Hema
Hi, I'm Hema
Mireille
and I'm Mireille.
Hema
Welcome to The Moreish Podcast, where Caribbean history meets culture and cuisine. Hi, Mireille. So here we are at the almost first episode of The Moreish Podcast.
Mireille
Yes. I'm so excited.
Hema
We've put so much work into the podcast and the planning and all of the learnings, but what I wanted to do today is give our listeners a chance to learn a little bit about you and I and about The Moreish Podcast and what to expect.
Mireille
Yes, I'm ready.
Hema
Excellent. So I'm going to start by introducing myself. My name is Hema. I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I was born and raised here in Canada, and I've lived most of my life in Toronto. And my family is all from Trinidad.
I was born here. I've been back to Trinidad many, many, many times. But that's a little bit about me and my Caribbean history. Mireille, why don't you share a little bit about your background? I know it's a little bit more complex than mine is.
Mireille
I am born and raised in New York City and have lived here pretty much most of my entire life within the five boroughs, specifically Brooklyn and Queens, which has the largest Caribbean populations in New York. But as far as my background goes, I have a really unique background in that I have perspective from literally every part of the Caribbean because my family comes from the Dutch, the French, the British. Just to keep it simple so that people get to know a little bit about me, I'll just give you my parents.
My mother is from Aruba. My father is from Haiti with in and of itself is a very unique combination.
Hema
I think as we go through our episodes, we will be able to get a little bit more out from you about the heritage and where your family is from, because you'll have a lot of input based on some of your ancestors.
Mireille
Definitely.
Hema
Let's talk about what to expect in this podcast. What I want to talk about is the history of the Caribbean, where the people came from, and how it affects the food and the culture in present day.
Mireille
Yes, I was so excited when you presented this idea to me, and I think it's something unique that the market needs out there.
Hema
Absolutely. I think when you and I, Mireille, were talking about this in that sort of introduction, phone call, and brainstorming, we had the same ideas that when people think about the Caribbean, they often think about very specific islands, very specific dishes, and very often from a North American perspective, it is a vacation spot.
Would you agree?
Mireille
Yes, 100%. And they also think that the Caribbean consists of about five of the largest islands.
Hema
Do you want to say which ones
Mireille
So let's see, the most, everyone knows about Jamaica. Trinidad, Puerto Rico, because, well, they are essentially part of the United States. After that, I would say maybe St. Lucia and Barbados for the more adventurous.
And that's about it.
Hema
I think what people sometimes forget is, these Caribbean islands are home to thousands and millions of people. There are people that live there, that work there, that are born and raised there, and have everyday lives.
And that's what we're going to talk about, is the people of the islands, from the perspective of their history and their ancestors and where they came from, and how that affects present day life.
Mireille
I was once teaching after school culinary classes in a program and when I mentioned to someone that my mother was from Aruba, she, and this is a teacher, licensed to educate our children, and she said to me, Oh, I didn't think people actually lived there.
I thought it was just a vacation island.
Hema
That's so disappointing, and I think it speaks to why this podcast is necessary. Maybe I'm being a little bit self serving, but I think these are reasons why the education needs to happen.
Mireille
Yes, yes, I mean, just from that one story alone, it's essential to, I think, just understand the world that we live in with globalization.
Hema
I agree so much. Since we're sharing, I will tell you, I was doing a little bit of research and I thought I'm going to use AI and see what they come up with. They being AI comes up with when I ask for a little bit of synopsis of the people and the culture of the Caribbean and can you guess the three things that they mentioned?
Mireille
Beaches, Carnival, and Jerk Chicken.
Hema
Close! Beaches, beautiful, beautiful white sand beaches, Jamaica, and vacation spots. We are going to go island by island, country by country, and give a little bit of a history. and talk about the food and culture. Now, let me just say, we have a caveat that the history is a little bit nebulous in that a lot of the history, the history books, the papers that are out there were written by the people that colonized the islands and written from their perspective.
So it's a little bit hard to get true perspectives, but more and more that information is becoming available as more research is being done. So I wanted to give that caveat because some people may not agree with the history that we're providing and we're doing the very best that we can based on what information is currently out there.
Mireille
Yes, our intention is pure, if not always going to be 100 percent accurate.
Hema
That's correct. And we are going to share some other people. There are many other people with podcasts about the Caribbean, about the history, about the ancestry, and we'll be sharing a lot of those in our show notes, on our Instagram, on our TikTok.
I want to talk, Mireille, about where you and I and how long ago that was, or how short ago that was, depending on your perspective. We were both, Mireille and I, both independently are content creators in the food space. Mireille is a chef. I am not. I am a trained non practicing nutritionist, but we both went to the Tastemaker Conference in Chicago.
It was this year, right?
Mireille
Yes.
Hema
2023, this year. And we actually did not cross paths during the conference. Where we did meet was at the... What is that home show called?
Mireille
The Inspired Home Show.
Hema
Thank you. The Inspired Home Show. We were at a preview, we ran into each other, and got to talking about our backgrounds and the things that we do.
And I thought, oh my gosh, Mireille.. A is a chef, has a ton of information about the culinary world, but B has this sort of infectious, enthusiastic demeanor, and I really, really want to collaborate in some way, shape, or form.
Mireille
Yes, and you know, I was just so happy to meet a Caribbean person there, because like we've mentioned, in the food space in North America per se, there's not A lot of representation from us. Other people try to represent our cuisine, but from us, there's little representation.
Hema
I agree. When you Google certain dishes or recipes, very often you're going to get the perspective from somebody who is not from the Caribbean. And what we want to do is share as much as we can from our background, from our perspective, but also from our community because we're connected to a lot of people , within the Caribbean community who can help us provide the correct or closer to the correct perspective. And it's nice to really connect with and share this kind of project and adventure with someone who has the same sort of cultural background that I do.
Mireille
Yes, I think it's going to be an awesome foodie and history adventure.
Hema
It is. Now, Mireille, I'm going to ask you a few questions, just for funsies, if that's okay.
Mireille
Absolutely.
Hema
We, as we're talking here today, we both have different ways of saying Caribbean. Do you want to talk about that?,
Mireille
Sure, like for myself, I use them synonymously because I think it's one of the effects of growing up in two worlds. You know, we were born, we're raised in North America, you in Toronto, me in New York, but We're still have such a Caribbean identity because of our parents, because of our extended family, because of our many, many trips to the Caribbean that for me, it just depends who I'm talking to, or just, I don't know, at different times, one rolls off my tongue at another time, another one does it.
And I don't have any rhyme or reason to why that is the case.
Hema
That's fair. And I don't think there's a right or wrong way. It's just a way. There's two different ways and you'll hear both from both of us interchangeably throughout today, throughout other podcast episodes.
Okay, let's talk about other words and other phrases that are possibly misrepresented or said incorrectly or said differently, but let's start off with The word Moreish and where the name for the podcast came from.
So Moreish is a word that I use a lot and I've grown up using. But when I brought it to you, you said it's not really a word that you have used on a regular basis.
Mireille
Yes, most people in North America, well in the United States I would say, it's really not something that's ever used. The only reason I knew what you were referring to is that I watch a lot of British television. And that's how come I knew what you meant.
When I'm eating something, if I really like it, I will say, this is moreish , which essentially just means that you want more of it. And it's usually when it refers to food, but it's possible that it came from the British, as you're mentioning, and made its way into the dialect and the lexicon, in Trinidad and other islands.
Mireille
Yes, I definitely think that's the case. And I think even the fact that you're in Canada, which has probably more of a British influence, cause even I've noticed a lot of the way you guys pronounce certain words, sometimes I hear it and like I do a step back and I realize, okay, that's the British pronunciation that lot of Canadians use.
Hema
Correct. And we also use the u's in like the word colour, whereas you don't. And that is also a British holdback. And actually just recently, I think it was last week, they launched coins with the new King Charles on them here in Canada. So we're still very tied to that Commonwealth. situation.
Okay, another one. Let's talk about plantain versus plantain. Tell me what you say.
Mireille
Okay. This is one that it's a mountain I'm going to die on, and there's only one way to pronounce it, and that's plantain.
Hema
Now, I wholeheartedly agree, but I'm going to say that I find myself sometimes, depending on who I'm around, saying it both ways. Plantain is the way that I've always grown up saying it, knowing it. That's what I know it as.
This is a, this is one that, I'm not gonna, I'm not going to, Say either way is right or wrong. I think both mean the same thing. Curry, chicken, chicken curry.
Mireille
Let's not get started on that one.
Hema
Okay, so let's, let's just leave that one alone. Let's just leave that one alone.
And one last thing I'm going to talk about avocados. What do you call an avocado besides an avocado? Or is there another word that you use?
Mireille
Well, you're going to learn something about me. I am probably the only Caribbean person who does not like avocados. My mother said, even from a little baby, I would spit it out. I am not eating avocados in any way, shape or form.
My sisters used to literally tell me when I was a child that I was adopted because I didn't like avocados, especially being half Haitian. Like for Haitian people, avocados like salad. I grew up with that every single night at my dinner table and would go nowhere near it.
So personally, it has little effect on my life, but if I was to say what I call it, I would call it an avocado.
However, I am aware that some of my relatives do refer to it as pear.
Hema
Yes. Avocado, pear. I've heard it referred to, I've grown up knowing it as zaboca. But there are, but there are many names. I think as we go through this, as we're doing the research, what I've learned, that I've always sort of known, but it's interesting as the research is coming up, that there are many names for the same thing inn different Caribbean islands and countries, there are many dishes and Mireille is going to be the one that's going to talk about this throughout the many episodes. There are many dishes called the same thing, but that are made different from country to country, depending on the background of the ancestors, where people came from, and what is currently available or what was readily available when they got to those specific islands.
Mireille
Yeah, there is so much. I knew about zaboca too. That's what Haitians call it. I just, like I said, it's not in my frame of reference.
Hema
You, you don't care about the avocado. I get it. All right.
That's a little bit about us. That's a little bit about the podcast. and what to expect. Thank you for joining us. The Moreish Podcast will be launching in early 2024. In the meantime, you can head over to Instagram and TikTok and find us at The Moreish Podcast and we will be back soon.
Thanks everybody!
Mireille
Thank you.