This afternoon my class was earlier than usual, at 1230, so we walked into town for an early lunch/ late breakfast, only to be stymied as all the places we wanted to eat at did not open till later, earliest around noon and the Caribbean speed of service made it unlikely I would be able to finish my meal or even receive it before it was time for my class. Eventually, time running out, we stopped at a juice bar with a list of juices, salads and shakes chakled up, and manned by a young man with a very tall headwrap swaying gently to reggae as he chopped fruits. We gestured to the table outside, he gestured back that we should take our seats and then returned to chopping.
A good twenty minutes passed before he swayed over to take our order. In the interim a robust young woman stormed out, pulling streams of steel wire behind her. One of these caught the chalkboard which fell over and shattered. She picked up it and replaced it against the wall, its three horizontal boards in varying states of disrepair.
When the juice king came outside, I asked for a salad on the now demolished board. ‘You’re sure?’ he said and undulated off. Some time later I saw him holding a lettuce and then putting it back.
He came out again holding a jar full of the components of a salad. ‘I can offer you this,’ said he, displaying the jar. ‘I can offer you a tahini dressing. The other salad will take very long.’ The other salad was of lettuce, avocado and kale, but I said ok.
He disappeared again and there was much banging and then the roar of an industrial blender. He re-emerged with a plate containing the salad, some lettuce, a dessert fork and a test tube containing dressing. He put these down and said, ‘This is our newest salad. I can offer you more tahini.’ A jar of tahini materialised.
It was a tasty salad, and the Gentleman Friend ordered a coconut shake which was excellent: subtle and refined. By then others had arrived, who ensconced themselves inside, addressed him as the juice king, and set in on some other herbs. The reggae played, the sun shone, and I went off for my class.