Bake Around the World: Write in the Kitchen, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Banana Fritters and Welcome Tea

This year, I am endeavoring on a monthly challenge to bake around the world; write in the kitchen. The idea is inspired by Erin, my friend and author of This Footprint blog (IG @thisfootprint_blog) who participated in a cooking challenge for every country. Each month, I will randomly select a country and make a vegan version of a traditional dessert from that nation. And, each month, I will put intentional time into writing at least one non-Smile Project related piece. I look forward to expanding my confectionary acumen and baking around the world. And I look forward to sitting closer to home, writing for myself.

I am sitting in a conference center in Bangkok, Thailand when the baking challenge comes up. We talk about what I’ve made so far and how many of the people I am sitting with have had the honor, really, of spinning the random country generator wheel. It’s at that moment that I realize I haven’t yet picked an October country and there is one colleague at the table who hasn’t participated yet. Would you do the honors? It spins and spins and lands… Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. 

I’m immediately fascinated by the statistics of this pull. Thus far, I have had 2 African nations (Gabon and Nigeria); 2 Asiann nations (China and Yemen); 2 European nations (Albania and Ireland); 1 South American nation (Colombia); 1 Oceania nation (Palau); and now 2 Caribbean island nations (Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenandines). 

The generally cited number of Caribbean islands can be as high as 7,000 with the following being countries and the 13 bolded being sovereign nations: Anguilla (UK), Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba (NL), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda (UK), the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands (UK), Cuba, Curaçao (NL), Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe (FR), Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique (FR), Montserrat (UK), Puerto Rico (US), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin (FR), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten (NL), Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos (UK), and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

While I pride myself on my geography knowledge, the Caribbean, admittedly, is a weak spot. While I originally just wanted to see the likelihood of picking two Caribbean countries (over say more African countries (there are more countries in Africa (54) then any other continent), I found myself losing quite some time studying maps of the region. When I finally came up for air, I consulted my trusty Britannica to dig more into October’s country. 

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is located in the eastern Caribbean sea within the Lesser Antilles. (Without going on too much of a tangent, the Lesser Antilles are a long arc of small islands in the Caribbean extending from the Virgin Islands (both U.S. and British) to Grenada. While physiographically, Trinidad and Tobago and the east-west island chain from Margarita Island to Aruba are part of the South American continental shelf, they are also usually included when talking about the Lesser Antilles.)  

I wasn’t surprised to see seafood as one of the major fixtures of diet for Vincys. (This Reddit thread taught me that someone from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is called a Vincentian or, more colloquially, a Vincy.) I also learned that roasted breadfruit and fried jackfish is the national dish (served with a sauce of onions, tomatoes, garlic, and other vegetables). On the dessert side, I read on TasteAtlas about ducana, a dumpling made with coconut and sweet potato and often cooked in banana leaves and served with stewed or salted fish.  

Minus the fish, that sounded good for a vegan, but when I started looking at recipes, something else caught my eye—the humble banana fritter. Various fried, baked, or otherwise banana-y desserts had come up earlier this year for a number of countries and each time I wrote it off as simple or expected (especially given that bananas are a staple in our home). But after watching a video about banana fritters (and maybe because the cooling weather in New York City had me craving cozy), I decided this was the month.

Some Googling introduced me to @TyphanieCooks, a Jamaican food blogger, and specifically her banana fritter recipe which was tagged on TikTok under Vincy recipes for Caribbean American Heritage Month (annually in June). I highly encourage a spin through her website (and for my fellow vegans, definitely check out the island soul vegan recipes ebook). 

And so on an autumnal Sunday night with my week’s meal prep cooling on the counter, I turned to our ripest bananas and set about making fritters for movie night. They were phenomenal. Relatively simple. Vegan with no “weird” substitutions. Fried (which normally isn’t my favorite thing) but manageable with oil control and a little paper towel dab. Dusted with soft powdered sugar. Consumed warm and fresh and…

We ate the whole plate.

When I went into the office the next day, I was thrilled to tell the colleague who’d selected Saint Vincent and the Grenadines but also thrilled to tell anyone who would listen about this fun, easy treat.

It was after all this Caribbean research and warm weather “travel” that I turned my attention to my monthly writing. Earlier in October, I had the privilege of traveling to Thailand for work, Bhutan for fun, and South Korea for the briefest of airport transfers. I spent much of the latter half of October reflecting on the experience, sharing photos with friends, and catching up with family about my favorite meals, mountains, and memories. 

Because of this, I spent a lot of time thinking about travel writing in general and the way we dictate our experience to the page. When I finally carved some quiet time for myself—in the midst of catching up on laundry and jet lag—I knew I wanted to write about adventure. While I have endless words to document my time in Asia, I wanted to stay to this year’s monthly challenge and write something fictional first. But how easily our lives bleed into our stories. How hard it can be to remove ourselves from the center. 

As we sit at the end of a complexly beautiful month and look ahead to the year’s final sprint, I encourage you to prioritize yourself. In a season often packed with obligations, travel, and one that at the moment for me is coinciding with lots of professional busyness, I encourage you to take a step back. 

What is really urgent? And what have you only convinced yourself is? May we make space next month for ourselves. May we go on deep dives on topics we’re interested in just because. May we make a whole plate of banana fritters and consume them same hour. May we learn to sit with it. And may we learn to move forward.

January: to beignets and book proposals (Gabon)

February: to spice cake and sunscreen (Grenada)

March: to rice pudding and Gregory (Colombia)

April: to puff puffs and how we relate (Nigeria)

May: to shendetlie and choosing new endings (Albania)

June: to mooncakes and steadiness (China)

July: to khaliat nahal and community (Yemen)

August: to aho and scene setting (Palau)

September: to soda bread and the Nest (Ireland)

October: to banana fritters and Welcome Tea (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines)

Welcome Tea

She couldn’t help but wonder, then, what might happen if she stayed. What would it feel like to go against everything she’d been told? She thought of the unspoken map that every little girl back in Galenton was given in childhood. Stay in school. Make the grade. Did it matter what she studied? If it set her soul on fire? Meet a nice man. Fall in love. And what about her dreams? And what about her hopes? Buy the house. Fill the bedrooms. Did she want to be a mother? Did she know how to fix a washing machine? How readily she believed it all. How eager she was to please. But then here she was, sitting atop a mountain, eating pumpkin soup and red rice, wondering if all that was about to change.