Bati Bleki, August 12, 2013

WHY I GAINED 10 POUNDS IN A WEEK. Between Ling & Son’s Supercenter Meat Festival which started on Wednesday and Frasa’s Food Show, including lunch on Thursday, I gained 10 pounds. But it was all delicious. The Supercenter hosted a series of wonderful events, which reminded us that the food giant was just dormant and reorganizing during the past few months, not dead. With Richard Eman now at the helm as Director there is a lot more planned for clients, transforming market visits into much-enjoyed interactive experiences. We should look forward to a Bread Festival with the bakery conducting tastings of all its goodies, says Marlenne Maduro, who probably lost 10 pounds running around making it all happen. Then on Friday, Romar Trading offered an in-store Happy Hour with Clive Faustin pouring a terrific Malbec enjoyed among others by elegant shoppers Marci Guest and Maria Grisi. Marci, you of course know. Maria? You will surely find out soon, she says. A warm welcome to Flortiek by Wilson, which just opened a small outlet at Ling & Sons with gorgeous fresh flowers, arranged by a professional florist, for sale every day. The Frasa Food show at the Renaissance Convention Center displayed an enormous wealth of quality food brands. The show entertained members of the trade, restaurateurs and purchasing agents. You should have tasted the lamb chops, wow. And the chocolates, wow-wow. I left with a bag overflowing cookies and crackers having admired the super-premium vegetables, meats and cheeses, represented by Frasa on Aruba. Pasta Roma, a just-arrived brand from Costa Rica, invited press member for a tasting that day, serving three varieties  with different sauces, all great-tasting. Roma is the real deal, good quality pasta and I understand priced just right. The show was hosted by the Saladin family, father, son & Princess supported by two powerful Ana Marias, Figueroa and Ramirez.

NUTS -NUTS. A new store for gourmet cooks and health fanatic opened at Englandstraat 2.  I looked at all 100% natural almond, cashew, peanut & organic peanut butters, yum! Also at dry fruits, and a huge assortment of nuts of all kinds, both healthy and sinful. The store is beautifully merchandised, and gourmet cooks will be happy to find exotically flavored sea-salts for sale – yes, Scarlet, there is such a thing. Pauleti Giesbers works at the store. She is a food maven, so talk to her about Quinoa recipes or the Steel Cut Oats, which are very good for us. Nuts-Nuts, Healthy Done Alfresco, wants to change the way we eat, starting with breakfast.

THIS GIRL IS ON FIRE. Shakira Arrindell is district manager for Starbucks Coffee International in Aruba & Curacao, and this girl is passionate about coffee and about her coffee shops. Having visited coffee growing countries, Shakira experienced the Coffee Trail, the journey the coffee bean makes from the hill side bush to your cup, and she is full of admiration for the people who grow the crops and of the Baristas who end up presenting the product to us in the form of Cappucino, Espresso, Latte or Macchiato. She knows a lot about the subject, and she shares it!

GARDEN MASSACRE. It happened to me before many years ago when a tree stricken by some pest, motivated me to get help from a gardening service. Take care of the tree I said to the quote unquote gardener. And when I came home, the Frangipani was gone, because that was his way of taking care of things, that was what he understood. Which mean you always have to check with the receiver if he got your transmission, the way it was intended. This week one of my lovely neighbors asked a gardening service to trim her grape-trees against the wall, so that the wall could be painted. She explained what she wanted and when she came outside several hours later, she almost had a fit. They took all the mature 30-year old grape trees down to the stump, and even went over the wall to clean another neighbor’s area along that fence. They mutilated all trees and left the backyard naked. Now who would do something like that? Bottom line, having a machete and an electric saw doesn’t make you a gardeners. Luckily, I have two large grape trees, so all the prickichi are hereby invited to move in with me.

GET OFF THE ISLAND BEFORE THE BLACK-OUT. One of my friends travelling to the US was standing in line at the airport when she overheard two women in line congratulating themselves for managing to get off this rock before the Black Out on the 26th. My girlfriend decided to break the rule of mind-you-own-business, just this time, and explained loudly to anyone within hearing distance that Black Out was a concert, not a threatening power interruption!  The guerrilla marketing tactics of the Black Out concert included scribbled graffiti on all walls. Apparently some people understood it as a threat. Please take it into consideration for your next campaign.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Three of my dogs celebrated their birthdays this week. Which made me think of how we met. In the summer of 2005 saint Edith v/d Wal called me. Or perhaps we met in the supermarket. The turtle-watch lady told me about a female-dog in Arashi, pregnant, well fed, but thirsty. Apparently, it was easy to come by food at Arashi, as the generous tourists always share, but it was hard to come by water. So I went down to the beach with a bucket and met this shy and beautiful mamacita linda, who thanked me for the water, then she walked away, sorry, can’t stay for a chat, it’s too hot to linger. I continued to replenish her water supply on the beach every two days and she just glanced at me with enormous liquid-brown eyes, that look exactly like mine. At least that is what I think that my eyes look like. Then one day she refused the water. She looked up, she was exhausted, but I understood what her eyes were saying. They were saying: air-conditioning. So I invited her into the back-seat of my Ford Explorer and we took the trip home. She slept in airco all night and the following day under a bush in the yard, gave birth to 8 perfect puppies. All differently colored, attesting to the fact that she had an interesting sex life. I kept her, naming her Caya, and three of her puppies, Bruiser, Peanut-Butter and Goose. It was their 8th birthday this week, they celebrated it in my air-conditioned office with their Mom. They all bring me great joy, every day.                                                              [email protected]

 

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August 12, 2013
Rona Coster