shoulder and said the real noodles come from Guilin, it reminded me of the BBQ wars in the states!

see more from the gallery below-

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World Expo, 2010 World Expo, Shanghai, China Growing Organic

The US Pavilion is 3 stories; the VIP area/kitchen is located on the top floor and separated by the two buildings is the organic chef garden. After a few quick translation sessions with the garden keepers they are now growing everything for our specifications. It has become my own personal organic supermarket! (Something that is so far from reality in China)

This garden is located about 50 steps from my kitchen door, so much like an organic farmer, we pop out to pick what is ready to harvest for the day. The US Pavilion is the only building with its own sustainable garden. additions to this garden have been planted in deep roasting pans and other kitchen wares to showcase that it is truly now a “chef’s garden”.

I dedicate to this post to all chefs that are as passionate as myself to enjoying the “back door” garden and to close friend, organic farmer, and entrepreneur, Marie Tedei, owner of the thriving Edens Garden in Balch Springs, Texas.

Come visit us in China, we would love to see you!

Traditional Food of Shangahi, China Street Food

These past few weeks have been full of long work hours, settling in, and of course eating local!

Discovering Shanghai’s true food scene is not as easy as one would think, but finding the true blooded street vendors is no question where the urban culture thrives! I am currently living in what is known as Expo Village, which is a brand new complex much like an Olympic village. We have restaurants, bars, shops, etc. Filled with western style eateries, for example Tony Roma’s and Bubba’s BBQ, thanks but no thanks!

The common topic of conversation around the village is “I found this new place…”, not many speak the local lingo so everything is based on general landmarks, ordering at the local joints is always an adventure in itself

Truth be told, how can you blame them… who wants to spend 15 dollars on a dozen “Smoked Chinese Chicken Wings”… no thanks, I will stick with the people who have been perfecting their craft for generations. So in the event any of these people from photos below ever read this xhi-xhi! (thank you)!

Eating in the Old City (Part II)

China has been great to me so far… We went to this restaurant in old Shanghai (post street snacking.. poor Lassie). It was beautiful… nobody in the joint spoke a lick of English-so we pretty much had the luck of faith!  One of the chefs that was with me had on some Australian board shorts and sure enough a familiar dialect was heard.  Someone jumped in after we had ordered about half the food- it was the voice of a Chinese guy saying that he studied in Kangaroo nation for 10 years- and how could he help us order….

Now we were really in business!  We went from pointing at a few pictures, drawing a pigs face on the back of the servers guest check book (to let her know we wanted some pork), to just plain rolling the dice.  Not even remembering what we had ordered up to this point we just let this new found friend finish out our order.

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