Barbados Food Wine and Rum Festival 2012, with Parlour Love
After our Real Girlfriends of The Barbados Food, Wine & Rum Festival experience last year on the gorgeous island of Barbados, we were ready for a new story to tell, and some nonstop Rihanna. Instead of staying at our usual private house in Christ Church parish, we offered our Eat, Play, Love travel deal for Parlouristas at The House, Colony Club and Tamarind Cove and soaked up some luxury resort experience during the 2012 Festival. From learning how to be a sommilier in an hour (aka drinking at 10 a.m.) with Josh Wesson, realizing that Barbados has shrimp the size of a forearm thanks to Anne Burrell and rum is great in a rice dish from Paul Yellin, we had a delicious good time. Here are the highlights from this year's Barbados Food, Wine and Rum Festival.FridayShannon and I are November babies so we hosted a birthday celebration dinner at the lovely waterfront restaurant Cin Cin. After cocktails like the peach daiquiri that literally made one of our guests sigh in pleasure, we took our table next to the shore and ate several courses as the water lapped at the rocks below the restaurant's swanky deck.
Later, we hit the Mount Gay Beach House party, the first of the Barbados Food, Wine and Rum Festival events. While a cover band played the Top 40 hits and reggae favorites, we gobbled up the fish cakes, because, well, no trip to Barbados is complete without a few fishcakes. Then we headed down the road to Lime Bar, nestled in the Lime Grove shopping center, for more music and dancing before crossing over to Second Street and then Reggae Lounge in the Gap, the local strip of clubs on the island's southern coast.SaturdayAt 10 a.m. we arrived at the luxurious Sandy Lane hotel for a wine seminar with Josh Wesson. Honestly, we were all pretty tired but Wesson's hilarious jokes and fantastic wine knowledge were rousing. Who else can tell a good Julia Child story and imitate her voice? According to Wesson, who's opening a New York restaurant called Slider Bar in 2013, the price of a wine doesn't dictate its taste. There are great wines for a variety of price points, so don't fall prey to price gouging.
Then, a few in our group headed to the Hilton Barbados to check out Chesterfield Browne's presentation of the local favorite, Mount Gay Rum. Running down all of the company's different varieties, Browne spoke with his famous flair and forced us all to say the word "Falernum" aloud because rum punch won't be tasty without it.The Food Network's Anne Burrell was up next at the Hilton, where she cooked up the biggest shrimp we've ever seen. The bubbly chef opened her demonstration to audience questions and one woman asked how to climb the cooking ladder. Burrell replied, saying if you're a female chef working your way up, don't be a girl and never ever cry in front of the staff.
You'll always be known as the woman who cries, so even if there's a heavy pot you have to pull down from a shelf, do it. If there's a burn on your hand and it hurts, suck it up. And when someone or something cuts you to the quick, go to the bathroom and shed tears where only the toilet paper can see you. After Anne's wisdom, a couple of us hit Sizzle Street at Queen's Park for tasty bites from local vendors, a new addition for 2012.Later that night it was time for Ambrosia, the weekend's premier food and wine fair. Dressed in our cocktail numbers, we sampled bites from Anne Burrell, Paul Yellin and local morsels from Oistins among others. But the stand-outs, had me, the pescatarian, breaking my diet! Mark McEwan's ricotta gnudi with a lamb ragout was delectable and Scott Ames' chicken and mushroom soup with truffle oil made me feel like I'd been hugged from the inside. We must've had at least five servings each of the gnocchi and we knocked those soup shooters back like they were tequila, it was just so silky!After we enjoyed our fill, we headed back to Tamarind Cove, changed into more comfortable clothes and headed to the Gap for drinks and dancing at Sugar club and a peak at 360.
SundayThe next morning it was time for Mark McEwan's demo, the Canadian celebrity chef who's gnudi at Ambrosia made us cry with joy, and a wine-food pairing course with Josh Wesson and Hilton executive chef Angela Garraway-Holland. With six glasses of wine to try, Wesson made two of us love a sickly sweet moscato – though I'm still semi-boycotting this wine because of Drake – once we drank it with a berry compote. When I tell you that moscato rolled over my tongue like a warm summer day ... then we all caught local favorite Paul Yellin's presentation outside near the ocean.
Teaching his audience how to make a healthy dinner of poached fish with coconut oil (a Rastafarian cooking favorite) and spices in a plastic bag, Yellin was pleasantly surprised by the turnout and did his best to give every attendee a sample. A tip for next year, make sure to pick a demonstration where the chef serves a bit of food.After a few hours on the beach, we got gussied up for a special dinner by Red Rooster chef Marcus Sameulsson and sommelier Wesson at the breathtaking restaurant, The Cliff.
Between the ocean view, which included sting rays and hot waiters with great teeth, we had a ball. Samuelsson's food selection was artistic and avant garde as he dedicated his talents toward incorporating local culinary traditions like macaroni pie and bread pudding into his menu.
After the night's fantastic festivities, we caught up with old friends from the previous Food, Wine and Rum festivals, including my comical seat mates, over tea and Mount Gay 1703. It was grand.So, what about the 2013 Barbados Food Wine and Rum Festival? Now that we've stayed at both a private house in Christ Church parish and a luxury resort in St. James, perhaps we'll try a condo on the water next year. Who knows what our accomodations will be but we're definitely planning to check out this relaxing island where great style, food and people make it a Parlour-approved destination.