June 09, 2023

A taste of fresh food: Caribbean Cuisine warms South Grey

The first in a series about food in South Grey and the people who bring it to us

BY JOHN BUTLER — Marlon Miller, chef and proprietor of Millers Meal Services Inc. in Dundalk, spends much of his weekday mornings cooking and delivering hot lunches to students at schools in South Grey. The food has been ordered by staff members of the schools or by the parents of kids in the schools — often kids with Caribbean roots who can rest in the comfort of noontime foods they’ve known since infancy, prepared fresh by a man who has loved the smells and tastes of the Caribbean from his own infancy. This school component of his burgeoning food catering business is especially close to his heart.

“My childhood was as near to perfect as a childhood can be,” says Marlon.

He grew up in the inland Jamaican town of Grange Hill (population of about 8,000) at the far western end of the country. He recalls wandering the lush countryside of Westmoreland County with his friends, fishing and swimming in rivers, hunting birds, cooking the caught fish and birds over impromptu campfires, and raiding sugarcane fields for a sweet treat.

But most of all, he looks back on a warm extended food-loving family. The eldest of three children, Marlon and his sister were much influenced by their mother, an excellent cook. He and his sister both pursued culinary careers. And food was multigenerational in the family: Marlon’s grandmother was the chef for bosses at a nearby sugar plantation, and his great-grandmother was also a professional cook.

Marlon says Caribbean cuisine is unique because of the bold flavours and textures that emerge from the melding of several cultures. Some of its cooking styles (slow barrel cooking infused by smoke from open pimento-wood fires for instance) can be traced back to the indigenous Taino and Arawak people of the Caribbean. Many of its ingredients (the varieties of yams for instance) have their origins in Africa, and some of its spices were brought to the Caribbean by indentured laborers from the Indian subcontinent. But despite the boldness, he points out the subtlety and variety of many Caribbean fruits and vegetables unfamiliar to most Canadians – Callaloo, Ackee, Soursop, June Plums and Gungo Peas are only a few of the fresh-growing things that Marlon uses in his cooking. He also stresses the variety of fish — fresh or salted — that are part of the cuisine of island countries where the sea is a constant larder — red snapper, parrot fish and doctor fish (his mother’s favourite) among others.

Marlon’s professional culinary career began at the age of sixteen when he took a job in his uncle’s restaurant in Grange Hill. He followed this with four years as head baker and cook at Juicy Patties outlets in Grange Hill and Negril where he prepared Jamaican breakfasts daily and perfected his skill at baking patties and coco bread (a lightly sweetened firm but soft bread made with coconut milk) that’s a staple accompaniment to patties in Jamaica. From there, he moved on to work as a photographer at resorts in the beachside town of Negril. He has been cooking for over 17 years.

Marlon immigrated to Canada in 2008. He held several jobs but maintained a catering business on the side, preparing Jamaican breakfast porridge. Marlon explains that porridge in Jamaica vastly transcends, in ingredients and variety, what most Canadians would consider porridge. With coconut milk, cinnamon and nutmeg as key flavourings augmented by other spices, Jamaican porridge includes banana, plantain, oatmeal and hominy versions among others, and it’s a dish not limited to the breakfast table.

Marlon and his family moved from Brampton to Dundalk in November 2022 and he promptly established his catering company, Millers Meal Services Inc., based in his home kitchen. One of the attractions of Dundalk as his home base is the proximity of the local farming community as a source of fresh ingredients for his foods, to achieve what his website calls “exploiting simple, garden-fresh ingredients with an Island twist.” He has begun to establish relationships with local suppliers and hopes to make his own modest contribution to agricultural viability in South Grey. As more people of Caribbean heritage move from the GTA to South Grey because of employment and housing opportunities here, Marlon has a growing group of ready-made hungry consumers for what he cooks. And another attraction the area holds for Marlon is the presence of so many fishing rivers in Grey and Bruce. He attributes his love of the pole, line and lure to the many hours he spent as a child fishing Jamaica’s rivers.

Marlon is already seeing a growth in the number of people who are not from the Caribbean who are his customers. He takes particular delight in this because he sees food as part of culture — as an entry point to invite all Canadians to understand the culture of the Caribbean. “Like our food, our culture has immense depth and variety,” he says.

Marlon would love to expand eventually to include a sit-down and takeout location, but for now he is concentrating on his catering business (including its delivery option).

He points out that there are several categories of Caribbean food — categories that may not be familiar to people who don’t have Caribbean roots. The various curried dishes may be best known, as well as a whole family of pastry-enclosed dishes called patties, and various flat breads. He points out the lesser known range of refreshing drinks that are part of Caribbean life, named after the flowers, fruits or roots they’re made from — Soursop, Sorrel, June Plum Drink and Ginger Beer come to mind. Carbohydrates on the Caribbean dinner plate are provided by rice rather than potatoes, and plantains in their ripe or green forms — a staple alien to conventional North American cooking — provide a highly versatile adjunct, and can be used to make porridge or plantain chips. Plantains are actually relatives of bananas, but starchier and less sugary than bananas.

Slow cooked jerk dishes may not be well known here yet, but their subtle flavours infusing the whole of the meat (usually chicken or pork) are becoming better known, Marlon says. The word jerk comes from 'charqui,' a Spanish term for dried meat that’s also the root of the English word 'jerky.' But the word’s origin doesn’t do justice to the rich moistness that jerk chefs create in their dishes.

Three elements define jerk foods. The first is the jerk spice rubs and marinades that bring their flavours throughout the meat. Allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers are at the heart of jerk spices but they are only a starting point as other flavours are added to the mix. Cloves, cinnamon, scallions, nutmeg, thyme, garlic, brown sugar, ginger, soy sauce and salt may also be added, depending on each chef’s recipe. The second element is smoke from hardwood charcoal, adding a second level of flavour to the meat. The third element is slow cooking to allow the flavours to meld with each other, at a temperature low enough to maintain the juiciness of the meat.

Making jerk dishes requires a special cooking utensil — the jerk pan or jerk drum, originally fashioned from oil drums cut lengthwise, with their two sections joined by hinges so the pans could be opened and closed. Charcoal and a grill are placed inside each pan, and a smoke vent completes the utensil.

Since jerk food is Marlon’s specialty, his jerk pan is his most treasured culinary possession.

The rhythm of the food he cooks and serves lies at the heart of each day for Marlon. Before each day ends, he marinates his jerk chicken so it can absorb flavours overnight. In the morning he fires up his jerk pan and slow cooks the jerk dishes while he prepares other dishes for the day. By midmorning he packages his lunchtime deliveries and hits the road so all his deliveries can be made by 12:15. After a brief break, he is back in the kitchen, prepping food for the next day and cooking food for evening delivery. Although most of his business is lunchtime customers, he sees much room for expansion to serve a dinnertime clientele too.

If you’d like to know more about Marlon and about Millers Meal Services Inc. and its products, please visit its website (each Friday, Marlon lists on the website his deliverable menu items for the coming week). Contact him directly by phone at (416) 823-1682 to learn about his catering services, or just to chat with him about Caribbean cuisine and culture, or contact him by e-mail at millersmealservices@gmail.com. Marlon loves to share his culinary passion with others.

 

---

At South Grey News, we endeavour to bring you truthful and factual, up-to-date local community news in a quick and easy-to-digest format that’s free of political bias. We believe this service is more important today than ever before, as social media has given rise to misinformation, largely unchecked by big corporations who put profits ahead of their responsibilities.

South Grey News does not have the resources of a big corporation. We are a small, locally owned-and-operated organization. Research, analysis and physical attendance at public meetings and community events requires considerable effort. But contributions from readers and advertisers, however big or small, go a long way to helping us deliver positive, open and honest journalism for this community.

Please consider supporting South Grey News with a donation in lieu of a subscription fee and let us know that our efforts are appreciated. Thank you.