Teddy Bears, Umbrellas and Shoes!

Many thanks to Ian for providing us with the photo of the bubble-blowing teddy bear in Arkadiou Street which was apparently on special offer in August. The summer sale season has now finished, so no more discounted teddy bears for a while.

As you will have gathered from our Spotlight Page, we can expect to see a bit of rain at some point in September. The first autumn downpour generally takes many people by surprise. As the raindrops fall, it is truly amazing to watch shop-owners in Rethymnon rapidly changing their displays from flip-flops and sunglasses to umbrellas and plastic macs. This represents years of practice in accommodating the suddenly sodden tourist.

It’s not only the tourists that get caught out, though. After months of living in sandals and shorts some of us have forgotten where our proper shoes are….

On a serious note, a word of warning to first time visitors who are driving cars or riding mopeds here: when it rains here, it really rains, and after a long hot summer this makes the roads especially treacherous. So please take extra care if you are out and about touring the island.

Green Fingers

This month it’s time to get back out into the garden again! Here at chez Bugle we have done precious little in July and August aside from watering the tomatoes etc. There’s no point sowing seeds if your seedlings are just going to get burnt to a crisp, and it has been way too hot to do any serious weeding or ground clearance. But September means no more excuses! Local Garden Centres are currently busy stocking up with plants in readiness for the autumn rush. The Garden Centres that we have found to be particularly helpful in the past include Garden Art and Design (by the Spili junction on the National Highway) and Agro in Missiria. For help with garden planning, maintenance and advice on pruning etc. Antonis Psathakis is recommended (see advertisement in our classified section).

Recipe: Pepper Pot Stew

This month we celebrate the Caribbean in our food and drink sections. This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that a certain Usain Bolt has a Rethymnon connection - to find out more about this you can read our report on last year’s Vardinoyannia track and field meeting in our August 2007 issue. Enough of blowing our own trumpet, or Bugle even….

There are many different versions of Pepper Pot, all of them equally good. The recipe we give you here is just one we happen to like, and experimentation is the name of the game. First things first. Crack open a Red Stripe, relax, chill, and don’t you worry ‘bout a thing. When the time is right, start thinking about assembling some ingredients and finding a large pot for the stew. Ingredients that have worked well for us include: beef and /or pork chopped into cubes, chicken, chopped onion, hot peppers and / or hot pepper sauce, a tablespoon of demerara sugar, ground allspice, thyme, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, touch of malt vinegar, vegetable oil and fresh oxtail or oxtail soup. But don’t stress about the oxtail if it’s too much of a hassle.

Boil up the chicken to make a nice stock, once this has happened, remove the chicken and reserve the stock. Strip the chicken from the bone and chop the meat into pieces. In a frying pan, brown the beef / pork and fresh oxtail if using. If you are going down the oxtail soup route, save the soup for later. Add the onion to the meat and fry until the onion goes soft.

Combine the meat and onion mix with the chicken and stock. Add everything else to the stockpot. Slow cook for a while, adjusting seasoning as required. until the meat is tender and the stew has thickened. Traditional Caribbean accompaniments include ‘rice and peas (beans)’ or jerk spiced potatoes, but it is just fine on its own, too. We have found this to be one of the all-time great ‘make ahead of time’ dishes, and should you get to have any leftovers, it freezes really well.

Cocktail of the Month: Lively up Yourself with Planter’s Punch

The instructions in ‘Creole Cooking’ - which is the source of this recipe start with the following:

‘Picture yourself on a bougainvillea – framed veranda fanning yourself and sipping this classic’. In Rethymnon, which has the most excellent bougainvillea and historical verandas in abundance, this isn’t a huge stretch of the imagination. However, we do understand that if you live in Swindon, (as an ‘off the top of my head’ example) the poetic imagery of the bougainvillea may add a certain romanticism to this cocktail. Wherever you are, this concoction might help to cheer you up on a wet and windy day.

Ingredients: 2 teaspoons sugar, 25 ml lemon/lime juice, 25 ml orange juice, at least 40 ml light rum, at least 40 ml dark rum, (if using Appleton’s over-proof, reduce measures accordingly and BEWARE!) dash of Grenadine, and, of course, a slice of pineapple and ice. Dissolve the sugar in the fruit juices. Add rum, grenadine and ice, and shake it, shake it shake it baby. Garnish.

Music to drink this by: Bob Marley (obviously), pretty much any song from the movie Dr. No, and if you absolutely insist, Harry Belafonte.