Grenadians have a lot of national pride and everywhere we turned people were displaying or wearing the country's colors - red, green and yellow. There were also several parties over the weekend where locals were serving up the national dish - oil down.
Getting in the spirit, the teachers at Liam's school (the GAP) cooked up a pot and invited GAP families to come by and try it.
We don't get many opportunities to sample oil down as it is not always available in restaurants here. In fact, I've only tried it one other time, at the Grenada Round-the-Island race last March.
So I wasn't going to miss the chance to sample it again, especially when it is cooked by people that I know. While eating my plate of food I got some information on this dish from a few of Liam's teachers.
"Oil down" is the process of cooking a variety of meat and vegetables in coconut milk until the milk is absorbed by all the ingredients and just a bit of coconut oil is left. It is a one-pot dish, and the pot is usually enormous and placed over an open fire outside.
According to Liam's teachers it absolutely must have breadfruit. Other vegetables are negotiable but some popular ones are yams, green bananas (also called figs), callaloo and carrots.
Dumplings are also popular but they are not light and fluffy like we're used to in the states, they are thick and heavy - a solid log of dense cooked flour.
The GAP cooked up a tame version of oil down that included only chicken legs and wings and salt fish. Many of the teachers prefer their oil down with the more traditional meat such as salted pig tail, pig feet, salted beef or smoked herring.
The version they cooked up was delicious, and even Liam enjoyed a little of the yams, breadfruit and callaloo.
Like many businesses, the GAP hung banners to commemorate Grenada's independence day
Eight coconuts were used in the making of this pot of oil down
Trying a little of everything, clockwise from the top: fig, dumpling, chicken leg, carrot, callaloo, saltfish, yam and breadfruit
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