Dem Boys Seh green mamee selling on Robb Street

Apr 18, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There is an outlet on Robb Street between Bourda and Alexander Streets but closer to Bourda Market that I buy greens, vegetables and fruits from. Each time I make a purchase, without exception, the attendants would refer to the particular item(s) and make a joke with the words, “Dem Boys Seh.” So if I buy watermelon, and I ask if it is succulent, I would hear, “Dem Boys Seh stale melon selling on Robb Street.”
If tomatoes are cheap, they would say, “Dem Boys Seh tomato giving away on Robb Street.”. I would in turn spin the joke around on them by telling them if one tomato is bad I will write it like this; “Dem Boys Seh rotten tomatoes selling on Robb Street.”
Last Thursday was amusing; very much so. They had a variety of mamees and one of them was enormous. In all my life, I have never seen a mamee so huge; it was a monster. I bought it, then put it down and chose two smaller ones. They asked why, and I said I doubt whether such a large mamee would be ripe. They said, “no maan, no maan, duh mamee ripe bhaai.” I said if it wasn’t ripe, they would read a line in the Kaieteur News that went like this; “Dem Boys Seh green mamee selling on Robb Street.”
You are not going to believe this; I picked it up then put that monster down and again chose the two smaller ones, insisting that “king mamee” would not be ripe. I was persuaded so I picked up the monster again. My parting words were look out for “Dem Boys Seh green mamee selling on Robb Street.”
I peeled the mamee and it looked unripe. My wife tasted it and laughed. That was the end of it. Then I said to myself it would be a shame to throw away the monster. The thought came to make jam with a part of it. My wife yelled out, “mamee jam, are you mad? I responded with the observation that in Europe and the US, they make jams with their fruits and we in Guyana are backward; we frown on our own stuff. Then my wife became conversationally agitated.
She reminded me of the fourth day into our marriage when I made a whole pot of monkey apple drink. My wife said she never tasted anything so awful. For 38 years now my wife tells people about that monkey apple drink. She insists she would do the same with my mamee jam. Well I had a surprise for her. On Good Friday, I made mamee jam and it was excellent. There is so much we can do with our wide varieties of fruits.
In the US there are jams and jellies made out of black berries, blue berries, apples, cranberries. If those fruits can make jams and jellies, then, why not mamee, golden apples, cashew etc?
This is where Forbes Burnham comes in. If he had remained in power, we would have had those types of products. About ten years ago, I bought a bottle each of cashew and sorrel jam at the Sophia exhibition. Those products could have competed with any foreign jams and jellies. I never saw those local items ever since that night at the exhibition.
Do you know Grenada has nutmeg jams and jellies? They are not made from the actual nutmeg but the inner flesh where the nutmeg is located. That Grenadian stuff is on par with any imported brand. I drank every conceivable top class coffee when I lived in Canada. When I came home in the mid eighties, I still used imported coffee beans. I had no idea that Guyana’s had superb, competitive coffee beans. One night, in the eighties, I was with some of my friends at the Banks DIH outlet where the Citizens Bank is now, at the junction of South Road and Camp Street.
My friend, David Isaacs said to me; “try this coffee, it is one of the best you will ever drink.” The guy was absolutely right. Since that night, my wife can easily testify, our house only carries local coffee beans. We in Guyana simply do not know how many phenomenal products we can easily market. What has become of dried, preserved carambola (five finger) that Vashtie Warner pioneered under Vice President, Viola Burnham. That could have rivaled any imported dried fruits like raisins, dates, prunes. It was nicely boxed and was fairly cheap.
I made a large bottle of mamee jam on Good Friday and the bottle is almost empty.

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