![]() ![]() There’s old-timey charm to spare at 455 Main St., where checkered picnic tables and faux flowers line a wood deck next to an antique shop. That presentation was absent on our visit, the only blemish on one of the best meals I’d had in quite some time. A house specialty called idicha chicken ($11) featured tender boneless pieces coated in an exceptionally flavorful masala, simple but excellent.Īnnachikadai advertises everywhere that its food comes on banana leaves, the way owner John Annachi’s parents served meals after cooking in kadais (essentially Indian woks) at their restaurant in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. ![]() The spicy gongura dosa ($9) was another vegetarian hit, a gigantic crepe dangling off the plate and filled with a tart-hot hibiscus leaf paste.Īmong meatier options, fish curry with parotta ($11) rendered tilapia as melt-in-your-mouth as I’ve ever experienced, and I scooped up every drop of the deep brown tamarind curry with flaky, chewy parotta discs. Mukulu is a barrister and former public defender (Jamaica).That natural reliance on meatless ingredients shined in dishes like idli with sambar ($8), where a fluffy, tangy rice cake was born to soak up the vibrant tamarind-lentil stew. It is perhaps the most important election since 1962, as the country is about to face its toughest economic and social tests yet, and so who we elect will say a great deal about how we want to face the future. ![]() The country is facing challenging times and this is no normal election. I will be watching this contest as it, along with the seat held by the attorney general, will be the bellwether seats for me. There are signs that the JLP candidate is in trouble, as Ruddy Spencer was ushered out, and Ms Patricia Sutherland has been a fixture there for some time now. There are critical seats in the West that must be watched and, equally, the seat of Clarendon South East, must be retained by the JLP, if it intends to form the next government. The ground organisation, polling division by polling division, and the ease with which persons are taken to the voting points, will determine the outcome. The confidence being expressed by Dr Horace Chang (JLP general secretary) is good for PR purposes, but we must note that this confidence is just that - confidence. The PM clearly was hesitant about calling the election and literally went on a mini-tour to shore up critical seats in Clarendon and Western Jamaica. However, only a fool would take it for granted that the JLP has an unassailable lead. However, with the poll lead that his party does have, he feels impregnable. The PM has grown in confidence over the last four years, but he is vulnerable on the issue of corruption. Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters.īut that is the problem, he can lose the viewer in the thicket of the details, and it is this that he will have to avoid. However, I am not expecting him to stand there silently, as it is known by all who have been following his career that he is very much on top of the details. While Dr Phillips is without question one of the most prepared politicians that we have had for the role of PM, he is not a slick communicator and the political debate is not his best forum. Looking forward to the process, and beyond the emptiness, I must say that I expect the PM to perform well during the national leaders debate. This is not what I want to see from a national campaign at a time when we are facing economic peril and hardships never before seen by Jamaicans since 1962. I am concerned about these things, as we are faced with a contracting global and national economy and all I can hear are appeals to the Clarks or that man “out and bad”. There is this obsession with the fleeting and thus, what better way to celebrate the emptiness of where we are by inviting our dancehall practitioners and singers to do a dubplate? He has been busy talking about his Clarks, instead of focusing the minds of the voters on what can and will be done in the new Jamaica to address the income inequalities, run-away crime problem and the not-fit-for-purpose education system. ![]() Who do we hold responsible? Well, generally I blame the officers of both parties, but principally I place a higher level of culpability at the feet (literally) of the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and prime minister. This is the election of the dubplates, but it is hardly the election where substance will win the day, and this is very sad. ![]()
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