IF NUTTEN ELSE, food will sell.
I like tuh write this column early in the morning as I am out most o’ the day. Then again, I get up early too, four o’clock tuh be exact, because at dat time the body is fully rested and my brain is now fresh and should be able tuh function better.
The truth is, when I went tuh sleep, I did not know what tuh write ’bout and thought dat after sleeping and resting my mind I would be good but, I was very wrong ’cause after washing my face and brushing my teeth, I still did not have a clue what I should write ’bout, so I decided tuh get up from before the computer and get a cup o’ tea.
Ya know that ad pon television that does say a particular tea sharpens the mind? So anyway, I got up and went in tuh the kitchen and reaching in the fridge fuh the milk, I picked up a small container o’ food dat was there fuh about a week. It needed tuh be thrown out – and dat is when it hit me. Food!
No, I wasn’t hungry; not at dat hour o’ the morning – uh uh! What came tuh me is the modern-day Bajans who love food, who love tuh eat but do not cook.
You could imagine dat? How you could love good bittle, love ya guts summuch and doan like tuh cook? Well, dat is easy: ya see, duh got a lot o’ Bajans who doan like tuh or cahn take the time tuh cook.
It does take too long and dem could be doing something else like texting or surfing the Net or pon Facebook or tweeting, whatevah. So when duh get hungry, all duh does want tuh do is eat, not cook; they would tell you dat duh hungry now, not later.
Things, people change
Dat is why the food business will nevah die; food will sell nuh matter if the economic times hard or duh soft. Wherevah ya turn nowadays ya does see somebody wid a styrofoam container in duh hands, nuh matter how early in the day it is and, look, duh ain’t see a thing wrong wid it. Dat is tuh show you how much things and people have changed, hear?
But now while you and I who like good food would take our time and prepare a proper meal from scratch, another set o’ people ain’t doing dat. Duh ain’t got dat kinda time. Not dat duh got anything more than anybody else tuh do, ya know; duh just ain’t got the time nor patience tuh go in tuh a supermarket, pull out a trolley and walk up and down nuh aisles saying dem selecting this thing or the other tuh carry home and prepare nothing.
Of course, duh does go in tuh the supermarket, not once, not twice, not even three times a week; as a matter o’ fact dem does be in the supermarket more than me or you who walking up and down playing we going from aisle tuh aisle picking up this or the next and comparing prices, all the time working out how long this gine last so we could get the most outta we dollar.
Now, all this time, dem in the same supermarket standing up in a line wid a lot o’ other people just like dem fuh 15 tuh 20 minutes, waiting tuh buy ready-done food. And look, the supermarket people recognize this and moving wid the times too, ’cause actually evah supermarket nowadays got a li’l cookshop in it or attached tuh it, where people does be at evah single day from the time it open ’til the time it shut, eating something or the other or carrying it away.
You would think dat Sunday would make some kinda difference tuh dem, but as far as they are concerned, it ain’t nuh different from any other day in the week. Some people ain’t even know wha’ a kitchen look like or what should be in it – they would only embarrass demselves. So it is the same thing from Sunday tuh Sunday and duh ain’t embarrassed tuh walk outside of a supermarket a Sunday wid a big-able container o’ food in duh hands.
Before this breakfast thing started at some supermarkets, I would have tuh believe now dat a lot o’ people used tuh go tuh work hungry many days. Well, it is either dat or duh lazy as France. But one thing I know: from breakfast tuh dinner and beyond, food is selling.
Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
