Diets that divide us

Well! I wonder if any other programme of his, in any other country or setting has caused so much anger, recriminations and bitterness? It has almost spoiled the taste of our foods! Anthony Bourdain is a man who makes his living by discovering and reporting on “exotic foods”, that is, foods which are not the regular fare of most Americans.

The content of his programmes is his choice, both in the foods he tastes and reports upon, and in the background scenes he uses to create his settings.

We are upset that his discussion of our Carnival was superficial: steelband practising, not “playing”, and some J’Ouvert win’ing. But no Panorama or parade of our massed mas bands.

However he said that he does not “do carnivals”-- not in Rio, New Orleans or Port of Spain, so let us drop that criticism.

He chose kalinda, or stick fighting, as a part of our culture to be portrayed, but what this has to do with our diet, particularly our “street foods”, I could not fathom. Not unnaturally, most of the scenes were “staged”, as they would have to be, with cameras supported by lighting and microphones set to pick up our accents and inflections, and to reduce background noise, all for foreign audiences to understand when we speak.

In any film presentation that is not “raw news”, there would have been directors saying “cut”, and the shoot of the scene would have started over. No? So yes, the river lime was very “staged”, but had they simply stormed someone’s river lime in progress, the production quality would have suffered, and you could be sure some inebriated soul would have tried to hog the scenes... that is our nature.

We came across as a reasonably articulate people and I am sure most foreign viewers understood us when we spoke, which is not generally the case when we ex-tempo our “old talk”.

Every Trini who watched it via Trini ingenuity and piracy found that some food item, their favourite obviously, was missing! No doubt many dishes ended up on the “cutting room” floor, as is the case with every production.

I saw no reference to “Strrrrruuuuuters!”, our chicken foot souse, which is a popular bar “cutter” in drinking limes (not drinking lime juice, foreigners, but the art of hanging out drinking alcohol—liming!).

And here I digress a moment to describe the non-introduction of Strutters to the United States Soccer Federation. Leading up to their hosting the World Cup in 1994, the USSF was seeking knowledge on how to create “atmosphere” in their sterile stadia, and during a match here one of their people was following our vendors and their cries and talents.

“Jumbo, Jumbo, Jumbo” fascinated them with his ability to toss a packet of peanuts from anywhere to everywhere in the stadium. But when Strutters came around, I was asked what that was. “Would you like to try that?” I asked. “Sure,” he said, “what is it?” How to describe this to a foreigner? “Pickled chicken feet” was my effort. He declined! Back to the show: Well, the overriding criticism and cause of much hostility among us was the session Mr Bourdain had with the family of wealthy businessman Mr Sabga-Aboud, high in a building in Bayshore. While Arabic food was served there, it was never mentioned that Mr Sabga-Aboud earned his wealth selling decidedly US “fast food” fare, not Arabic nor any form of local cuisine. But a note to our own population: this glimpse which we had of a wealthy Syrian family lifestyle is not isolated to the Syrian community. It is well entrenched among our traditional and nouveau wealth of all races and ethnicities.

The arrogance of wealth, especially new wealth, is very real. Mr Sabga Aboud, apology accepted but notwithstanding, merely let us peep into the lifestyle of the exclusively wealthy among us. But he is not alone.

People have earned money, honestly and no doubt otherwise, and set themselves into lifestyles they did not know when they were young. Some are expansively boastful and arrogant, but many are reclusive and hardly ever seen outside their gated communities or the departure lounge at the airport.

Their wealth enables them to influence politicians on all sides, and all of our politicians enjoy their flattery. We should not pretend that we are, or have been unaware of this, for it has always been part of our lives, from plantation to penthouse.