Saturday, June 16, 2012

A Few Can’t-Do-Without Products in Mr Mac’s Cupboards


Cooking while cruising can be both fun and frustrating. It’s fun when you encounter new foods and cuisines. For example, the fresh market in Port of Spain, Trinidad, has the best abundance, variety, and prices of any market I’ve ever seen anywhere, and the vendors are happy to tell you how to cook something new. However, it’s frustrating before you get the hang of provisioning, because when you run out of something in the Bahamian Jumentos Islands or some little out-of-the-way cay in the Grenadines, there’s NO WAY to just pick up that missing ingredient at a local store, because there IS no local store (not even any people, in many cases). Some products that I’d never heard of when we lived ashore (or even on a dock) with ready access to supermarkets were these little gems. The canned chicken is terrific – big chunks of breast meat perfect for making chicken salad, chicken a la king, or any number of chicken dishes. Great for when you have no chicken in the freezer or don’t want to wait to thaw and cook it. We’ve gotten it at Sam’s Club and Price Smart. The other two products are UHT milk and cream. These products have been pasteurized at Ultra High Temperature, so they are stable for months at room temperature. Out of fresh milk for your coffee in the morning? Just open a UHT milk or cream to tide you over (they do need to be refrigerated after opening). These are readily available in the islands. I haven’t really looked for the UHT products in the states, but I certainly will when we get back, because they are just sooo convenient to have on hand when it’s not convenient to run to the store.

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