The Ryndex

I’ve had far more fortune in my social circles than I deserve. I mean, I’m perfectly presentable and all and normally almost capable of keeping up my end in a “conversation”, but come on — there’s no way that I’ve attracted such gracious, generous, tasteful and warm friends just using my limited charm.

But, dear sweet-ass reader, I’m not talking about you this time…

On Tuesday night, I decided to fight an oncoming cold with a megadose of sleep. I was in bed and my door buzzer rang. I threw on a robe, and it was my neighbours, who were mortified to have woken me. I reassured them that I was, indeed, in bed ridiculously early and as far as I could tell in my half-asleep haze, they invited me over for a drink the next day.

On Wednesday, I tapped on their door when I got home. They hadn’t prepared a simple drink — It was a full blown discovery of Antillais cuisine. Starting, of course, with a punch.

Punch, in Canada, is light, fruity and frothy… and is so frequently non-alcoholic that we have an English expression for the naughty business of sneaking alcohol into it (i.e. “spiking”) A punch over here, pronounced ponsh, is heavy, heady old rum, sweetened with cane sugar syrup and a bit of lemon. Canadian punch is a just a tickle in comparison (a slightly creepy tickle if it’s served in cut crystal).

I got a surprising amount of neighbourhood information from some of the other guests. Except for crêpes, I seldom eat in my arrondissement. When I go out, it’s normally in another quarter. So I discovered which bakeries were the best at which items, where the fruit was freshest, and (thankfully) where to get the best crêpes nearby. My old favourite crêperie has gone seriously downhill…

The meal was, of course, delicious. They cut up a red pepper that was sufficiently hot that you didn’t actually eat it — you just touched it to your food and then passed it to the next person. We finished with a homemade chicken colombo (which resembles curry), and many desserts.

The next day, they knocked at my door and dropped off additional leftovers. Hooray for neighbours!