Throngs packed Frederiksted’s waterfront Thursday, sampling distinctive traditional recipes of the U.S. Virgin Islands from steaming cups of kallaloo and maufe to slabs of sweet, layered Vienna cake for the Crucian Christmas Carnival Gloria Joseph Food Arts and Crafts Fair.
Families strolled about and filled the benches of Buddhoe Park, whose bandstand was swathed in of bright orange, yellow and green madras. The sound of quelbe music poured from loudspeakers. Local artists, artisans and authors sold their wares from tents and booths across from the pier.
All the big island’s big people strolled and mingled with cultural aficionados, families, tourists and everyone else packing the street across from the Oscar E. Henry Customs House and the Eliza McBean Clock Tower. Delegate Donna M. Christensen, Gov. John deJongh Jr., Lt. Gov. Gregory Francis, Senate President Shawn-Michael Malone and many others visited and worked the crowd.
And the best local cooks and bakers sold and served mounds and mounds of fresh, local goodies, like they do every year.
Many of the vendors and revelers have been coming out faithfully for the Christmas festivities for as long as they can remember, like Theresa and Johnny Davis, there selling homemade guavaberry rum, cocquito, stewed gooseberries, tamarind, homemade hot sauce and a few more exotic offerings.
Or "Crucian Cake Queen" Renita Johannes, and partners in pastry Lynette and Rita Johannes, who were serving up a panoply of irresistible, if diabetes-inducing layered cakes, from eggnog to coconut sour cream.
"This year I’ve got something special: a guavaberry cake," Renita Johannes told the Source when asked about her wares, slicing off a small piece to sample. It had thin lines of bright purple guavaberry in between moist, purple-flecked cake with fluffy white frosting and was delicious.
This is Johannes’ fifth time at the food fair and, come February, she will serve up pastries at the V.I. Agrifest for the 11th time, she said. But she’s been cooking up Vienna cake, black cake and all the traditional favorites for much longer. "I started at age 12 and now I’m 55, so a long time," she said.
Each year a cook with special culinary talents and a long history of cooking at the festival is honored during a short ceremony at the opening of the food fair. This year the honor went to Gloria Joseph, an avid promoter of traditional cuisine who has cooked at festivals and other feasts on St. Croix for decades, frequently winning prizes. Joseph’s food has been tasted at countless political and cultural events, and she was one of the founding organizers of the Crucian-Puerto Rican Breakfast held during the Christmas Festival. Joseph was also a devoted civil servant at the Department of Labor.
"She is famous for her maufe," said Bradley Christian, master of ceremony at the event. Maufe is a heavy soup, usually with pork, beef, fish, whole tomatoes, onions, thyme and other seasonings, thickened with cornmeal, often served with a ball of cornmeal and okra fungee.
"She used to make gren gren, a type of kallaloo made with dried greens … and I’m sure she could again if you asked her too. … She can make any local dish," Christian said.
Joseph’s son Clifford told the crowd how proud he was of his mother on this occasion, singing a humorous ditty that went "your mom is not better than my mom. My mom is not better than your mom," adding "But one thing I know for sure: my mom is an all arounder." He explained that meant his mother was good "all around," not just with food and festivals.
Gloria Joseph took to the stage and thanked everyone for the honor. "Everyone on St. Croix knows I don’t miss a funeral, and the flowers are lovely. But I always say give me my flowers while I’m living," she joked. She gave a special thanks to Dorothy Hicks, her old home economics teacher. "I used to play marbles all the time with the boys, and she said to me no husband wants to play marbles," which helped lead to Joseph’s interest in cooking, she said.
Christian and Miss St. Croix 2014 Astia LeBron presented Joseph with an elaborate lace-bordered traditional madras hair wrap. The delegate to Congress gave her a congressional resolution in her honor, and other dignitaries presented her with a mahogany corner shelf, bracelets and other jewelry from Crucian Gold and Nav Jewelers, and a Crucian Carnival poster.
Once the ceremonies were over, the cooks and artisans kept serving the crowd and families kept strolling about, eating, talking and shopping until dusk fell. While the one festivity slowly wound down, across the street in the festival village, booths began opening up, carnival rides lit up and began twirling through the air, and Crucian Christmas Carnival continued into the night.
