Quick Review of 2011

2011 was a great year in Will Wash history.  God truly favors me and my friends and family.

• The homey and my brother both gave birth to baby girls.  I love them both.
  
  
  
  
  
• Celebrated my birthday and my little cousins turning 21 in Las Vegas.
• Got to sit on the edge of the Grand Canyon.
  
• Cousin Lisa from Germany came to visit and I got to show her the east coast.
• Me and the boys put on great fireworks show on the 4th of July
• Niece Sydney, godson CJ, and Lil Nigel have grown exponentially.
• I got to travel to Ireland again, and Jamaica for the first time and have grand adventures.
  
• I bought another Mac.
• I started learning to play the bass guitar.
• Changed my tags.
  

Caribbean Cuisine Is Good

Michelle O reminded me that I haven't blogged in a while.  So last night I learned a lot and ate good.  I feel like sharing an interesting fact I learned.

Zora Neale Hurston is an African American author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance.  Her most famous work is Their Eyes Were Watching God.  You may remember reading it in high school.  Anyway, she responsible for spread jerk throughout Jamaica and the rest of the world.  Jerk is a style of cooking native to Jamaica in which meats are dry-rubbed or wet marinated with a very hot spice mixture called Jamaican jerk spice.  Originally the technique was kept a secret by the mountain people of Jamaica.  Even the other Jamaica near the beach didn't know it.  Zora Neale Hurston was in Jamaica and she was so determine to see those people.  She spent some time there and it's chronicled in her book, Tell My Horse.  In the book, she writes how they jerked in the mountain regions of Jamaica and from there other Jamaicans learned it and popularized it.

Caribbean Cuisine is the first modern fusion food.  Think about all the influences- Spanish, African, Native American, French, English, Chinese, and Indian.  All had significant populations that interacted and shared food on those small islands.

Last nights Food and Folklore.  The guest chef Culinary Artist Chef Oji Ashebre Jaja of Kingston, Jamaica was amazing. He is the blob about the chef:

Nominated for the coveted 2010 Chef of the Year award and heralded by the Jamaica Observer as "the next great Jamaican chef", Chef Oji honed his skills at one of the world's foremost luxury hotel chains, The Ritz Carlton, in both Jamaica and the United States. His earlier training began at the Runaway Bay HEART Academy in Jamaica and then later at Johnson & Wales in Florida. Oji's parents gave him the West African name Ashebre, which means "The Artist."  This name graces Oji's culinary services company in Jamaica. Besides passion for his craft, Oji's vision is to further diversify the Caribbean dining landscape by introducing his interpretation of Modern Caribbean Cuisine to all corners of the globe.

• First Course - Jerk Chicken Salad over pan-seared polenta with cho-cho cabbage slaw.  
• Main Course - Caribbean Grilled Salmon on coconut and roast garlic sweet potato mash with Scotch bonnet spinach and mango-pineapple relish.  
• Dessert Course - Orange Coconut Bread Pudding with sorrel reduction and coffee-rum cream

Friend of Mine

One hoe said, "Big, why you so hard on us? 

Why you swear all bitches are so scandalous?" 

Thug nigga 'til the end, tell a friend bitch 

'cause when I like ya, then ya go and fuck my friend bitch 

(And you know that ain't right)

#Project365

Project365 - 53 weekly themes. This week is: Tired.

Personal Favorite

This a picture of my cousin's daughter, Keyani. This was taken on a point and shoot I bought for my mother years go in my grandmother's backyard in Greenville, North Carolina during Uncle Jerry's trip home from Germany cook out. It is one of my favorite personal pictures. I love the composition and how serious she looks in her pretty dress. I really, really love this picture.