Roast Corn in Anguilla

On Tuesday, I got a BB message that roast corn was going to be available under the tamarind tree opposite the Anglican Church. You would have seen in my blog about my drive to work that I pass the Anglican Church every day.

Let me tell you about roast corn in Anguilla. Many Anguillians love roast corn. It isn’t available every day so when Anguillians see or hear that roast corn is going to be available you can be certain that they will put in their orders early or that they will be prepared to stand and wait for fifteen minutes or more for the corn to roast. Please note that usually if you arrive and there are people standing around and corn on the grill, that all the corn has already been spoken for.  Many persons select which corn they want while the corn is still being roasted.  Be sure to put in your order as soon as you arrive.

While Nash and I were driving to work we passed the guys roasting the corn and Nash asked if I was going to buy some roast corn for my mom who loves roast corn. I had a few minutes to spare so I stopped to get some corn for my mom and to chat with the persons who were there.

I certainly had some laughs on that morning as everyone was in such a good mood. I think it had something to do with the roast corn! Charlie Vanterpool was the one roasting the corn. There are a lot of Vanterpool brothers and they are all great and well-known on the island. Check out Paper in East End on the Weekend for some barbeque or Ken’s barbeque in the Valley. Both Barbeque grills are popular with locals and visitors alike. I digress. Let us get back to the roast corn in Anguilla.

The corn available on this Tuesday morning was picked from a field in Welches and transported to the Valley in this truck. This lovely lady was the one responsible for stripping the corn. Plenty of corn was available. Charlie Vanterpool indicated that he would finish roasting corn at 12pm but that he would probably send back to the field for more corn before that time as the roast corn is so popular.

 

Mitch Harrigan whose company is responsible for the security at the Anguilla Community College where I work was there that morning enjoying some corn. I asked him why he thought that roast corn was so popular in Anguilla. He said that it had to do with tradition which has been passed down through the generations and the fact that corn is easy to grow, process and just simply tastes good. I told Mitch I preferred my corn boiled and he shared that corn is actually sweeter roasted. We continued to talk and I told Mitch that I do like roast corn once it isn’t burnt and he admitted that he liked his corn burnt! At that point I collected my corn and said goodbye to all the wonderful people who had gathered as I had to go to work.

As it turned out my mom was glad that I bought her some roast corn and she got a double gift of corn as one of my aunts also bought her corn that day. As I said before, my mom loves roast corn as do my aunties.

So how do you feel about roast corn? Let us know. If you have never tried it, be sure to try some roast corn in Anguilla on your next trip.

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