In Dish of the Week, executive sous chef Dwayne Jones and night sous chef Katrina Gay of Brown Sugar Restaurant were asked which appetiser, main course and dessert they might order.
Katrina selected coconut-crusted, beer-soaked shrimp as the starter. Three butterfly-cut, jumbo shrimp were soaked in a seasoned coconut batter (in which the liquid used was not water but local Banks beer) and then deep-fried for at least a minute. The shrimp were served hot on a bed of shredded lettuce and sweet peppers, with a raita-like cucumber-yogurt relish on the side.Without knowing Katrina had chosen shrimp, Dwayne picked spiced fish (itself served with a shrimp) for his main course. The Guyanese white fish was stuffed with real crabmeat, onion, celery and breadcrumbs and baked for 15 minutes or so before being served in Brown Sugar’s own spiced fish sauce of coconut milk and tamarind syrup (with blended, seasoned tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers and cumin). The dish was given height by adding quickly deep-fried, purely decorative pieces of pasta.Dwayne and Katrina unhesitatingly agreed on dessert: the warm, heart-shaped papaya pie, served with a scoop of excellent local Bico vanilla ice cream. “I chose the coconut-beer shrimp,” said Katrina, “because it is a great seller. I was thinking of cou-cou and flying fish, as it is our national dish, but I thought that would be heavily recommended by other restaurants so I picked the shrimp. A lot of people is into shrimps, including me. This is what I always order myself. It’s three big shrimps, so it’s very fulfilling, too. And I like the cucumber-yogurt relish. It’s a hot starter so the cool relish goes well with it.”“I picked the fish,” said Dwayne, “because it’s more different from anything on the menu. People get accustomed to steak, lobster, snapper, dolphin, flying fish – this is more tastier to me, especially with the crabmeat, and more different to everybody. I like this dish most personally. You have the fish, the crab, the shrimp and what’s not. It’s perfect.”“We chose the papaya pie,” said Katrina, “because restaurants will normally use apple pie, prepared with canned apples, but we use the paw-paw that is grown locally here. We pick half-ripe paw-paw from the tree ourselves, dice it up, stew it with a little water and sugar, spice it with cinnamon, nutmeg and essence and make the whole pie ourselves.”The Plat de la Semaine (or Dish of the Week) is a feature of www.cre-ole.com , the online edition of the magazine Cré Olé (pronounced Cray Olay), the annual Guide to Dining in Barbados. The Plat de la Semaine changes online regularly.