Organic Meals/Breadfruit Chowder in Restaurant Week

By William Doyle-Marshall

“Food is the star of life. It has right food and wrong food here. The wrong food kills you, the right food save you, makes you healthy and strong and good looking too and handsome.” These philosophical comments were made by Carl Hewlett, owner of OSCORA, an organic roadside restaurant in Keys, St. Kitts, a short distance from the Blackrock community.

  Hewlett studied mechanical engineering in Ontario’s Humber College but never liked it because of the need to work in oil. Now that he operates his small ital. business in the Keys neighbourhood of St. Kitts, he concludes that it is important and it involves a special type of engineering so that customers would enjoy the preparation.

Caaarl Hewett truly welcoming at Oscara

   In addition to his neighbourhood operation Pacolet as he is fondly known, has a downtown spot to cater to his city customers. At 4 o’clock every morning Pacolet begins cooking and creating his special blend of juices. Having to get to bed at 10:00pm every night does not bother him. “It aint good to sleep a lot, because you become poor. If you like to sleep too much you would be reduced to poverty”, he theorizes. “If you sleep a lot you miss a lot; you don’t grow. You spend too much time sleeping. You should wake up and get more knowledge and live; you see more things,” Hewlett contends.

Carl Hewlett, designs organic meals

“Your body is what works with these foods so if you want your body to function properly, you’d give it the right food,” says Hewlett during a visit by foreign journalists to his operation. He proudly announced that at the age of sixty years he is not sporting a paunch as is customary of men his age. “You have to watch what you eat every day; take your time and don’t over do it,” Pacolet advises.

 His mix of juices include tamarind, passion fruit, ginger, mango and carrots is highly recommended even as a replacement for solid meals from time to time. Pacolet’s creation will be exhibited during Restaurant Week which begins July 17. The week’s intent is to promote local cuisine, local ingredients, and the local restaurant scene on St. Kitts and Nevis. It is designed to provide residents and visitors opportunities to eat at restaurants they might not ordinarily be inclined or able to afford.       It is a chance for nationals to enjoy their own tourism product. According to the organizers, they are also making special effort to include micro enterprises -- and provide needed market access for local vendors and purveyors who may not be on the international map as an integrated part of St. Kitts-Nevis' restaurant scene, but who provide authentic local food -- and just the type of local eating experience many visitors are looking for these days.

   St. Kitts will heavily feature breadfruit during Restaurant Week, while Nevis -- which is incorporating Restaurant Week into its Mango Festival, which occurs this month as well. There, the focus is on mango as the local ingredient in the spotlight.

    The St. Kitts-Nevis Restaurant Week organizers held a Breadfruit Challenge competition for the best breadfruit dish. Maureen Stapleton of Nevis won with her "Maurals Breadfruit Chowder. Maureen’s dish will be featured on all Restaurant Week dinner menus -- July 16-26..

    In addition to the discounted menus, Restaurant Week organizers have various promotions and giveaways to be available throughout the week.. 

     The July timing is both to boost traffic to restaurants at the low time of season, and also because breadfruit and local produce are abundant during this time.

July 13, 2015