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

experiencing St. Kitts lifestyle brand destination

COLLABORATION, A GREAT PROMOTIONAL WAY

By William Doyle-Marshall

Raquel Brown. Chief Executive Officer of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority welcomed visiting and local media representatives to the 19^th annual St. Kitts Music Festival which she described as “a fabulous event” for the country. Ms. Browne made it clear that St. Kitts and Nevis is not a sun, sea and sand destination but a “lifestyle” brand. “When I say lifestyle, I speak of where your passion is, your heart.”

   The country’s logo is ‘follow your heart’ and according to the Chief Tourism Spokesperson, it speaks to what you like to do and that’s what St. Kitts has to offer. If you want to come to a festival, you are here because you are here for the St. Kitts Music Festival. If you would like to experience culture, you will come in August to Culturama and participate in Nevis. If you want to experience what the mix of what, as a Kittitian and Nevisian people, we welcome other cultures,” Ms. Browne continued.

                                             CEO Raquel Browne

   Being at the 19^th annual St. Kitts Music Festival was essentially being in the midst of high energy. That did not confine itself only to the performance stage during the three-day extravaganza (June 25-27). At press conferences, touring some of the island’s tourist attractions or merely enjoying a delicious meal – breakfast, lunch or dinner – you got the impression that the people and government of St Kitts and Nevis truly want you in their midst.

    Experienced performers like Kerwin DuBois, Bounty Killer, Infamous, Rachel Price, Benjai, and Ricardo Drew, shared advice generously to young performers who want to explore the overall musical world. DuBois told participants at a press conference, from a visual point of view and a creative point of view as a writer and producer, music has transformed across the board.

   “Hip Hop no longer sounds the same even country music doesn’t sound the same and so on as different elements. Dance Hall and all has different elements to what it was before. We cannot stay in the same root scene of festival music,” the Trinidad and Tobago Soca star advised. He was concerned that everybody thinks that Soca music is a festival and carnival thing. “We are now worldwide, we now have a little genre on I-Tunes. So we are getting there gradually. We have to be able to fit into the changed, diverse sound of music now. We can no longer just think Soca, we have to think music, universal and that is what it is about,” DuBois added.

Infamous, addressing festival press conference

    Infamous, a son of the soil made his second festival appearance and confessed being super excited to be there. Addressing the youths of St. Kitts and Nevis and around the world, if you have to take yourself away from the environment to get where you want to go: because home will always be home and we all know that and home is where the heart is. But if you really want to make a positive impact on home, just do what you have to do, in a positive way.” He grew up in Cayon and he loves Cayon people and of course, he admitted his love for St. Kitts people.

   Music lovers and journalists alike questioned the trend of musical collaboration among Soca artists. Benjai says it is the chemistry between artistes; Ricardo Drue feels collaborations is a way to bridge a gap between two different islands.  EZ from Odyssey had just finished a collaboration for the St. Kitts Nevis Patriots playing in the Caribbean Premier League currently in progress contends collaboration broadens your scope and your audience.

   A whole range of cultural happenings are on the calendar for later this year. St. Kitts will host Latin Fiesta is in October and then Sugar Mas closes down the whole country for a week, from Christmas Eve straight through to the 2^nd of January. “We are people of culture, heritage and fun,” contends the Chief Executive Officer of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority.