Lately my e-mail inbox suggests I have more Caymanian readers in East Texas than West Bay. Thanks to Cayman Net News’ website, I’ve attracted the interest of a circle of Cay-Tex friends from Port Arthur to Houston who have joined my crusade to preserve our culinary heritage.

During the past six months, I’ve been the lucky recipient of reminiscences and recipes found in family papers carried off to Texas long ago. From Yam Cake to Boiled Duff, my Cay-Tex friends understand that even if incomplete, those handwritten recipes on faded scraps of paper are memories of Mama’s cooking and valuable pieces of the historic puzzle I’m working hard to complete.

I’d like to thank my friends in Texas this week for their enthusiasm during the past six months as my treasure hunt for old Caymanian recipes continues. A special thanks to Houston resident Nancy Watler, who has been digging into both memory and the family recipe box (which includes some of the late Miss Ena Watler’s recipes) and encouraging other Caymanians out there to do the same. She understands there is buried treasure in those Texan-Caymanian kitchens, where nostalgia for their Cayman home and a taste of coconut tarts or fish stew of childhood is a powerful memory stimulus.

That part of Texas has a large population of Caymanians and others with roots in Cayman whose pride in their heritage and concern for their homeland hasn’t been diminished by distance. Unfortunately here in Grand Cayman it seems we’ve forgotten that Port Arthur and Grand Cayman have been official Sister Cities since 1983.

This Texas connection dates back to the early 1900s when Port Arthur became a regular port of call for merchant Caymanian seamen and their families who decided to make that part of Texas their home. About 90 miles east of Houston, Port Arthur is the second largest oil refining port in the USA and home of three major refineries. It’s also  the southern end of the Kansas City Southern railroad.

The tiny town of fewer than a thousand people  in 1900 has grown to almost 60,000. and nearby Beaumont has a populations of about 114,000. Together, the area is home to hundreds of Caymanians from all three Islands who settled there during the last century.

Unforutnately we have not only culture but  monstrous hurricanes in common. In September 2004, Ivan devastated Grand Cayman and a year later, on September 23 and 24, 2005 Hurricane Rita came ashore and battered Port Arthur. The city suffered major flooding in the downtown area but thankfully, the critical Proctor Street Seawall held throughout the storm.

However, there was widespread damage from Rita’s highest recorded winds –198 mph—during landfall. Because of Hurrican Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans and Missisippi, the preoccupied media barely mentioned Rita’s devastating impact on the Port Arthur area. It was similar to what Cayman experienced as an inconsequential blip in Weather Channel reports while Ivan tried to swallow the island on Sept. 12 and 13, 2004. And like us, Port Arthur picked up the pieces and perservered.

I’d hoped to meet some of those East Texas Caymanian e-mail pals this weekend at Cayman Night in Port Arthur, but unfortunately, the timing was bad for us. I still remember the Cay-Tex Hospitality lavished on guests at that first Cayman Night Party in October 1981.

Those of us who flew up from Cayman were greeted like a combination of returning family and movie stars. In fact some of us looked the part, parading around as costumed pirates all over Port Arthur. That’s a memory I’d like to forget because my infamous costume involved a combination of boots, black satin and velvet, and a hat billowing plumes that earned me a snickered nickname I can’t repeat here.

Designed for a the Pirates Landing and street parade, not polite society,  startled people all the way from Grand Cayman through the Houston airport and in the bus to Port Arthur. I had trusted the rest of the Pirates Week delegation, as promised, would be in costume too. Sensibly, they saved theirs for the party.

Mrs Verna Rutherford, now President of the Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce, remembers the Cayman pirates—she helped organize that first party at the Port Arthur Civic Center. Verna has remained enthusiastic and involved ever since, reviving the Cayman Night party last year in spite of the many challenges Hurricane Rita left behind.

When I spoke with Verna in Port Arthur last weekend and told her we couldn’t’ make it, she and other party organizers were busy finalizing food for an estimated 1000 guests –including preparing some of it in their own Caymanian kitchens. Along with hundreds of Eldon and Brenda Bodden’s homemade meat patties, guests will enjoy rum cakes, banana bread, conch fritters and Cayman rum punch.  And thanks to Cayman Airways, live music by The Barefoot Man, Earl LaPierre, Chuck and Barrie and legendary “Cayman Cowboy” Andy Martin.

A few hours later, one of my Cay Tex cooking buddies sent me via e-mail a link to the Official Proclamation by Port Arthur Mayor Oscar Ortiz declaring June 16, 2007 “Cayman Night in Port Arthur. I’ve included it as a recipe at the end of this column. Why? Posted on the internet, this really is a “Recipe for Positive Publicity for the Cayman Islands” and a tremendous feat in Texas, one of our key tourism markets.

It establishes Cayman Night on the busy Texas June Calendar of Events—that’s like granting Cayman honorary Texas Status.  It ranks Cayman Night alongside dozens of state events celebrating Juneteenth, the oldest known commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. It dates back to June 19, 1865, when news of the Emancipation Proclamation (which actually took effect on January 1, 1863), finally reached Galveston, Texas.

Maybe our government should offer Verna Rutherford a highly paid tourism marketing consulting job. Those  Cay-Texans are passionate about promoting their homeland and know how to do it without spending millions on NFL players or black tie Caribbean Nights in the Big Apple. The only thing missing is having The Cayman Patty declared the Official Lone Star Snack, replacing all those empanadas.

I’ll miss what promises to one of this summer’s best parties, and be with them in spirit as I spend time in my kitchen making Mrs. Sarah Watler’s Plantain Cake. I’ll share that one and another old family recipe I received from Nancy Watler and hope this inspires you to start collecting your own heirloom family recipes.

I’m pleading again with all Caymanians, wherever you are, to make time and sit down with your folks and your grandparents, if you’re fortunate enough to still have them.  Include any other family members who can help. Get busy writing down those treasured Caymanian recipes—before they are lost forever and a Super Sized Whopper Combo becomes Cayman’s National Dish.


Port Arthur’s Recipe for Cayman Publicity

Proclamation: Whereas, the Cayman Islands are three small West Indies islands in the Caribbean, known as Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, and they are a British Colony where the shipping industry has been one of the primary means of living for Caymanians; and

Whereas, hundreds of Caymanians settled in Port Arthur, as the primary port-of-entry for many Cayman seafarers who brought their families to this area where Captain. Harley Eddingston imported 6,000 pink conch shells on two ships in order to have a wall built on Procter Street in Port Arthur to remind him of his island home, and where he constructed Port Arthur’s first apartment complex that was built in 1929, named Eddingston Court; and

Whereas, Cayman Night in Port Arthur 2006 was an overwhelming success with more than 700 guests from this area and from across the United States and the Cayman Islands, gathered at the Parker Center on Lamar State College Port Arthur campus, where the facility was transformed into a tropical paradise; and

Whereas, Port Arthur and Grand Cayman were proclaimed to be Sister Cities in 1983, and that Sister City relationship has strengthened over the years because hundreds of Caymanians still reside in this area, while many area residents annually visit the Cayman Islands for pleasure, business or personal reasons; and

Whereas, the Cayman Night in Port Arthur 2007 will be held on June 16, 2007 at the Parker Center, where Barefoot Man, his Band and the “Cayman Cowboy,” Andy Martin will arrive from Grand Cayman to perform on stage.

Whereas, guests should arrive wearing tropical shirts, shorts, flip flops or other casual attire and be prepared to have plenty of fun and laid-back good times throughout the evening.

Now, therefore, I, Oscar G. Ortiz, Mayor of the City of Port Arthur, Texas, do hereby proclaim the evening of June 16, 2007 as Cayman night in Port Arthur in the City of Port Arthur and ask that all citizens join me in celebrating the rich heritage of our long-time Sister City, Grand Cayman, and join visitors from around the world for a night of Cayman music, food and fun as our relationship continues to strengthen.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the City of Port Arthur to be affixed this 5th day of June in the year of our Lord, 2007.

Oscar G. Ortiz, Mayor


Mrs Sarah Watler’s Cayman Plantain Cake
Nancy Watler, who now lives in Houston, remembers her mother making this simple cake when she was a little girl. Interestingly, this spiced, dense, eggless, milkless cake could be a cousin of Nigga Bible!
3 cups mashed very ripe plantains
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 325 F. Lightly butter or grease an 8 inch square baking dish or pan.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour and spices and blend with a fork or wire whisk. In medium mixing bowl, combine the plantains and sugar and mix well, then blend in the softened butter or margarine and vanilla. Mix until smooth, then add the flour and spices and beat well. Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for an hour, or until well set.


Old Time Cayman Yam Cake
Nancy found this old handwritten recipe in her collection. The yam called for in this old recipe means a piece of West Indian yam, not orange or red American sweet potatoes. There is some confusion over whether coconut milk or coconut water was used, but these are the ingredients as she found it. (If any reader has a different Yam Heavy Cake recipe, please share it.)
3 pounds white or yellow yam
4 cups of sugar
Juice (water) of 1 large coconut (about 4 cups)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg or allspice
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon salt

Peel them yam and grate it fine into large bowl. Combine coconut juice, sugar, spices, butter and salt in a large heavy saucepan and stir well. Bring mixture to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently, then reduce heat to medium and continue boiling for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and reserve about 1/2 cup for top.

Add hot coconut mixture to the grated yam, about 1/3 at a time, stirring well after each addition. Do not beat, mix only until blended. Pour into greased medium sized baking tin and bake 300 degrees for about 1 hour or until cake is cooked thru the middle when tested with a knife.

Spoon on reserved topping and increase oven temperature to 375 degrees; continue baking until well browned on top. Remove from oven, cover with foil and allow to cool overnight at room temperature... (If a little more topping is desired, this can be made by mixing 1 tablespoon of butter with 1 tablespoon sugar and a little hot water and spreading over the top before removing from oven.