A-Z of Guyanese Words for food
Chinese Steamed Bun
Honey and ginger cake
Hot cross bun
Soya chunks chowmein
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A-Z of Guyanese Words for food
A-Z of Guyanese Words
Foods & Foodstuffs by May-Rose and Peter Kempadoo
Accara See Recipe
Originally a West African Dish, mostly cooked by Afro-Guyanese villagers, especially on ceremonial occasions and served with (red) palm oil. Made very much the same way as polouries, but using black-eye peas instead of split peas. See also ‘panyaro’ and ‘wadday’ cooked mostly by Madrassees.
Made usually from green mangoes, lemons, limes or belembis (souries) When the Madrassees make it their way - very hot and peppery, they call it ‘urgah’
Alga has been used in food for livestock and as food for human consumption since pre-historic times. For example, it is used for a wide range of commercial purposes. Among its products is a form of gelose (agar) that is produced by more than 70 species of red algae. Agar is used in the canning of fish and production of cooked fish, in soups, sauces, jellies, ice-cream and icing. Very popular in Chinese cuisine. Spirulina is widely sold as health-food and Chlorella is cultured for animal feed.
In paddy-growing areas such as India, Blue green algae is cultivated in the fields as a natural fertiliser.
One-pot cook with everything together.
Also called potato balls
Solar (or from the sun) wind-powered or bio-gas (usually methane gas from cow dung)
Aluminium, also spelt and pronounced ‘aluminium’
Aluminium poisoning is so prevalent that a word of caution here: Hydrogen gas is formed by boiling well water, or when heat is in contact with an aluminium dish or pot. Thus the old time ‘iron’ carahee was so very much better to use than the aluminium ones, and enamel or other non-aluminium pots are to be preferred – for health reasons. Lemonade or swank made in an aluminium container will have a very bad taste if allowed to remain standing in the metal for any length of time. And coffee remaining in an aluminium coffee pot has a peculiar metallic taste.
Red food colouring from pods of locally grown trees, supposedly the best natural food dye in the world. Traditionally known by Amerindians in the forest areas as shurabally trees.
Also called ‘hing’ by Hindus' (or ‘perngaiyo’ by Madrassees) asofoetita is used for all sorts of uses in Guyana, for both medicinal purposes and as an ingredient in cooking. For example a good Madrassee curry, as cooked in the Madrassee State of Tamil Nadu in India, should include perngaiyo.
Portuguese name for salt-fish
Made with flour, either as a pancake (dhosay roti, baked on a tawah) or ‘float’, fry-jack’, ‘pot-bake’ or ‘sweet-bake’
Also spelt baccoo, name given to a small spirit. He is supposed to be brought over from Surinam: could live in a bottle and exists on bananas and milk. Active only at night, it is said that a satisfied bakkoo will carry out the wishes of its owner. He could be set to stone people’s houses and to move objects around inside a house
Made with vermicelli boiled in milk. Usually distributed by Muslims to neighbours, relatives and friends on Islamic feast days. Also known as ‘saywai’
Bambai Left over food to be eaten later
Bamboo Shoots Very much a Chinese speciality
Banana Bread – see recipe
Made traditionally in Guyana by using a coagulant such as lime-juice, sour- milk contains everything which whole milk contains, except the fat which is considerably reduced. Yoghurt is different from sour milk as its organisms or culture (when genuine) can live and thrive as the temperature inside the human body, whereas sour-milk contains only the ordinary lactic organisms that are destroyed by normal body heat. If genuine yoghurt is taken regularly it helps to maintain or restore the normal intestinal flora. Throughout the world, whatever the traditional culture, yoghurt is an important part of the diet for its nutrition, In Zimbabwe, for example, it is the most craved-for food amongst the people living in Matabeleland where it is called ‘amassi’
Barahar Fruit similar to monkey-apple
Barra Made with split peas and flour
Wares used when eating; plates, cups, etc. ‘Mangay your bartan’ – wash the wares thoroughly’
Basil or Tulsee
One of the ‘holy’ herbs all around the world. It is said that basil bushes sprung up overnight around the tomb in which the body of Jesus lay. Hindus' always use tulsee in the pujah ceremonies. Leaves are very good for bush tea as well
Left- overs from a previous meal. ‘Bassi-bhaat will make you fat’
Lots of local herbs to cure this. A most popular one is the juice of ‘bitter aloes’ (See ‘bitter aloes’)
Belna and Chowkie
Rolling Pin and chowkie
Hindu wood for food
A festive ceremony in praise of ‘Bhagwan’ or ‘The Creator’ during which the Hindu scriptures are read out
Bhajee Also called calalloo
Biggie A big ‘pint and a half’ bottle of rum
Sliced bhaigan (bringal, boulanger, egg-plant, aubergine or melongine) dipped in a flour batter and fried in oil. Goes well with fresh cane-juice, as sold by ‘cane-juice men’ at roadside stalls in town.
Bit or Bitt
An 8-cent sliver coin that was used in Guyana, In the Market, transactions were calculated as bit, bitnahalf, six bits, eight bits etc.
Aloe Vera, with its very bitter juice, has been used medicinally in many ancient civilisations such as Egypt and other parts of Africa, Persia, Greece and India. Today it is widely known and is readily available in health stores all over the world in the form of juice in bottles, and gel in tubes. Here in Guyana we have always used it to treat cuts and sores, as well as drink the juice for bellyache
Someone who eats large quantities of food just for the sake of eating
Our special Christmas cake, very rich with dried fruits that have been soaked in wine or rum, dark with burnt-sugar, and soft from the wine or rum poured over it after baking (See recipe)
Seasoned cooked rice and cows’ or pigs’ blood stuffed in pig’s or cows’ guts and sold as a delicacy
A real ‘toughie’ of a person, especially children and their robustness associated with their eating habits
A glutton for anything as food, games, dancing, etc
Box-hand or sou-sou
(Very handy way to save up fro special feasts)
Bread and Cheese
Green seeds of flowering shrub (Barbados pride)
A hand-cart hawking bread from house to house
A sweet biscuit favoured by children, which is very hard to the mouth unless it is soaked in milk, swank or soft-drink
A traditional drink of swizzled milk, essence, syrup and crushed ice. Toddy later on took its place, followed more lately by milk-shake
Special cake made by Portuguese to eat at Christmas: from molasses, honey, walnuts and almond nuts
Bul-jhol Salted fish fried dry
Bake made of flour and salt-pork, used by pork- knockers on long treks in the hinterlands in their search of gold and diamonds.
Peas and rice or cook up rice that got burnt at the bottom of the pot ‘I like my peas and rice, down the bun-bun and all’
Bundoo-cow Cow without horns; called ‘poll’ animal
Bunjhal, bunjay Dried down curry
Not to be confused with ‘jumbie-bubbie’ which little boys have always been made to believe by their school yard friends that if rubbed on the palm of your hand they would make the skin burst and bleed if Teacher was to lash with a whip on that palm
Bush-cow or tapir
Of course we do have a ‘water cow’ as well known as ‘manatee’
‘Tea’ made from fresh leaves, e.g.; sweet broom, kareilla or sorosee, fennel, basil (tulsee), kungapump and lime leaf, petals of flowers such as hibiscus (Warning some floweres, eg; oleander, even though a holy plant to Hindus', are downright poisonous) Also teas from seeds, e.g. coriander and cardamon.
Small loaf of bread baked with butter underneath a folded over flap
Caca-hand A left-handed person
Ca-ca-belly Another name for ‘millions’ fish
Method of cooking fish, and soaking it in a liquid of vinegar, onions, tyme and hot peppers, similar to making souce with meat or breadfruit
Also called chiffonier or wagonette
Either cut in halves to make bowls, or scooped out as ‘goobies’.
Not the same as ‘calabash’ in Africa which is a gourd, whereas ours grows on a hard-wood tree
Also known as bhajee
Calongie Stuffed kareilla
Camara-mara Sweet fruit found in up river areas
Boiled rice, with some of the rice-water (or maar) left in, and seasoned with shallots, garlic, hot pepper and salt. Cooked in large quantities with added black-eyed peas by Madrassees at their Khalimai pujahs and shared out to all those attending, dished out into half coconut shells. Incidentally, the main Madrassee Khal-mai (or more correctly Durga-mai) pujahs are usually held twice yearly. About four weeks before each of these pujahs, a person is sent around the district to notify every household about the event. People from the various homes give a cup of rice or some peas to that person to take back and store at the ‘kouloo’ or temple: and it is from these donations that the canjee choroo is cooked at the pujah
Cape-gooseberry Also called ‘po-po’ locally
Carahee Also called ‘wok’ these days
Juice of the bitter cassava boiled for some eight hours. How our Amerindians ever learnt to do this- as the basic ingredient for what is now one of our national dishes, pepperpot, has never been discovered. When we know how deadly poisonous the pure juice is, that is, before boiling! We know of strong big animals like oxen that die after drinking un-boiled bitter cassava juice. The secret in making cassareep is to boil the juice for hours and hours – for at least eight hours – until the bitter and poisonous juice becomes sweet and non-poisonous.
Called kalley by the Amerindians who first produced it
Casserole Like cooking stew beef
Even though a fruit, tasting somewhat like over-ripe banana, is eaten in places like Asia, as a whole meal, especially by people like Buddhist monks. The roasted seeds are nutritious
Boil on your eyelid because you took back something from the person you had given it to
Chamkay To show off
To devour ravenously.
‘Boy, you should-a-see how he champolise that big big plate of food!’
Grainy residue after the production of coconut oil from boiling the cream of the milk of grated coconut
Cheese pudding – See recipe
Cheese-straw See recipe
Chinese black eye cake
Chinese Steamed Bun See recipe
You could make choka from aloo, bhigan, coconut, etc, even ripe tomatoes!
Peeled green, mango or green golden apple chopped up and soaked in vinegar, with pepper and salt.
Children and pregnant women love it!
Clay fire-side for cooking. You can attach a chimney to make it smokeless
Cogh Like an egg nog
The Comfu folk religion is a part of our Guyanese cultural identity, alongside the various forms of Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Rastafarai. Its claim being a multi-cultural religion, is on the basis that the spirits entertained in the ceremonies belong to seven different ethnic groups which have played their parts in the history, politics and economics of the country: African, Amerindian, Chinese, Dutch (especially the Djuka of Surinam), East Indian, British and Spanish.
The foods used at a Comfu ceremony to honour an Indian spirit may be parsad for Hinduism and sanuuine for Islam. At a ceremony honouring a Chinese spirit there may be roast pork, fried rice, chow-mein, and Chinese religious cakes. For the British there may be cheese sandwiches, and cookies. The Amerindian spirit is honoured with cassava bread and pepperpot. Conkie, mettagee and cook-up rice are symbolic of the African. The Dutch spirit is entertained with boiled corn and bread and cheese. For the Spanish, there may be Spanish rice and baked fish.
Porridge made of plantain and/or cassava flour.
Made with cornflour, coconut, pumpkin or banana, wrapped in a banana leaf and boiled
Coo-coo See Recipe
Coconut-oil is still the most used: of course, 'fryol' is just refined coconut-oil, and is supposed to be better health-wise, except that there are chemicals added to the crude coconut-oil in the refining process.
Sunflower seeds which could be so easily grown in greater quantity than at present, produce an oil which is much better health-wise: crude sunflower-oil does not need to be refined by the addition of chemicals. And the technique for extracting oil from these seeds is very much simpler than coconut-oil making.
Coriander Both seeds and leaves are used in cooking
Apart from corn-meal porridge, not as much used as a staple, even in our up-river areas, where until recently, cracked (pounded or milled) corn was a firm favourite in the meal; but whose place has been overtaken by rice which is now readily available. In certain countries in Africa, like Zimbabwe where rice is hardly grown, corn-meal is the staple foodstuff – eaten in the same way that we use rice as our staple in Guyana. Over there, corn-meal is known by the Metabeleland people as 'mealy-meal' from which their 'ishwalla' is made for every meal. Among the Shona people this is called 'sadza' (Cracked corn, called 'samp' is also cooked as rice.)
'Once a visitor eats labba meat and drinks creek-water, he or she is bound to come back to Guyana!'
Certain snails in our trenches, eaten by rural folk, mostly children; and hunted by the creketay hawk.
In Madresse curry they put tamarind and plenty of ground hot bird pepper and slice green mango.
Until the time when commercially prepared curry-powder became so very popular in Guyana, most people used garam-massalla; and their curry paste, from a combination of coriander, cummin, fenegreek, spices, peppers, and tumeric, (along with hot bird-pepper and tamarind, especially if they are Madrasses) were ground on massalla bricks freshly every time they wanted to cook a curry. You bought your various ingredients loosely those days, so you were able to vary them according to your own taste.
Cush-cush Portuguese dish made of flour
Residue from grated coconut from which the milk has been squeezed out. Sometimes used in making sugar-cakes.
Custard block or Ice block
Green plantains cut in small disks and eaten in soup.
Dahee (see Bannaclava)
Made with split-peas; but also with black-eyed peas.
Dhall-bhaat Dhall and rice
Dhall-pourie See Recipe
Dhosay-roti See bakes. See Recipe
Dhut-peerah Indian sweet-meat made with pure milk
Dig-dutty Part of the ceremony for a Hindu wedding
Donkey-collar, (coconut) turn-over, salara
Down – a – liquor
It was customary for us to use imported dry-fruits such as raisins and currants in our black-cake. Nowadays, locally produced dry-fruits from carambola, belembi, and so on are used instead.
Sun dried fish also called 'karawadoo' by Madrassees
Ground provisions, sometimes boiled and tossed.
Mixture of flour, water, sugar, salt and butter – boiled for dumpling. For duff, same mixture, with added baking soda, but steamed, instead of boiled.
Used very much in cooking, especially in curries; but also ground into a paste and used by Hindu brides on their faces, arms and legs as a beauty treatment the week before the wedding.
To continue eating when one's stomach is already full-full. And panting to make room in your stomach for more food.
Cassava processed specially by the Amerindians, becoming like a whole meal.
Apart from cooking and lighting, fire or light has special relevance in various cultures. In most of such cases it is with some reverence, whether in Christianity, Hinduism and so on. Hindus' are supposed not to light a fire in their homes until they have done their morning ablutions – or at least washed their faces.
Common ones like caca-belly or millions, cuffum, congo-fish, gillbacker, queriman, hassar, hourie, shrimps (and prawns), silver-fish (or poutia) – both scale and unscale or skin fish, both salt-water and sweet-water. Arapaima, found in our rivers. Is the largest sweet-water fish in the world.
Guyanese abroad do miss our local fish so very very much! (we remember the great excitement among Guyanese in Toronto, Canada, on Friday mornings a couple of years ago when word got around that hassars had arrived overnight from home by plane!)
Flap-jack Oatmeal pancake
Sweet made of corn and coconut milk, like bakes.
Float See bake
Just a word here: for health reasons more and more people are being warned off eating flour milled from wheat, and from wheaten products, even more so from white flour, Go for whole wheat or brown flour if available
Fluttie Frozen fruit juice or sweet drink, like lolly-pops.
Food as Nutritional Therapy
'All the world seeks food. It is the life source of all beings. Clarity, Longevity, intelligence, happiness, contentment, strength, and knowledge are all rooted in food' - Charaka
Throughout history in both the East and the West, healers have recognised the great importance of diet, and have shown a remarkable understanding of its health-promoting and potential healing powers. This line of thinking is very much in keeping with a growing interest and commitment to what is becoming known in health-food circles as 'scientific natural food therapy'.
Ayurveda, the holistic system of healing has been practised for thousands of years in India and Sri Lanka. It involves a combination of massage with Indian herbs, meditation, diet, yoga, exercise, and herbal tonics. Patients are given a herbal body massage using different combinations of the 250 plant-sourced oils. This helps to flush out waste products from the body and improve immune system response. Some yoga postures help rejuvenate the glandular system and reduce stress, whilst others improve digestion and cleanse and nourish the tissues while toning the body. Patients are also given a diet to improve the body's constitution.
Ayurvedic practitioners believe that each meal should include varieties of the six food tastes – sweet, sour, spicy, salty, pungent and astringent. (In Ayurveda all foods belong to one of three categories: sattvic – calm-inducing, : rajastic – stimulating and tamasic – mind dulling)
Yin & Yang properties: For centuries Chinese doctors have been teaching their patients the art of balancing food in-take. The principle of yin and yang is based on the idea that all objects or phenomena in the world can be understood as one of a pair of opposites. Chines medicine strives to achieve balance partly through the use of herbs and foods. It is usual to treat someone whose yin or yang is out of balance with foods of the opposite designation. This is believed to restore harmony and balance.
Boiled green plantains or yams, pounded with a mortar stick or pestle in a wooden mortar. Served mostly with soup or some sauce.
Sometimes used to describe a large fowl (or large woman with many children)
Frek A small piece of money
Frey-frey or freyie-freyie
Thin in texture or substance.
Heavy soup made of pink (or red) kidney beans, pumpkin etc. Originated with the people who came from Madeira (mostly Santantones) But also very popular in the Rupununi where these particular beans are grown in large quantities. Rupununi borders on Brazil where there are still large Portuguese and Madeiran cultural influences.
Fry-jack See 'Bake'
Fryol See 'cooking oil'
Fudge See Recipe
Gaynse 'I eat so much of the vittle till I gaynse it'
Garlic is considered as one of Nature's true food remedies, with remarkable curative powers, germicidal qualities, is a blood purifier, and is effective in stomach and intestinal disorders like diarrhoea, in affections like tuberculosis, catarrhal conditions, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, rheumatism and gout, disorders of the nervous system, and skin blemishes. Garlic juice is used for earache, and for washing wounds and foul ulcers. In health exhibitions all around the world, garlic is always prominently displayed and its uses promoted.
This is something that those growing up on sugar estates enjoy as a free or cheap 'sweetie'. Some sugar is bound to fall out of the trays conveying sugar from one section of the factory to another section; which then gets under the roller wheels of the trays and is crushed and compressed hard. This is 'gatka' which has to be dug out every week-end (when the factory is not working) and is usually thrown away. But somehow, children on the estate do get hold of some of it and hand it around, or sell it to their playmates, mostly for buttons.
Ghee is clarified butter and is highly nourishing. It increases the fatty tissues of the body. Food cooked or fried in ghee becomes difficult to digest.
"Christmas comes but once a year
And every man must have his share
Even poor Uncle Willie in the jail
Eating stale bread and drinking sour 'ginger beer'!"
Gluten See' flour'
Gluten is a protein food found in wheat and certain other cereals. When flour is kneaded under running water, a paste is first formed; then – the starch having been gradually washed away – a greyish elastic dough is produced. This is gluten. This protein food is harmless to most people. However, in coeliac disease, it damages the small intestine and so causes a variety of symptoms.
Correctly called 'gugglet' by country folk in Guyanna
Godna also known as 'tattoo'
Goobie See 'callabash'
Made from specially processed tea leaves. Very different from what we usually call 'green tea'
Guava-cheese See Recipe
Also known as 'sorghum'
That sweet mango-chutney which is usually served at East Indian weddings and such things.
Meat from animals slaughtered by a Muslim, and blessed and therefore is considered 'khosher' and okay for Muslims to eat.
Hamchin: a Chinese sweet-meal
Christian churches have special harvest festivals at 'crop-over' time. Similarly, Hindus' celebrate harvest by the 'water-side', usually by a river or seaside, for their ceremony of Teerat, when after the prasad is blessed by the pandit, some of it is put into the water as offering to 'Ganga-mai, or River mother.
Herbal tea See 'bush-tea'
Honey See Recipe for Honey and Ginger Cake
Honey is the most concentrated sweetening in Nature, and is considered an excellent and hygienic food. It consists of grape sugar and fruit sugar. It is a pure fuel food and an energy-giving food, which requires practically, no digesters but is quickly utilised by the body.
In the treatment for burns, scalds and dressing of wounds, its value has been repeatedly proved. And honey can be used to treat wounds, such as leg ulcers, making it difficult for bacteria to thrive. It also releases natural antiseptic substances which inhibit the growth of many common skin bacteria.
Hot Cross Bun See Recipe.
Ice-block or Custard block
Ital Special food prepared by Rastafarians
Jacket potato Potato baked in its skin
Jamoon drink (or wine) Very rich in iron.
Seeds sprouted and ready for planting, especially paddy seeds. Term also used for the broadcasting or 'shying' of sprouted seeds into the prepared fields.
An expert in any field. 'When it comes to noshing up food, he is a class by himself – a real jeptic'
Unclean. 'This cup is jutha: somebody else has been drinking from it'
One of many kinds of wild mushroom – but don't attempt to pick and eat it unless it is identified by someone who really knows about them.
In places like The Philippines, one can see people gathering wild mushrooms on the ground among the trees soon after sun-up. Pre-packed mushroom 'hanging baskets' are also bought by families, hung up on their verandas and watered: from this they get a regular supply of mushrooms for about a month.
Kalley See cassava bread
Apart from the fruits cooked (See calongie), the leaves are dried and sold as 'sarosee', for making tea, supposed to be anti-carcinogenic.
Karwadoo See 'dried fish'
Katcha-batcha Little ones.
Keejeerie An Indian cook-up
Kheer See Recipe
Khosher See 'hallal'
Kinna Foods you don't like or you are allergic to.
A bush for making tea for a remedy mainly for boils. The tea will purify the blood generally
Labba and creek-water See creek water.
'I am so hungry, I am going home to lash some food'
Lawah Puffed rice
Licks like peas
Along with pumpkin and sunflower, linseed seeds are considered as very nutritious, even though in Guyana we have all along used linseed oil only for oiling cricket bats.
Commonly known in Guyana as the 'stinking toe' tree, and also as 'carob' the world over. The insides of the seed-pods is now used extensively world-wide, in sweets and ice-cream, especially so because it is less fattening than cocoa or chocolate.
In the Bible, when St. John the Baptist, and the other prophets survived in the wilderness, eating 'locust and honey', their locust was carob and not the insect which can cause plagues.
The seeds (used as a chocolate substitute) are of a fairly constant weight – about a fifth of a gramme – and once served as measures. The weight of diamonds and the purity of gold are still expressed as carots.
Lowky A squash
Maar The water in which rice has been boiled
Rice cooked in coconut milk. Also called 'shine rice'
See corn-meal. Our Guyanese corn which with tomatoes, white potatoes and tobacco, are natives of Central America and the Caribbean. Sorghum (guinea corn) and millets, the native grains of Africa, have been largely over-taken by maize, even on that continent itself – as the production of maize has spread around the world – to the point that it is now the staple diet in places like Zimbabwe where sorghum is almost exclusively for brewing beer.
The 'sea cow' which lives mostly at the mouths of our rivers, is prized for its meat. Most local and international efforts to save the manatee from being caught and slaughtered – it is an endangered species which is in real danger of being completely wiped out – have been failing, because these mammals are easily captured and their flesh fetches a high price, especially at our hotels which cater for wild-meat dishes. (In Guyana we also have the 'bushcow' or tapir)
Manbogh See Recipe
A garden in the round – with spiritual significance. The best designs involve up-to-date practices in agro-forestry, alley-cropping or forest gardening, in which there is complementary planting of trees, shrubs, flowers, fruits, vegetables, and so on. The whole thing becomes a joy to behold, as well as being productive. It is usually 'organic' that is without the use of 'unnatural fertilisers' ( natural compost or manure, instead!) nor chemical sprays.
Marinade To season up
Herb used in flavouring black pudding
Massalla See 'Curry Powder'
The long basket, made (plaited) by the Amerindians to strain the juice from grated bitter cassava when making cassava bread and cassareep.
Dish of plantain and ground provisions like cassava, sweet potato, eddoes, yam and meat or fish, cooked in coconut milk. Adapted from Africa and considered a delicacy in Guyana.
Usually fancy trappings on a garment etc. Term also used in connection with food.
Miligue Portuguese beef-stew
Long ago, molasses, as a by-product in the sugar operations on the plantations, was fed to mules and cattle. More recently, it has been considered as good foodstuff for humans, rich in minerals, like iron, potassium and calcium. Used in a variety of ways. It is also used medicinally, both internally and externally, for rheumatism, for the intestinal tract and for purifying the blood. The most convenient way of taking molasses is before meals. One teaspoonful must be melted in half a cup of warm water, then cold water should be added, so as to make two-thirds of a cup, and must be drunk warm.
'Mulga' is the Tamil word for pepper, and 'tanni' for water, so mulga-tanni literally means pepper-water. And when the Madrasses make their mulga-tanni soup, not only is it as hot as any pepper-water (made with red hot bird pepper) must be, but it is always served piping hot, straight off the fire. Of course, it is highly seasoned with garlic, shallots, tamarind etc; and sometimes, by boiling meat such as chicken in it, it is claimed as a cleansing tonic for new mothers, during their 'nine-day lying in' period.
Munga-bhajee or 'moringa'
The common name used by Madrassees for saighan bhajee. The 'munga' part of the name comes from 'moringa'
Mushroom See 'jumbie-umbrella'
There are quite a few similar vegetables: e.g.ghingee, satputtia (grows in bunches of seven – 'Sat' is the Hindu word for 7), chicheerah (the long, thin, stripey curly one) Dried nenwah is also known as loofah.
The name given to a hard-boiled sweet, bigger than a lollipop which children suck and which they always take an age to finish. Not so good for their teeth!
Nimakarram An ungrateful person
To eat without too much regard to what we Guyanese call good eating manners.
Oatmeal pancake Also called a 'flap-jack'
Foodstuffs or food made with foodstuffs, whether vegetables, fruits, cereals, or flesh that were grown or produced without applications of chemicals, such as fertilisers, insecticides, etc. They are the natural, and are considered the safest foodstuffs for human consumption, becoming more and more popular the world over.
Bethal leaves, or paan, are chewed by Tamils for their flavour and their digestive, carminative and stimulating properties. They have a therapeutic effect if used without tobacco and in moderation, if the leaves are taken in their natural form and not tampered with for commercial purposes.
Paan is also used on religious and social occasions. It is offered to the deities on certain religious days and to visitors on auspicious occasions as a mark of courtesy and goodwill. Madrassees call it 'wetlay'
In addition to coconuts, awarras and cockerites which are known all over the country, some other palm nuts are used in up-river areas: kuryu, etay (from which an 'uncooked' porridge is made by soaking it overnight and scraping off the flesh), parapee (boiled and eaten with salt), turoo (soaked overnight in water which is then sweetened for 'tea')
Panyaro A Madrassee kind of 'poulourie' (See Accara)
Pap or porridge
Fruits and sweet-meats blessed at Hindu religious ceremonies, offered to the deities and shared out.
Of a child – under-nourished; thin and sickly looking. Fruits: uninviting looking under developed.
Passion fruit Like our 'bell-apple' growing up-river
Pasta Includes spaghetti, macaroni and vermicelli
Very tasty; and good for putting into porridge made with cereal (rice, corn, wheat etc) flour. Peanut oil too is so good!
However, more people are found to be allergic to peanut than they themselves might be aware of.
Amerindian basket carried on the back and suspended on the forehead with string.
Pegass To become 'biggety'
Dish of Amerindian origin and called 'tuma' by them. The basic ingredient, cassareep, acts as a food preservative, apart from its distinctive flavour. A pepper-pot could be kept going by boiling every day and adding meat (or Soya-tofu for vegetarians) as required. A great amount of hot pepper is a must; and pepper-pot is usually eaten when hot from the heat of cooking.
A weed popularly used for making 'tea'. There is man-piaba and woman-piaba.
Pilau See Recipe
Local name of the fruit of the 'pipal' (fig) tree, mostly found planted around 'seewalhas' (Hindu temples) – a great favourite among children and youths.
A condiment used by Portuguese in preparing steak.
Pope To 'sponge' on somebody
Sweet dish (of African origin) made of cassava, cornflour, pumpkin, essence and lard. Corn pone is a special variety, with its sweet 'fat-top'
Po-po See Cape Gooseberry
Most people don't really know that the white English or Irish potato, (also called 'alloo' in Guyana), was known in Europe before the time of the early European explorers who first came across it when they started visiting the New World in the fifteenth century and took it back with them to be introduced in Europe. Now-a-days, it is the most popular item of basic foodstuff, ranking only after the cereals like rice. Potato or 'alloo' balls are tasty. Selected varieties of potatoes could easily be grown, as was shown by Dr. Mittleholzer some years ago at the foothills of Mount Roraima, in the Potato River area; and in a demonstration plot at the agricultural station at Black Bush Polder.
Potato Roti See Recipe
To be like 'pot-salt'; to be in everything and everywhere.
Poulourie or split-peas fritters (see Accara)
Pourie or shut
Another kind of roti – the one you usually get at East Indian wedding feasts: boiled in oil or ghee, instead of being baked like other rotis.
Pow See Chinese steamed buns
Thick bakes also baked on a tawah. Apart from the usual flour and water for ordinary 'floats', the ingredients for pram-prams could also include salt-fish and seasoning, made this way especially for workers taking them out to the fields as a complete meal.
On the cosmic plane, prana is considered the first air of creation. Being the finest of the airs, it has been infused into the life of all organisms by the creator since the beginning of time, energy and matter. Prana is referred to by the ancients as the 'soul within the body'. In Ayurdveda (See Food as Nutritional Therapy) cosmic energy and universal matter are at once intertwined in our foods, thoughts and activities. The body is sustained prana, the breath of life, and annan the earth's food.
Pumpkin-pie See Recipe Pumpkin seeds are nutritious.
Used medicinally with water or wine and drunk every morning to cure malaria and other fevers.
Cup of wood made from Lignum Vitae bark. 'Draws water' overnight, to be drunk medicinally in the morning.
Hindus' draw patterns with rice, flour-and water or petals of flowers on the 'daubed' earth outside their front-doors fore-day morning – to welcome Lakshmie, the Goddess of Light and Good Fortune into their homes, and for her to give them blessings.
Raw rice (that is shelled, and not parboiled first) when polished is nutritionally inferior, since the polishing removes valuable constituents, most of the nutrients present in the germ and the outer layer of the grains, containing valuable B-vitamins, thiamine, and so on are removed. The unpolished whole-grain brown rice, dietetically speaking and not polished white rice, is one of the finest foods as it contains the most valuable nutrients. And think of our delicious parch-rice, sweet-rice and water-rice!
Basmati, a naturally-scented rice is becoming more and more popular with the Guyanese.
One who drinks methylated spirits as well as the drink itself.
See Munga-bhajee. Saijhan, or Moringa, grows plentifully in Guyana. People whose ancestors are from North India use the long pods (or drumsticks, like asparagus) in their cooking, especially in curries: these pods give the tree the name of 'tropical asparagus' tree. Madrasses use both the pods and the leaves, which they cook as a callaloo. These saijhan leaves, along with cassava leaves and caterpillar bhajee (or amaranthus) are the three leaves richest in nutrient. The tree is also known as the 'horse-radish' tree, since its roots can be used instead of horse-radish, especially in pickles. Two important new uses for saijhan: dried seeds produce a high-quality edible oil, with the seed-cake, or cous-cous, a very good fertiliser and also suitable for animal fodder. And the crushed seeds are now being researched as an excellent alternative to alum in the purification of water. For this purpose, tons of these seeds are being imported by researchers such as at Universities in the UK.
Salara See 'donkey-collar'
Salt-seu Also known as 'chicken-foot'
The big spreading 'sweetie' tree. Children find the fruits very 'sweetie', hence the local name. The dry pods make really good musical shak-shaks.
The original satwa that was made by the early East Indians was very much the same as it was in India: Satwa (meaning seven, in Hindi) grains, about three of legumes like channa, and the rest of cereals like rice and corn – each of these grains parched separately and then all of them together and pounded into flour, thus making a complete carbohydrate and protein food. This was mixed with water or milk when required to be eaten. (This food is very popular among 'health food' eaters in North America and elsewhere. It is commonly called seven grains.) The ancient Rishies, or holy men of India, used to carry around their satwa in little (pye-ee) bags with them and ate this and a few fruits as their complete diet. Later on in Guyana, when various legumes and cereal grains became scarce, people who wanted very much to have satwa started making it from fewer grains, e.g. using soya beans which is very rich indeed in protein, and two cereal grains. Up-river peoples like those on the Berbice River make a similar food: parched or roasted shelled corn pounded into a fine flour, and mixed with sugar it is called 'sham-sham'
Saucepan Food-carrier made of galvanised tin
Saywai See Bamazelli
Season-up To marinade
Sesame, wangella balls
Shallot or eschallot
Sham-sham See Satwa
Shine-rice See Magnet rice
Shut See 'pourie'
Sifter Called 'morom' in Tamil
Skin-fish Usually called 'un-scale' fish, like cuirass
Skin-teeth ’All skin-teeth na laff'
This piece of simple equipment is becoming very popular with people who are wanting to sun-dry foodstuff like fruit, vegetables, and fish. Making use of the free and abundant sunlight in Guyana, obviously it makes good sense. Solar dryers are so easy to construct for yourself, and very hygienic too!
Sorghum Also known as 'guinea-corn' (See 'maize')
Soorwa Gravy or 'khulmboo' (the Maddrasse word)
Soursop ice-cream See Recipe
Soyabean – the 'miracle golden bean' – may be considered as the king of pulses or legumes, because of its wealth of nutrition. Being rich in all food essentials and containing proteins of the highest value, it successfully replaces or entirely supplants meat, fish, eggs, cheese, butter and milk.
However, Soyabean in its raw state is somewhat difficult to digest. And one has also to cultivate a taste for it. It therefore has to be suitably processed by soaking, germinating, steaming and double boiling. These processes improve the digestibility and nutritive value of the bean.
Soyabeans can also be put to a number of diverse uses, and in these forms are taken readily by most people. It can thus be made into 'tofu', soy-burger, soy-milk, soy-chunks, soy-bread and roti (made from soya flour); the beans can also be roasted like coffee beans and ground into a fine powder for use as 'soya-coffee'. And sweets, toffee, cakes, candy, biscuits, sauce, even milk products for infants and adults, diabetic foodstuffs and various products could be made out of it. (Since over one-third of human beings show some allergy to cow's milk, more and more people are turning to soya-milk as an alternative. You can even make yoghurt from it.)
Even though soya plants produce best in climates where there is a season of long daylight time, as compared with our equal daylight time in the tropics, (hence very suited to the most southern regions of neighbouring Brazil!) selected varieties could be grown in Guyana. The success in growing soya, maize, and sorghum at Kibillibirri in the Berbice and Demerara Rivers area proved this.
Soya chunks chowmein See Recipe
Spice In Guyana spice is specifically cinnamon.
Spirulaina See Alga
Really the dry seeds of garden peas that have been split in half. Also see 'poulourie'
By sprouting cereal and legume seeds. A 'health-food' speciality. Very nutritious – particularly rich in vitamins and minerals, and are an excellent source of protein and fibre. See Recipe.
Like those 'fowl-cock' sweeties on sticks.
Dish of coconut and rice, similar to 'shine-rice'
White cane-sugar which still seems to be preferred by some people to brown sugar is infinitely more injurious than brown sugar. The heat and chemical process employed in the sugar refinery kills the vitamins and separates the mineral elements, protein and other substances from the sap, leaving nothing but pure sugar crystals. The darker the sugar (because of more molasses content), the better if you must use sugar at all.
The use of cane sugar is a common cause of gastric catarrh and hyperactivity.
Sunflower See 'cooking oil'
The seeds (shelled) are excellent for eating.
Sweet bake Also called 'fry-jack' See 'bakes'
Boiled rice with milk or water, spice and sugar.
A drink made of Rum, crushed ice, syrup and bitters, all thoroughly swizzled up, with a swizzle stick, of course.
In many cultures there are taboo foods. A good example is Muslims not eating pork; and high caste Hindus' not eating beef, since it is from cows which Hindus' regard as 'Mother cow', nor 'un-scale' fish. And the founder of the Christian Seventh-day Adventists Church, Mary Eddy Baker, in making out a case for humans to be vegetarians, quoted from the Book of Exodus in the Bible: God saying to his newly created man and woman, 'I give you all the plants that bear seed everywhere on earth, and every tree bearing fruit which yields seed – they shall be yours for food.' ( In Zimbabwe certain foodstuffs like ochroes are 'delete' – not for man to eat)
Members of the Rastafarian Order of Nyabinghi, who are usually identified by their flowing garments in the Ethiopian flag colours of red, green and gold, are strict vegetarians. And vegetarianism is widely practised by people of certain other religious beliefs, such as Buddhists, but also by those who proclaim 'New Age Philosophy', whether living in Europe or North America.
Tamball, or peechel sauce
More recently brought over from Surinam: a tamarind-based sauce, with lemon-grass root, etc
Apart from those balls sold to children around schoolyards, the seeds are taken out of dried tamarind and the flesh is pounded in a mortar and made into large balls to keep for those times when tamarind is off-season. These balls are then used for cooking purposes. (Madrasses cannot think of cooking curry without a good helping of tamarind water and hot peppers.)
Tattoo Also known as 'godna'
Flat iron plate for 'baking' rotis, pancakes and so on.
Tea, breakfast and dinner
Our three main Guyanese meals, for most people tea is the morning meal, breakfast the midday meal and dinner for late afternoon. (Supper for night-time)
Tinned fish Salmon, sardine, pilchard
See saucepan, Tinnin-cup is similarly used by pork-knockers in the hinterland.
Tofu See Soya
A kitchen pot to put in remainders from meals to be used later on for cook-up or soup. Also garbage disposal unit.
Trigo A Portuguese dish
Tshoon A light soup
Tulsee See 'basil'
Tuma See Pepperpot
Tumeric Also called 'dye'
A Chinese speciality, made from the tunkwa squash.
Turn-over See 'donkey collar'
A dash or small amount of liquid added to a mixture when cooking. You may have coffee with just a tupse of milk.
Urgah See achar
Because of the experience in making rum-vats on the sugar estates, wooden 'water vats' are still quite common in our country.
Those who would not eat any animal product, like milk, cheese, eggs, fish or meat; but also who would not make use of any product resulting from the killing or the robbing of animals, such as shoes or belts made from leather or fur.
Among vegans are the 'nutarians': those who eat only food that could be eaten in its natural state, that is, without having to be cooked. They are said to be the 'fruit and nut' cases.
Different classes of vegetarians including, lacto- vegetarians – those who use milk or milk products with their vegetables: ovo-vegetarian – those who would eat egg: and ovo-lacto-vegetarians who eat both eggs, milk and milk products (Of course no vegetarian would eat meat or fish)
Garlic pork, Portuguese dish now widely used, though not by strict Muslims and Hindus'
Like accaras or poulouries, but made with added ingredients such as tumeric, hot peppers and seasoning: very much a Madrasse thing!
A sweet at the end of a string or rubber band, sucked by children.
Water-rice See 'canjee-choroo'
A recent report from the United Nations states that water available globally for farming will be in short supply by the near 2025; and that because of the resulting fall in food production, some 3 billion people world-wide will be facing starvation.
Right now though, leaving aside the real threat of flooding especially in our coastal area, from rising ocean water because of global warming that is already taking place, (not to mention giant tidal waves which are also possible such as 'Mega Taunami'), hopefully we in Guyana,the 'Land of many waters' would take very seriously this latest U.N. report and do everything we can to make the best use of the 'sweet-water' from our rivers, creeks, canals and trenches in extending our agricultural production, particularly in the up-river areas, such as in the fertile intermediate savannah Lands, In the Berbice river areas and the back-lands of Essequibo
Distressing Note: very interestingly, there seems to be decreasing commitment to farming among our younger people: from some 800 applicants by young Berbicians for places at the start-up of the new university campus at Port Mourant, only a couple of them expressed an interest in studying agriculture!
Water buffaloes, Known in Guyana as 'bhans' (Hindi)
Water-rice See 'canje-choroo'
Meaning a ceremonial or some other kind of special occasion: 'We are having a wauk tomorrow – it's one year since Pat's death'.
See 'honey'. A lot of people are accustomed to seeing bee-hives which are the Italian sort. But Amerindians, and others living in the forest areas also know about 'wild honey' which honey bees store in honey combs that the insect build on tree trunks. To domesticate the bees, however, these forest people hang up hollowed-out pieces of timber for the bees to make use of, similar to what are known as 'Kenyan hives'.
A bean as rich as soya, that is being introduced into tropical countries like Guyana. Really, it is the only bean that has originated from the tropical world, namely Papua New Guinea. It is being spread to other parts of Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean because nutritionists believe that it could go a long way in solving some of the nutritional problems in the tropical world, because of its high nutrition content. It is not only easy to grow in the rainy tropics but is also a perennial that grows and produces for years.
Like soya, the dry seeds can be processed in a variety of ways; but it has the advantage over soya in that not only are winged beans relished when cooked as green beans as a vegetable, (or even eaten raw in salads) but also that both flowers and leaves are good for eating. And some varieties also produce tubers, like sweet potatoes which, unlike other root crops, are very nutritious for their protein content.
Wok Another name for 'carabee'
X-mass (or Christmas) cake See 'black cake'
The shoulder bag that field workers take with them to work.
Yoghurt See 'bannaclava'
Zucchini, Also known as courgette.
The first 21 recipes on left menu bar by May-Rose and P Kempadoo.