Callaloo is Sacred

"Callaloo is Sacred":An Interview with Prudence Marcelin Valérie Loichot (bio) and Prudence Marcelin (bio) This interview was conducted August 12, 2006 in Anse Laborde, Guadeloupe. LOICHOT: Madame Prudence, Could you describe your callaloo recipe step by step? MARCELIN: First remove the callaloo leaves' stem and peal it. Then chop the greens, just like spinach. You can also add spinach. Chop it up, wash it well, and then boil it in salted water. Then drain it and chop the pigtails in small pieces. Start to shell the crabs and rub them with lime, and simmer them with chives, parsley, thyme, and onions. Add cloves to the oil. Simmer it with bacon bits, chives, parsley, thyme, and crab until it becomes golden. The spices have to penetrate the crab's flesh. Then add a lot of garlic and a little water, and let it boil with the crabmeat and bacon. Then put the callaloo in a blender, add the pig tails and okra slices, and incorporate the mixture to the crab. Let it cook for about forty-five minutes. Taste it to check whether the spice is right. At the last minute, prepare a garlic and lime vinaigrette. Add it and let it sit. Serve it with white rice and cod chiquetaille. Cook the cod on the grill, add lots of onions, parsley, a little hot pepper, and finally oil and lime. LOICHOT: When do you make callaloo? MARCELIN: Callaloo is an Easter tradition. On Easter Monday, people make callaloo and eat it on the beach. You can eat callaloo with pig tails, crayfish, shrimp, or crab. LOICHOT: Why do people eat callaloo on the beach? MARCELIN: It's a local tradition. On Easter Monday, the beach belongs to all the Antilleans. It's a meal to be shared. LOICHOT: Is the dish consumed by the rich or the poor? MARCELIN: The rich eat it too, even though in principle it was a poor people's dish. You won't find callaloo in restaurants. You have to order it in advance. But on Easter Monday, all restaurants serve callaloo. [End Page 68] LOICHOT: Do you know the history of the dish? MARCELIN: The Caribs used to plant the dasheen. They would plant the dasheen and eat callaloo leaves with salt pig. They are the ones who created callaloo. They used a mahoe stick [bois de lélé] to smash the callaloo. They mixed it with land crab. They created all that. LOICHOT: Where does the name "callaloo" come from? MARCELIN: It comes from the root of the land. It's an Indian name. LOICHOT: Indian? Not African? MARCELIN: Africans also made callaloo, but not like us. They eat it with manioc that they cook in a thick paste. LOICHOT: Is callaloo an important dish for you? MARCELIN: Yes, because it's sacred. You have to fetch the crabs under the earth. Callaloo is a sacred dish, and that's why you can't find it in restaurants. Callaloo is sacred. LOICHOT: Why sacred? MARCELIN: Sacred because you eat it on Easter Monday, after the resurrection of Christ. Before the resurrection, we stayed how many days without eating meat. When he resuscitates, we eat meat, and then we eat callaloo to make it go down our heart and soul. Valérie Loichot Valérie Loichot, an associate professor of French at Emory University, is author of a number of essays on francophone literature and culture, and a book entitled Orphan Narratives: the Postplantation in French Caribbean and U. S. Literature. Prudence Marcelin Prudence Marcelin owns Chez Prudence, a seaside restaurant on the northwestern shore of Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe. She is a famous cook who likes to share with her customers stories of the times she cooked for Pope John-Paul, President Chirac, and President Carter. Copyright © 2007 Charles H. Rowell

Art · Biology · Botany · Lime · Nutmeg · Pepper · Prudence · Theology · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Mathematics · Philosophy · Food Science · Horticulture

• Author and Title Index to Callaloo Volume XX (Whole Numbers 110-113)

  Florence S Davies•Callaloo•2007

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