So what is their national cocktail? I took a stab at Martiniqis in Martinique.
It was all part of the Caribbean island’s quiz during their three-day webinar.
All of which I missed, of course, because of my technophobia. And has logging on and off ever worked for anybody?
So apols all you lovely Caribbeanies.
And, of course, not to put you off but my pals in Barbados and Tobago and Jamaica can tell you what I’m like.
No show without Punch
I do know though a lot more about Martinique now after trying to nail the quiz… and as ever I’ll share with you.
So the real national cocktail of Martinique apparently is Ti’ Punch which they’ll get you to do it yourself.
Ti’ sounds good. Ti’ Punch though isn’t patois for the it’s actually an abbreviation of petite. And remember this is the French Caribbean.
Ti’ punch is easy to make… it’s rhum agricole, a sweetish rum, with sugar syrup and a squeeze of lime.
Colombo… and another thing
It’s offered before meals, and if you want to go local you will, of course, be eating the curry, the Chicken Colombo.
Chicken Colombo has its roots in the Indian Sub Continent, the Colombo being the Sri Lankan capital.
The Sri Lankans and the Indians came here as indentured labourers who worked the sugar plantations in the 19th and 20th century.
And brought their spices with them, the coriander, cumin, yellow mustard seeds, fenugreek, fennel, pepper, turmeric and allspice.
And here’s how to do it courtesy of someone who knows.
Josephine of Beauharnais
Martinique will, of course, puts on its best face as The Island of Flowers.
Its most famous flower, the fragrant Josephine of Beauharnais, Napoleon’s squeeze, whose humble home you can visit.
Quite what she did to put old Boney off his stride we can only hazard a guess.
But perhaps if she’d put a Ti’ Punch and Chicken Colombo in front of him rather than that hoity-toity French cuisine we might have Un Petit Boney ruling France today.
So let’s get in a round of Martiniqis in Martinique.
Martinique is open, and welcoming, without isolation regulations to tourists for those with 72-hour PCR negative tests.
With Air France the flagship, or should that be flagplane, carrier?
