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with Leighton Levy
I had no idea so many people had issues with the availability of good-quality bulla cakes in this country. When I wrote last week about my distaste for some of the products they call bulla cakes in Kingston's supermarkets, it seemed to have struck a chord with people who live not only in Kingston but in the United States as well.
I thank them all for their responses that were quite revealing. I also want to thank Prestige Bakery, downtown that sent me a bag of bullas and other goodies as well. To be truthful, their bullas are not bad. A few of the scores of emails I received also jogged my memory somewhat as to where decent bulla cakes can still be had in Jamaica. There were a few places that stood out. Apparently there is a bakery in Time and Patience in western Jamaica that makes bulla cakes that are off the chain; CC Bakery in Portland; Better Buy Bakery on Deanery Road in east Kingston, and Spaldings Bakery in Clarendon were the ones most frequently mentioned.
Off the bat, I can vouch for Spaldings Bakery because I have first-hand knowledge of those bulla cakes while I was a student of Knox College and subsequently while working at National Commercial Bank in Mandeville. There were times on my way from work when I would stop and pick up a few very great-tasting bulla cakes.
I have come to appreciate that bulla cakes are as part of the Jamaican culture as stew peas and rice and ackee and saltfish. A friend who now lives in St Kitts told me on BlackBerry Messenger that when he was a youngster he used to help his dad prepare the dough which would eventually become bulla cakes. He said he enjoyed the process and the final product, and even admitted he is mulling the possibility of getting back into the business.
So many of the people who sent me emails spoke about how much they enjoyed their bulla cakes with cheese, bulla cakes with pear (personally one of my favourites), and bulla cake and butter. Consuming one of these combinations is among the simple pleasures many of us enjoyed as children, but unfortunately that part of our culture has been lost on the youngsters these days.
I have also come to realise there are many Jamaicans, both here and abroad, who are lovers of bulla cakes but who are unable to find decent ones to consume. I don't feel so alone anymore.
One significant thing I was also made to understand is that bullas in Jamaica and bullas in Barbados are entirely two different things. In hindsight, it's a good thing I never got a craving for bulla cakes in Barbados, that would have prompted me to go ask someone that I needed to find a bulla. They may have looked at me funny, because in the land of the flying fish a 'bulla' is a homosexual.
Can you imagine me walking up to someone there and asking, "Man, I feel for a good bulla to eat. Do you have any idea where I can get some to buy?" There are two likely ways that scenario would have ended up, none of which I would have been content with.
