Hi I'm Althea. Welcome to my blog. I have a real passion for cooking, especially Guyanese and Caribbean food. I was born and raised in Georgetown, Guyana. I moved to the USA (Brooklyn and later Queens, New York) with my parents when I was 18 years old. When I got married and moved to Denver, Colorado I found myself recreating dishes that were no longer easily accessible to me. Without the convenience of my mom’s cooking or all the cook shops and Caribbean restaurants that Queens offered, I started recreating some of my favorite dishes, especially around Guyanese holidays when I craved dishes that we traditionally serve during those celebrations.
Why I started this blog
I started this blog as a way to share step by step recipes with family and friends, and I am excited to share it with all of you. Guyanese cooking instructions typically include steps like “a handful of flour and stir until de ting soft, but not too soft, and yah don't want it stiff.” In fact, when my mom taught me how to make roti many, many years ago she told me “one handful of flour equals a medium sized roti, but don't heap up too much flour in your hands.” How was I going to share a recipe that could vary tremendously depending on the size of your palm? So I decided to carefully measure and record every step for the dishes I love most, and this is how metemgee (the blog) was born.
Why Metemgee
Metemgee (pronounced meh-tem-gee) is a hearty soup made with root vegetables (ground provision, if you’re Guyanese) in a coconut milk broth. This dish is truly my definition of comfort food and every Guyanese I know has had metemgee at some point in their lives (probably last Sunday). I don't know anyone who doesn't like it. Metemgee is the perfect combination of all the things I love about Guyanese food—good hearty provisions drenched in broth that is lick-your-bowl good. I want the recipes I share here to be just that—lick-your-bowl good, hearty and satisfying like a hot bowl of metemgee on a Sunday afternoon. Click here for my metemgee recipe.
Whole 30 and Me
I completed my first Whole30 in 2015 at the recommendation of a colleague who suggested that I try an elimination diet to narrow down what was causing my acid reflux. That first Whole30 was very hard. I only had a list of the rules and all the foods to avoid for 30 days. I made it but wasn't sure what to do next. I completely skipped reintroduction and went back to old eating patterns. Then I decided to buy the Whole30 books and really dive into what the program was all about. I completed my second Whole30, went through reintroduction and with the help of a GI doctor narrowed down what was making me sick. Turns out I have a non-celiac gluten sensitivity.
From that second Whole30 to today I mostly live a gluten free life. I say mostly, because sometimes a piece of roti from my mom is worth the tummy ache.
Caribbean Whole30
I started recreating my favorite Caribbean dishes to be Whole30 and Paleo as a way to enjoy familiar dishes with ingredients that work for me. I recently started sharing those recipes here, although many of them I had been making at home for the past 4+ years.
In March 2020 I hosted a Caribbean Whole30 and spent an entire month cooking and sharing Whole30 compliant Caribbean recipes. You can find the full list of posts for that month here.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you will join me in this journey and try a few of my recipes, especially if you are like me and can't walk into a cook-shop or bakery and order some tennis rolls or roti and curry.
If there is a particular recipe you would like to see, I would love to hear from you.
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