The Belmont Estate (better known as The Grenada Chocolate Factory)- I got the Golden Ticket

I've been to loads of places around the island and this place ranks in my top 5 all time favourites.  How often do you come across a raw chocolate factory?  Did I mention that they're all organic and give out chocolate and hot chocolate samples?  Score!

What you will find at the estate:

• Cocoa Trees- you will have a chance to taste a cocoa bean straight from a cocoa pod.  How cool it that? The pulp surrounding the bean is super delicious and resembles the pulp of a lychee.  
• Heritage Museum-  Vintage cameras, ledgers, typewriters, paintings, jewellery.
• Cocoa processing facility- here you will watch an educational video on the processing of cocoa.  After the video, you will receive chocolate samples and hot chocolate samples (my favourite part of the tour).  After, a tour guide will guide you through the different processing stations (fermenting and drying of beans).  You will even have a chance to participate in the drying out of the beans by taking off your shoes and walking through them under the warm sun.
• Petting farm- tortoises, monkeys, goats, parrots (super super cute).  They also have a bird, Rainbow, who knows how to talk!!  This bird will make you laugh for days.  I think I lost some weight from burning calories laughing. 
• Arts and Crafts shop where you can buy cool souvenirs such as spices, clothes, decorations, jewellery. 
• Cafe and chocolate shop- they carry a variety of fruity dark chocolates such as guava, soursop, cherry, mango, and so much more.  They also have truffles and chocolate bars. 
• Restaurant- Buffet style, all you can eat. ~70EC/ person.  You have an option of omitting the soup and dessert but I don't recall the price difference.  I think it was around 40EC.   I had pumpkin soup, stewed eggplant, fried fish, stewed beef, stewed chicken, salad, and ice cream. Their juices are freshly squeezed.  Everything was amazing!!  The best local food by far.  
• Nice, energetic, outgoing workers.  Probably the best customer service I've experienced in Grenada by far. 
• A table full of local vegetables and fruit.  The tour guide will tell you the names and a few details of each.

Tips: 

*I highly suggest wearing pants to avoid being bitten by sand flies (also known as sand fleas, sand gnats, or chitras).  Every single person I know who has visited the Belmont Estate were once victims of these little punks (even if they used insect repellent).  They're found in the processing facility, and at the monkey area, ideal, damp places for the insects to thrive in. 

*Don't forget to wear sunscreen and sunglasses.  

*Don't forget to bring some money for some goodies!

*Don't forget to bring your camera!

*If you're prone to motion sickness, I highly suggest taking some pills before the bus ride (bumpy and winding).  Sitting in the front with the driver will drastically help decrease your chances of getting dizzy.  It helped me a lot!

Details:

*Getting there: From Saint George's University, take the Grand Anse bus and get off at Texaco.  Catch a #1 St. George's bus to the last stop (main bus terminal in town 2.50EC/person).  Transfer to a #6 bus to Grenville (6EC /person) and get off next to the police station (to the right of where #6 stops.. towards the parking lot full of #9 buses).  Transfer to a red bus #9 Hermitage (3EC/person) and request to be dropped off at The Belmont Estate. ~40min-1hr trip depending on traffic.


*Tour length (10EC or 4USD/ person): ~30min. view cocoa trees, processing facility-watch video, see fermenting and drying beans, see animals, sampling of chocolate and hot cocoa.  After the tour, you can walk around on your own, eat, and/or shop.  Allow 2-3hrs total for the whole trip.

*Opening Hours: Sunday to Friday 8am-4pm.

Open all public holidays except Christmas

Closed Saturdays

*Phone Number: +1 473 442 9524

*For more details, visit their website by clicking HERE.

For more pictures, please visit my album on Flickr by clicking HERE.

Rainbow the Talking Bird


what this bird can say- rainbow, the F word, polly want a cracker, happy birthday, bye. Also, it can meow like a cat and laugh hysterically.

Creamy Sausage Cabbage Pumpkin Soup

It's hard not to be able to find pumpkin (more formally known as calabasa squash) here in Grenada.  It's dirt cheap, versatile, and it's nutritious.

One day, I had left over breakfast sausage, left over cabbage, left over wonton wrappers, and a bit of cream cheese in my fridge.  I decided to have a left over party in my kitchen and slapped them all together.  Out came the creamy sausage wonton....  I fried (dipped in sweet n sour sauce) several and froze some for later use.  

Another day, I made pumpkin soup.  I wondered if there was a way to jazz up this soup and I immediately thought about the wontons I had froze from a week prior.  I decided to toss some in my pumpkin soup... an idea I was forever thankful towards my brain for thinking.  The combination was so great.  The second time around making pumpkin soup (this recipe), I didn't have wonton wrappers, but I did have all of the ingredients within. I added all of the fillings of the wontons straight into the soup.  Same great taste from when I first made it.  I hope you enjoy it! It's one of my own that I'm very proud of.

Ingredients:

5 cups water

2lbs pumpkin cubed 1''

1 tsp (or to taste)

black pepper to taste

2'' sausage or 1/3 a log

1 bunch chives chopped

3 garlic cloves

1'' slice ginger grated

1/2 cabbage chopped

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

dashes of cayenne pepper (for heat)

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp sour cream + 2 tbsp cream cheese (or just 4 tbsp sour cream)

Directions

1.  Bring water, salt, black pepper, and pumpkin up to a boil.  Once boiling, turn heat down to medium high and cover.  Cook until tender (~30min) and after, mash pumpkin. After mashed, leave heat on medium low while cooking sausage.

2.  in a heated fry pan under medium high heat, add chunks of sausage. fry until golden brown.  

2.  add ginger, garlic, and chives and cook until tender ~ 5min. be careful not to burn garlic.

3.  add cabbage, cayenne pepper, chili pepper, and cumin. Cook until tender. ~ 5min

4. add cabbage mixture into pumpkin soup plus sugar. bring to a boil ~ 5-8min. or until well incorporated.

5. turn heat off and stir in cream cheese and sour cream mixture.

Real Crab, Crab Rangoons

Take some cream cheese ~8ec, a can of real crab meat ~11ec, and wonton wrappers ~6ec, and you got yourself a piece of what I call heaven.

I was so eager to eat them that I didn't bother with making them look pretty before I took a picture of them hahaha. 

One day I got sucked into trying the food from the Chinese lady in the Gazebos at SGU.  Who could resist her charm? I wanted to sample over and over again just to see her smile and say "very good, very nice."  Haha.  As expected, I got hit with loads of Umami goodness (a taste in my book that screams out MSG).  Being a firm believer of the dangers of MSG, I decided not to eat there again.   Well, that eliminates one of the only few sources of crab rangoons in Grenada (if they had them at Flag, they probably would've been made with imitation crab meat and msg... double whammy).  So I took it upon myself to get out there and make them myself. 

Being good as they are, I was hoping that me and my friend Laura could cut straight to the chase and just do the eating part (we talked about making them when we first met).  Since one of the two sources I had known about, failed, I decided to spare me and Laura the trouble and made them at home instead.  Me and Laura had so much fun wrapping them and even more fun eating them.

Serve with sweet n sour sauce or better yet, eat them on their own!  You can also toss them in soups (at the end when they're almost cooked to prevent sogginess) without frying them.   To store, lay them out in a single layer apart from one another on a piece of foil, place in a ziplock bag, and freeze.

~15min; ~45 servings

Ingredients:

1 pack wonton wrappers (foodfair)

1 8oz container chive and onion cream cheese (IGA)

1 6.5oz can real crab meat (IGA)

1/4 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

dash of cayenne pepper for heat (optional)

dash of black pepper

splash soy sauce

generous pinch of sugar

splash of lemon juice

1 tbsp butter

1 garlic clove minced

3 stalks chives chopped (just the green parts)

sweet n sour for dipping sauce

Directions

1.  In a large bowl, add crab meat, cream cheese, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper, soy sauce, sugar, and lemon juice.

2. in a small sauce pan, heat butter.  add garlic and chives and cook on low heat ~4min or until tender.

3. add garlic and chives into crab and mix well.

4. take one wonton wrapper and place in a diamond shape.  place ~1tsp of crab in the center.  wet edges of wonton with finger to help seal wonton.  fold bottom half of diamond towards top to make a triangle. 

5. deep fry in a small sauce pan ~1 min on each side or until golden brown.  (if you don't have a small pan. you can use a big one and tilt the pan to one side frying one rangoon at a time so you can prevent having to fill the whole pan with oil.) Tongs will help flip the rangoons easily.