Georgetown: Ask any Guyanese and they will tell you that nothing beats a plate of steaming hot pepperpot accompanied with bread or cassava bread.
As the celebration of Indigenous Heritage month continues, Guyanese from all walks of life are flocking to the Heritage Village to sample the mouth water pepperpot, and tuma pot, various grill meats, piwari and fly among many other Indigenous dishes.
Grillmaster, Ray France, said that with his freshly prepared ingredients, patrons will enjoy and be pleasantly surprised with his hot-off-the-grill labba, deer, chicken, and calabrese sausage. France explained that all the seasonings are freshly prepared and the meats marinated throughout the day. He shared that his bar-b-que sauce is “is a special type of sauce that I have prepared to glaze. It has different textures giving each meat its own unique flavour.”
Like France, many of the other cooks at the Heritage Village claim to use their own secret in the preparations of their dishes. No wonder many of the hundreds of patrons flocking to the Sophia Exhibition Centre could not get enough.
Synieka Jacobs from Lower Kara Kara, Region 10 said she began her food preparations a month in advance to ensure patrons would first be attracted to her booth by the smell of her tuma pot simmering on the stove and then blown away with the taste.
“I add my special touches to it and I have my special pepper to add to the tuma pot, you know it has this smoky texture which gives my food that kick… it is in all of my tuma, all of it from the labba tuma, hog tuma it makes it more delicious,” Jacobs remarked.
Joyce Lawrence from Aishalton, Region 9 shared that this is her fifteenth time participating in the Heritage Village activities and noted that the celebration improves with each passing year. “Every time I come out to Georgetown it is getting much better… It is very good out here with all of my Indigenous brothers and sisters; even my country people from Rupununi buddies,” she noted while serving some steaming labba pepperpot to a patron.
Happiest of all were the patrons as they moved from booth to booth sampling the various dishes. Troy (the only name is given) said he came to sample as many of the dishes he would not normally be able to get his hands on. “Everything is tasty, really good. I had the grilled wild meat experience and it was delicious!”
Joy Henry from Lethem, Region 9 said she is always happy to attend the Heritage Village because it is one way of keeping the “culture of the First Peoples alive.”
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