Pleasant House

grouper, wahoo, Georgetown, Grand Cayman, BWI

Buying, eating, and cooking local is on the tips of everyone’s tongues these days. But what does local mean as it relates to food? Well, there are really only a few scholarly definitions for the word, but there are many philosophical and ideological meanings for it. Practically speaking, eating local means procuring your ingredients from farmers, producers, fisherman, and artisans in your area.

Pretty simple, right? Well, at face value it seems pretty simple, but we are a global society now and so many things are right there at our fingertips. For example, in the Midwest we are obviously without a Pacific or Atlantic coast, but when we are in the mood for some plump, briny Dabob oysters from the West Coast, they can be ours, tonight, thanks to big jets and O’Hare airport. And what’s great is that those oysters will be so close to perfection that it is hard to argue with that.

Well, there are some who are not necessarily arguing with that but rather choosing to serve only products that are local to them, with the idea a their lack of demand is lessening our harmful impact on the environment and that there are as good tasting, yet obviously different, choices closer to where we live.  Once again, that proximity to where you live is up for debate. Is it within 100 miles or a multi-state region? After all, why shouldn’t something that’s local to one person not be local to me?

So, it should be clear that local is a hot political and social topic. Personally, I believe in the word and am working on growing into my own interpretation of it. This is kind of how I see it, “When in Rome…” Okay, maybe that’s a little too simplistic, but not really. Local is also your “locale,” or your surroundings. If you are to put yourself in someone else’s surroundings, open your eyes to what the “locals” eat;  what grows all around them, what is the climate of their location? These are clues that will lead you to the ingredients that you will ultimately be using in your cooking. All of  a sudden, the process of cooking begins to make sense as your instincts guide you.

Imagine being stranded on an island with only some string, a sharp hook, and a pole. Your instincts are going to tell you that 1. you need to eat, 2. you’ll probably need to use that pole to catch a fish, and 3. you’ll probably be roasting fish over the same fire that is going to keep you warm at night.

Sounds pretty primitive and carnal, but when you strip down the process of procuring food and the need to eat what’s around you and what is easiest to prepare, your chance of survival is looking up. Now transport yourself to the beaches of Santorini, where a little shack on the beach may be grilling fish and octopus that has been plucked from the ocean that morning over an open fire, just as their ancient Greek ancestors had done during the times of the Odyssey. In a modern context, that grilled fish with a simple squeeze of lemon on that beach was probably the best damn fish you’ve ever tasted in your life!

view from the condo, Seven Mile Beach

Staying in a condo on Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman is not quite like being stranded on a desolate island, but those same instincts and the same observations of locale can be used to great effect when it comes to preparing a satisfying meal. This video shows me cooking up a simple stew of strawberry grouper, coconut, and local vegetables. Chelsea and I had been snorkeling off of Eden Rock in Georgetown, and before we headed back to the condo we stopped to chat with the fisherman who had brought in a few fish to sell. Before settling on the grouper we had learned how the fish were caught, where they were caught, the differences between all of the fish, how to filet the fish for different preparations, and what fish will be available tomorrow or next week.

With the addition of a few other local ingredients including coconut milk and/or fresh coconut, scotch bonnet chili, breadfruit, yams, and plantains, that fish can be transformed into a delicious tropical stew with little effort and for a few bucks. And talk about a real get away–now you’re eating like the locals. Of course, I also highly recommend eating at one of the real local establishments if you can. This is not always easy, especially if you don’t have a car, because most of the local haunts are in the interior, away from the touristy areas, where the land is cheap.

For this preparation, if you choose to recreate it, any grouper will do. But if you do recreate it at home, far from where the grouper live, you won’t be cooking local! And I won’t fault you for that. However, I can’t say that I’d encourage it, either, because if you are not eating grouper locally, chances are you are purchasing a fish that has not been harvested sustainably. You could substitute grouper with fish such as tilapia, catfish, sole,  line-caught Pacific cod, etc. Look for one of the many guides to making the right decision when it comes to purchasing seafood in your area. Yeah Mon!