Viewers like you
make this program possible. Support your local PBS station. ♪♪ When you had your
American friends coming home or your lunches
when you brought them to school, were they excited
about the Guyanese food, or did it smell funny? How did they respond
to the curry? It, like, embarrassed him
to introduce them to what we used to eat.
-Yeah. But today, it's, like,
you love it. I mean, you're sharing it
with all your friends like, "Here we go." And it's the coolest food,
right? Yeah, yeah,
the coolest food around. Man: I was, like, the first
Guyanese kid in these schools. -Oh, cool.
-Yeah, so people... I had problems telling people
where I was from. They're like,
"Where you from?" -Where -- where is Guyana?
-"I'm from Guyana." -What's going on?
-And they say, "Oh, Ghana." I say, "No,
not Ghana, Guyana." Why do you think Queens
is also such a immigrant-friendly
or immigrants come to Queens? What do you think
is in Queens? The name Queens
sounds good, okay? [ Laughter ] That's it.
That's awesome. First, it's kind of,
like, nice. The Bronx sounds
a little tough. Brooklyn sounds
a little bit tough. -Queens, a little...
-But Queens sounds more... -I love that.
-Brings everybody together. "Coming to America."
I love that. -Yeah.
-Queens sounds nice. I'm Chef Marcus Samuelsson, and as an immigrant
born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden,
food, to me, has always told
a deeper, more personal story. It's a path to culture,
identity, and history. Now it's a party. I'm going across the country
to learn more about America's immigrant communities
and culinary traditions to see how food connects us
all across the United States. ♪♪ In a weird way, I think Queens
is the heart of New York City. People fly in and out of Queens
all the time, and it's this community
where people just drive by to get to Manhattan, but then so many jewels
of what we consider as New York come from Queens. Think about the history of Jazz. Louis Armstrong lived there. Ella lived there. The hip-hop history, too.
Run-DMC, Nas. We got the food -- Greek,
Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Indian. It's this mosaic,
beautiful work. ♪♪ The last stop of the A Train,
Richmond Hill, and you can kind of
start feeling when you get off the subway,
Rockaway Beach, it gets windy. You know you're kind of
close to the ocean. You feel planes
coming over from JFK. We're in Little Guyana. Guyana is part
of South America, but it's
English-speaking, and the culture of Guyana is very much Caribbean. One of the cool things
with the Indo-Guyanese community is really a story of immigration
and migration two times. The ancestors
were from India, but the motherland
is Guyana, and now they made Queens
their home and started to set up
this incredible, rich community, and someone like myself that,
you know, through adoption, was born in Ethiopia,
but raised in Sweden, and from Sweden,
settled in America, I can kind of relate to this
to try and figure out, "Where do I belong? Where do you
get your sense of self from, and how do I start my new ritual
and call it home?" ♪♪ -Hey, man. How are you?
-Hey, Marcus, good to see you. -Good to see you.
-Yeah. -Welcome to Richmond Hill.
-So where are we, man? So this is a Guyanese
neighborhood. -It's, uh, um...
-Okay. Cool. ...Liberty Avenue, an area
you find fresh markets of fresh fruits
and vegetable and fish,
lots of interesting... -Yeah.
-...restaurant and people. So this is basically like,
what, Fifth Avenue here? This is where everything
is going on? Yeah, this is the prime. So show me around. Chef Raymond is an amazing guy. I've known Raymond forever. In the late '90s, early 2000s,
Raymond worked with me, and Raymond taught me
a lot of stuff about flavors, ingredients that were
mostly Caribbean or Latin that I had no clue about. Raymond is also the only person
that I know from Guyana. Guyana is a melting pot
of culture, so you have the Portuguese.
You have the Dutch. You have the Indian,
Asians and, uh... -African.
-...Africans and... -Yeah.
-...the Natives, and so you have all these, uh, great flavors
in, uh, food and textures. It sounds like
a good curry. Right? It sounds
like a good curry. Great curries. When did cooking
come into your life? I started to cook, like,
back home with my mom. She had a roadside stand. She sells at a market
every Saturday. -Yes.
-So she would start preparing these specialty like...
-Hmm. ...salara, baiganee,
which is fried eggplant, you know, turmeric batter.
-Ooh! Culinary school already started
back home then, really? Yeah, yeah. If you trace your roots
as chefs... -Yeah.
-...where we started to cook, I started to cook while going
to the market with my mom. Going to the market in Guyana,
it just lights up the senses, and Liberty Avenue
reminds me of being on a market street
in Guyana. Walking here with your aunt
or your mommy when you were a kid,
like, what would we buy? What would she pick up? She would come here
and probably pick up okra... -Okra.
-...for a fish curry, uh, green mango, and, um,
there's long beans over there. Ah, long beans.
Yes! Of course, you have
your taro root over there? Yeah, this is a --
a form of taro. It's a eddoe.
It's creamy. It's sweet. We put it in curries,
stews. Mm. This you're finding all
over Africa as well. -Yeah.
-It's so similar. Some of the ingredients
are African because it's tropical,
really. Yeah. And then we got fresh
turmeric, of course. -That's for your curry.
-Yes. This is what makes
the curry yellow. -Oh, it's beautiful...
-Yeah. ...that bright orange. Oh, yeah. This is a bitter melon,
which is amazing. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa. -I love this.
-You guys have bitter melon?! -Yeah.
-Whoo! -I love bitter melon!
-Yeah. It's bitter,
and it's good for you. You could stuff it with, like,
a ground beef and... -Yeah.
-...uh, put in a curry. -Nice.
-Yeah. This is all ingredients
you would see in Chinatown... -Yeah.
-...and also in a Caribbean market, right? -Yes.
-So your mom, your family, you would cook both
Portuguese, Indian... -Mm-hmm.
-...Asian... -Chinese.
-...Chinese? Yeah, yeah.
Uh-huh. Wow. I knew you grew up
with some delicious food. I grew up with potato
and herring. You grew up with much
better food than me. ♪♪ Ali: Guyanese heritage
is a bit complex. Guyana, as most
of the Caribbean, shares this history of
enslavement of African people, and then that was replaced by a
system of indentured servitude, so about 150,000 Indians were brought over to take over the same plantations
and rice fields that African peoples
were toiling on, and with that Indian population
also came small number of Chinese
and Portuguese people, but it all stems
from the export of labor from other lands
into Guyana and people, you know, starting a life in
this place and deciding to stay. ♪♪ Guyana, as beautiful as,
you know, my birthplace is, it is one of
the poorest countries in that part of the world. In the 1950s and the 1960s, Guyana was going through
its first independent elections, and so you couple
that political tension and chaos with poverty, and what you found was
a lot of Guyanese families migrating to New York, setting up and settling
on one street. ♪♪ Where are we now? This is Sybil's
Bakery & Restaurant, so there's baked goods
and curries and... -Oh, nice.
-...all kind of prepared food for lunch and dinner. ♪♪ 35! [ Indistinct chatter ] Samuelsson: I think,
for any immigrant community, to start a business
was very often the necessity because maybe you couldn't
get another job. Thank you. And when you look
at Sybil's Bakery, for me, it's the quintessential
Queens story, it's the quintessential
immigrant story, and also family business. 38, please --
number 38. -Uh, 38.
-Let me get you right here. -38, come on up, sir.
-Yes. Y-y-you got to be fast,
got to be fast. -Welcome to Sybil's.
-Thank you very much. So let me have a Guyanese
chicken patty. -That's that --
-Whoo! Tell me what you think. Hmm, they're beautiful. This is Mom's recipe, right? Yeah, yeah. My name is
Virburt "Cooky" Bernard here at Sybil's
Bakery & Restaurant. It's at the beginning
of the Business District on Liberty Avenue. My mom's name was Sybil Bernard. She started this business
back in 1978. It was kind of
a drug-infested area and really run-down, and now it's totally transformed
into a beautiful community, and I feel proud
that we were part of bringing it to where it is
today. My mom is of Indian descent, but she grew up
in a mixed-race home, and she also have siblings
that are of Chinese descent, so she's learned
all the ethnic dishes, and that's what we bring here. When you were coming up, did your family used to
come out to Sybil's? And this is one of
the staple places, right? Yeah, no, you come out here to
get bread on the weekends... -Yeah.
-...always come out to Sybil's. So what do we got here? -This is the dhal puri.
-Ooh. -And, uh...
-Smells so good. Virburt: Like that?
Stuffed with yellow split peas. This comes from the Indian
then, right? Yeah. Look at the curried goat.
Oh, wow. It smells amazing,
and when you cook for your own community,
you got to be on point... Raymond: Yeah, you got to be
on point, yeah. ...because people come in,
and they're like, "Oh, no, my goat curry
is better than that." Yeah, you got to pull them
away from that. The blood pudding comes
from England or Scotland... -Yeah.
-...I believe, right? -Yeah.
-Mm-hmm. -Is it pig blood, right?
-Uh, beef. We don't use pork
in our restaurants, period. -Yeah.
-We have a big Muslim community. And we try to make
everybody welcome. Be comfortable
and welcome, yeah. Yeah, Guyana, you know,
everybody eats each other's foods,
most -- m-mostly. Uh, but growing up, we never
said, "This is Portuguese"... -No.
-...or, "This is Irish," or... -No.
-"This is all Guyanese food. -This is...
-What is that? -Pepperpot.
-The pepperpot. Whoo! That's a native, uh,
Amerindian dish. We have the regular beef parts
in there, the oxtails in there. Then we add other things,
you know, all the spices, and we add also
hot peppers to it. ♪♪ Amerindian juice
is extract of yucca. We call it cassareep, and that's our main ingredient
in here. It's, uh, predominantly
a Christmas dish mostly, but we have it all the time
here because, um... -People want it all the time.
-...people want it all the time. Yeah. You have any, uh, bread,
Guyanese bread? Yes, we have the bread
to go with it. Sure. -Yeah.
-As you say in Guyana, this is the boy
for the girl. [ Laughter ] Mm, wow! Almost like a challah
or like a... It's like a challah bread, yeah.
It's like a challah bread. It's called plait bread. When I came over here, we're
eating, uh, Wonder Bread. ♪♪ So bread is what we
started out with originally in my mom's home, too. My mother migrated to -- to come
to make a better life for us in this country. She had no choice
but to leave us, nine children living in a little
shack with no parental guidance. I was only 12. My dear uncle, Neville,
came and rescued some of us, took us to his bakery
where we worked very hard, so eventually, my mom
got all her children here. We all lived in a basement,
nine of us. She said, "You guys know how
to make bread and stuff, so let's make some
and sell to our neighbors." The recipes that we use now are the recipes that my uncle
taught us 45 or 50 years ago. ♪♪ The next generation, how do
you make them understand the hard work and the hustle, and do they get it,
or is it... What do you think? Uh, if you never
lived in poverty, you don't even know
what it is, so you, you know,
once you have, you don't want to go back. -Oh.
-The children here, they've never really lived
in poverty, so... -Mm.
-They know what they know. -It's not their fault.
-Yeah. They -- They're all right.
They try, but, you know... -Yeah.
-...they would not dig as deep as I would because I'm trying
to dig from way... -Yes.
-...way down, right? -That's a good way to put it.
-Yeah. And now, by the way, you've
been in business for 30 years. -Wow.
-O-over 30 years. -Over 30 years?
-Yeah, for 40 years, 40. -Congratulations.
-Yes. Thanks --
thanks a lot, man. -And the food is good!
-It's, uh... -This is my favorite so far...
-Mm-hmm. -...Pepperpot...
-Seriously? ...especially dipping it
with the bread, and by the way,
bless your Mom. I'm glad we're not doing it
with Wonder Bread. I'm glad we're not doing it
with Wonder Bread. -Thank you, bro, so...
-Thank you very much. [ Indistinct chatter ] ♪♪ ♪♪ My name is Brian Bernard. I'm, uh, one of the sons
of the owners for Sybil's, the eldest one. We make a variety of pastries, but pine tart is the biggest
seller in that department. It surpasses everything else.
And we make thousands a day. Pine tarts is a very big part
of the Guyanese culture. ♪♪ The crust originally
came from England, and then you have pineapple,
which is tropical. You would add sugar to it, cinnamon sticks
and other essences. We baste it with milk,
and we put it in the oven, and it'll bake for about
35 to 40 minutes. When you're taking pine tart
out of the oven, you'll check to see
if the bottom is baked because it'll be soggy,
and that's experiences you don't want people
to have to go through. Growing up, I always had
pine tart in my life. Both my parents worked, so I
was always at Grandma's house. There was always pine tarts
and baked products in the home. When I do pick up a pine tart
and I do eat it, it's like smelling a fragrance
that takes you back to a memory where you were when you
first smelled that fragrance, so it takes me
back to those days, my grandmother being around and my first time
eating a pine tart, and over the years, now that
we're in a Guyanese community, we're right by JFK Airport, so when you land,
coming from Guyana, we have people that come
straight from the airport. They'll come with their
suitcases and everything. You can get a pine tart, and it
takes you back to your culture. People pass the restaurant
all the time and they'll ask, "What was that baking? I smell
something from down the block." And it's a good feeling
because the smells take them back to them growing up
as well in Guyana. ♪♪ ♪♪ Uprasad: The Indo-Caribbean
community came here to live the American dream. One of the basic feature
of this community, there was affordable housing. They bought a house. In the '80s, this part
of Richmond Hills was dying out. I think the Indo-Caribbean
community help revitalize this community. There's more businesses.
There's more people. There's more home ownership
in this part of the city. ♪ Hey ♪ Samuelsson: Inspector Deo is the
highest-ranking Indo-Guyanese in NYPD. He's in charge of the area,
including Richmond Hill. He came here when
he was a young kid, and he's watched community
evolve and change a lot. ♪♪ This is the place
I was telling you about. -Nice.
-Very nice. Let's go in. Thank you. I'm meeting Inspector Deo
at Sonny's Roti Shop. If you would ever tell me
that this is a good location, I wouldn't have a clue,
so it's right under the A train. Dack, dack, dack, dack,
dack, dack, dack, dack, dack, dack, dack. Sometimes, you get
some sunlight, and then you have
probably, like, 100 planes
just flying over, so there's very few times
when the shop is not shaking, but once you're
inside the shop, you're going to be presented
to the most delicious ethnic Indo-Guyanese, Trinidadian food
you will ever get. The Indo-Guyanese community
and Indo-Trinidadian community that culturally shares
the same identity because of British
colonial past. Hi. Let me get a bake with
herring, extra pepper. -That's it?
-That's it. -How you doing?
-I'm good. How you doing? -Yeah? I'm good.
-You guys missed me, right? -Yeah, we did.
-You haven't seen me in awhile. Sonny's Roti Shop, unless you're
part of this community, you wouldn't have a clue what
a jewel of the community it is. Small businesses, family,
mom-and-pops is so important because they are the heart
and root of a neighborhood, and when you just take a second
and read the menu, it's a piece of art. I saw the --
the Guyanese chicken chow mein, a little Chinese in there, too. I like that, and what about
fried aloo? Aloo is potatoes. And what is the banga mary? It's a Guyanese fish. -I got to have the doubles.
-Okay. And I think I'm going to go
for the barbecue chicken with some vegetable rice. -Yeah, that's pretty good.
-Of course. Do you want everything
on the doubles? -Everything, yes.
-Okay. Just because I'm not
from Guyana or Trinidad doesn't mean
I don't know how to eat. I just want to make sure
you enjoy it the right way. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-How much doubles? My favorite breakfast in
the world is called doubles. It is just, like, taco filled
bread that you put on chana, which is Indian chickpeas,
right, stew, then tamarind, which is Indian,
but also super Caribbean, and that gives you
acid and sour, and then the chard,
this incredible pickles that has a lot of heat
that stems from Southeast Asia. For any Indo-Caribbean person,
it makes sense. For anyone else, like,
what's happening? Uprasad: First of all,
if you're eating doubles, you got to, you know, bring it
to your mouth and just... Yeah, yeah, you got to
eat it -- eat it right. Nice. See? Here, I'm getting my
doubles lesson in Queens. I love that.
-Yeah. It's like eating a pizza with
a -- with a fork and knife. -Yeah. [ Chuckles ]
-There you go. -That's it.
-Mmm. -Yeah.
-Wow! It's good. What, uh, what are we eating?
What do we got here? This is -- this is bake. -It's like a bread...
-Mm-hmm. ...right?
It's smoked fish. The herring is fried
with onion. I grew up with herring
in Sweden, but not that type
of herring. No. Herring in a bake, I might
steal that. I like that. My mother used to make this
for me actually when I w-- at a young age. So how was it for you,
Deo, when you came? I came when I was
5 years old. -Yeah.
-I'm the last of eight siblings. When we came to this country,
we lived in a tenement. -Yeah.
-Uh, my father worked, saved, bought a house.
-Mm-hmm. I worked since I was
14 years old... -Yeah.
-...while going to school, so I know my father
worked hard, so I -- I wanted to help. You have to. So I finished
graduate school. Where my parents came from, I try to, you know,
make him proud, but to, you know,
progress myself. Wow. You're like,
"All right. I'm going to continue
to educate myself." Did your other siblings
stay in the Queens area? Unfortunately, three of
my siblings passed away. -Yeah.
-My -- three -- three of my -- my brothers I'm very close to...
-Yeah. Yeah. And it's part of
the immigrant experience. My, uh, brother worked
40 years. One year after he --
he retired, he passed away. Oh. -Yeah.
-And, uh... And that story goes
for my father, too. Two years after he retired,
he passed away. Wow.
They gave it all here. My father, he was
a hardworking man. -Yeah.
-I mean, I remember, when he retired,
he had over 365 sick days on the books
he never used. -He had a whole year...
-He never used them. ...of vacation
he never used. It'll be a storm,
and he'll be -- 5:00 in the morning,
he'll be going to work. He told me a funny story. He worked at
a New York hospital, and this is the part where
the NYPD came -- came. Uh, they --
they saw this poor man walking in the middle of
the street during a snowstorm. They picked him up
and took him to work. That's the first
positive interaction he had with the New York City
Police Department. -Well, he got a free ride.
-He had a free ride. That's great. I think Inspector Deo
is something that every law enforcement
needs more of. He comes from a culture
that is very diverse, and working in Queens, he can relate to a lot
of different people. -I'm West Indian.
-West Indian? Where from? -Trinidad.
-Trinidad? You grew up with
Dominican food? Of course. -So, uh, mofongo and...
-Mofongo. And so where you go,
to the Heights then? Where -- where do we
get good... -Right here.
-Here? The spot right here,
believe it or not, yeah. -Right up the way.
-Oh, what?! You have Dominican food
on one side, and the other side,
you have Trinidadian place. How stupid of me.
We're in Queens. Yeah. That's right. You don't have to go
too far in Queens. Our most diverse neighborhood
in this city. We all have
a common goal. -Yeah.
-You -- you -- you want... You know, personally,
with -- with myself, I -- I-I want to see
my children do well. Same thing, uh,
with the community. I want to see the same thing. I want people to feel safe... -Feel safe.
-...and trust us. We could fight crime, but we could have
a positive interaction with the community
we serve. Wow. I really appreciate
you taking time out... I apprec -- I appreciate you
coming into Queens. -Thank you so much.
-Thank you so much. -This was awesome.
-Thank you. ♪♪ ♪♪ Samuelsson:
Cricket is deeply loved in the Indo-Guyanese community. It brings the community together
on the weekend. They have their own leagues playing against other
Caribbean countries, but I never played one,
so I'm kind of nervous, but it's also going to be fun
to learn something new. -Hey, man. How are you?
-I'm good. Yudhis. Nice meeting you.
-Nice meeting you, man. I love Caribbean food, Caribbean
music, Caribbean people. Cricket is a big part of that.
But I have no clue about it. Uh, you're missing
the main thing. You're missing
the main thing. I'm missing
the main thing, right? Cricket is what bring
the Caribbean people together. Cricket started in England
in the 16th century, and they brought it to all the
countries that they colonized. Today, it's the second-largest
sport in the world after soccer. You can't be on the islands
without seeing cricket. It's -- it's their baseball. It's their religion basically,
and it's a social-sport event that, you know,
can go on for days. There's also that Britishness because it's, like,
some old-school tennis gear, white pants, white shirt, and then, like,
a vest circa 1978. I'm like, "What's happening?" There are quite a few
cricket leagues in New York. There are hundreds of teams. I love that. We have a lot
of West Indian teams, Asian teams, Pakistan,
India, and Bangladesh. So it's throughout
the commonwealth, essentially,
you have it, right? Definitely, definitely. So you want to hold it
a little bit loose. -Yeah.
-Your hand going to go around, but you have to make sure this
stays straight all the time. Straight. So -- All right.
Give it a shot. You can do it. ♪♪ Aw, that's too short.
First one for real. ♪♪ Aw, aw. -Hey, that was...
-Aw! Come on, Marcus!
Come on, Marcus! Got to hit this timber!
Come on! All right.
Get him out. [ Grunts ] -Ooh.
-You're getting better. -You're getting better.
-Ugh. I definitely can't throw
the ball, although I had, not one, but two coaches. Now what you're
going to do, when you hit it and it
passes the fielders... -Yeah.
-...you're going to run. That's your partner
with the pads on. Umpire, you call
the play, huh? -Ready?
-Yeah. Man: Play ball. -Whoa!
-Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Mostly out of fear, I'm just,
like, hitting it away, and I know --
I know, uh, I know that. Like, thank Ethiopia.
It gave me that. -Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
-Oh! Double up. -Again, again.
-Come on, man. -You're letting me down.
-The catcher behind you, he's in your head
the whole time. I kind of went,
"Hmm, what's up?" He can't hit this one.
He can't hit one. [ Indistinct chatter ] -There you go.
-Oh! -Ah! Ah!
-Hey! [ Laughs ] That's what pressure do.
That's what pressure do. Not as simple as it looks,
huh? Thank you. [ Indistinct chatter ] After cricket, it is one
of the most sophisticated tailgate buffets
I've ever seen in my life. You can tell, like,
the big fast-food chains will never do well in Queens. It's like, why would you
go to a fast-food spot when, after the cricket game, Unk is setting up, like,
the best display of food ever? -Yeah.
-The food is very good. I have to take the first piece,
and then they can do after. [ Laughter ] People definitely have some rum. It's very social and, I mean,
all ages. -It's curry chicken.
-Yes. -Little lo mein.
-But we call it it chow mein. It's the Guyanese-style
chow mein that are made
out of egg noodles. Mm-hmm. That's the bake
and saltfish over there. Oh, nice. But basically like
a double or -- or a taco in a way, right?
-Yes. It's the cricketer's choice
of breakfast. -Yeah.
-Yeah. I think a -- a lot of people
like the big breakfast because, you know, from
back in the old... -Yes.
-...farming community, people like -- Yeah.
-You were working hard... ...in the field.
-...heavy breakfast, and that would last you
throughout the day. And we got some herring,
or what do you got? That is banga mary
fillet. That is filleted
and seasoned. Mm. And then we put them
in a bread. And then roasted chicken? Fried chicken. Guyanese people like it
this way, not too much batter. -Are you on a diet?
-No. [ Laughs ] Absolutely not! With all that work
you put in outside... Yeah, yeah. Then, further down the table,
it's the dessert table. The salara, which is almost like
a red coconut cake... It's basically
the bread dough rolled... -Yeah.
-...and filled with coconut, and it's colored
with food coloring. Then there's cassava pone, which is, like, dense and heavy
and kind of wet. Feels like a rum cake,
but it's not. -Cassava is indigenous people.
-Yeah. That's their contribution. This is dense.
This will hold you. -Yeah.
-Mm. -This is pine tart...
-Yeah. ...very flaky
pineapple tart. Pineapple jam inside. It's delicious. This is
a black-eyed cake. -It's...
-I love the name. -Yes.
-Black -- black -- -It's black-eyed peas...
-Yes. ...ground and made into a jam
on a flaky pastry. But, you know,
it reminds me of China... -Yeah.
-...a lot of bean cake... -Yeah.
-...and similar to this. Yeah, so everybody come, and they bring something
to the table. What about the Brits?
What did they contribute? Unfortunately,
I don't think there's anything that
we have here. [ Laughs ]
Well, you know what? They provided the game, right?
Yeah. They provided the game. Cricket, for us,
is one place... -Yeah.
-...like, when you come, you're going to have
supporters for your team despite a color...
-Yeah. -...religion...
-Yeah. ...or -- or any type
of background. Thank you for showing me
the game. Thank you. Just one thing
before you go -- You only come in as a batsman,
not a bowler, okay? [ Laughter ] That's right. Act like it -- We utilize
your best talent. [ Laughter ] ♪♪ ♪♪ My name is Shivani,
and I am a manager at Singh's Roti Shop
in Queens, New York. Singh's Roti Shop
is located on Liberty Avenue, and we have a variety
of Caribbean dishes. It's influenced by a bunch
of Indian spices infused by, uh, Chinese style. My mom started cooking. She was the main cook, and now we have a number
of cooks in the kitchen. During the day,
it gets very busy, and we have a bunch of people
from all over New York -- Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn. The line is basically
to the door. At night, Singh's Roti Shop
transforms. It's a completely different
scene from daytime to nighttime. We have live tossa, which
are drums from the Caribbean. We have a reggae band. We have calypso, live singers.
People are dancing. They eat. They drink.
They have such a good time. ♪♪ ♪♪ Samuelsson: Food, for me,
has always been my language. It's something that, if someone
doesn't understand my culture, I always serve them
a plate of herring or Ethiopian chicken stew. The other one is music. Food and music and art
are these incredible pillars. They're kind of like windows into what make each culture
very, very unique. ♪♪ JonOne is a deejay. Through his music is the best
way to explain a modern Indo-Guyanese living in
Queens today. -Hey.
-What's up, fellas? What's going on?
-Welcome. -How are you?
-You ready for tonight? -I'm so excited, man.
-Oh, yeah. So tell me a little bit
about the spot. JonOne: Right now,
this is the hot spot. Primarily, it's West Indian
music, you know? -Yeah.
-And we have soca, reggae... -Yeah.
-...uh, you know... -Calypso.
-...calypso, yeah. -Calypso is what started it.
-Yeah. -Yeah?
-Mm-hmm. And then soca
was the next step... -Mm-hmm.
-Next step? ...the progression,
soul and calypso, soca. -Soul and calypso?
-Yeah. Yeah. Jon, so you've been --
you've been dabbling, getting into your own
production, your own music. What does that
sound like? So I kind of, like,
branched off into the
electronic-dance-music world. -Cool.
-EDM, really, like house music. -Yeah?
-Three years ago, I kind of started to, like,
try to fuse the Caribbean... -Yeah, that's hot.
-...elements with... -Innovator.
-...EDM. Religiously,
Guyana is very mixed. -Yeah.
-Food-wise, it is extremely mixed. -Oh, yeah.
-So it makes sense that the music...
-Yeah. -...in your generation and...
-Yeah. ...electronics and everything
right in front of you... Yeah, exactly.
That's the thing. Like, you know, I was born
and raised in -- in Queens. -Yeah.
-Like, I said, "Let me just pay some homage
to my -- my heritage." Yeah. Your other
sort of important legacy you're living up to,
it's also the legacy of Queens. -Ah, yeah. Definitely.
-Queens has always produced music --
Run-DMC and Tribe... -Yeah.
-...and all that stuff, Nas. Listen, I'm going to play
something for you. This -- what this track
is, uh, it's -- it's a fusion
of my Caribbean roots... -Yeah.
-...mixed with my -- my Indian roots... -Cool.
-...and at the same time, mixed with my -- my EDM
and a bit of hip hop, so the name of this track is going to be called
"No Passport." -Oh, ill.
-Ohh. That's what it
will be called. ♪♪ I like that.
I like that. ♪♪ We had the --
the dholak... -Yeah.
-...which is Indian elements. They're so cool. ♪♪ Uh, we have the traditional
Caribbean steel pan in it... -Yes. Yes.
-...for that little break. And then, uh, you know,
little hip-hop drum break. -And then...
-Bo, bo, bo, boom! ...that drop was just
that EDM drop. Yeah. -EDM.
-You know? This is your, like --
this is your stew. This is your soup.
This is your recipe. You call it Caribbean
dance music, CDM. -That's what you would call it.
-CDM? As a chef, I always
want to bring in people to a new culture
through food, right? -Yeah.
-And this is your way kind of, of bringing in people
to Guyana and Caribbean culture. A lot of people don't know
that Guyana exists. We need to put Guyana
on the map. I'm invited to Jon
and his family, him and his brother
and sister, mom and dad. I'm going to cook with Grandma, and she's going to teach me how
to make roti and chicken curry. [ Doorbell rings ] -Doorbell?
-Good boy. Hello! Hello! How are you? Hello! Hello! Mwah! You are so famous!
Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! [ Laughs ] -Welcome.
-That's how we start? -Yeah.
-And where's the kitchen? -Over there.
-Well, cool. Let's cook. ♪♪ So we got
two different pots. What's happening here?
Yeah. Woman: Uh, we're going to do the
chicken, the curry in this one. And we're going to do
a pumpkin in that one. Nice. How did your son pick up
to become a deejay? Where did he get
that interest from? Well, his -- his father,
uh, was a deejay before... Oh, nice.
It runs in the family. ...back in the days, yeah. But his dad did it
on LPs, right... -Yes.
-...real stuff. Yes, yes, yes, yes. In the basement, he was,
like, in a... -In the garage.
-In the garage? -Yeah.
-He was spinning? When did you guys
move over to Queens? '84. And what was the time
when kids... -Yes.
-...would spin, right? What is your son's
favorite food? Uh, they eat
everything that I cook. Sometimes,
they like the curry. I usually ask them
what they want. It's usually lasagna. -Oh, my God.
-I know. Are we getting some curry
into that lasagna or...? -Sometimes.
-Sometimes, Grandma walk with -- walk in with the curry. -Yes, dart in with the curry!
-She'll bring the curry, yeah. -Yeah.
-That's excellent. Call me. When they don't
want to eat, I'll drive over. -I'll come.
-You got it. You know what I mean?
This smells so wonderful. So what makes
a Guyanese curry? -All the fresh items.
-Yeah. Have garlic, lots of garlic. What do we call these, uh,
peppers? They're called mary wiri wiri,
or wiri wiri. Uh, these are actually
from the garden. -Okay. Yeah.
-So that will go in the curry. And with this curry,
we would eat, uh, dhal puri or --
or roti or rice? -Roti.
-We're going to do a roti. -We'll make roti.
-Yeah. What's in the dough? It's just flour
and baking powder... -Baking powder...
-...and water. -...and water?
-Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, the key is to baste it
with some olive oil. Some people put something
called ghee. Ghee, uh, Indian ghee. -Yes.
-Yeah. I was, like, surprised
when you said, "Olive oil." That's, like,
definitely American. And then the key is to sprinkle
a little bit of flour so that the pockets will be dry
when you fold it over. Yes. Ooh.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. One more time. Slow it down.
We slow. We tourists over here. I -- I'm still waiting for my
Guyanese green card, you know? If I pass the roti making,
I'm expecting you to hook me up. Sometimes, you know,
Guyanese boys, they would not get
with a Guyanese girl if their roti is not round. Oh, wow, so we definitely
want to get it right. -There we go.
-Okay. -Nice.
-Nice. Who taught you
how to make roti? Because that's a --
that's a art in itself. -Um, I think my father.
-Yeah? -Your dad did?
-Yeah. Yeah. I would sit
on the counter and just watch him.
-Nice. Mm-hmm. -He didn't have to say a word.
-Yeah. -You just -- you'd just watch. -Yeah. Yeah.
-So Mom is going to -- You going to clap? -Yeah, I will.
-Okay. She wants to clap. -Look at that.
-Yeah. Sort of breaks it. -I love it.
-I don't clap my roti. I have to be honest
with you. Well, you got a clapper
in here. I shake my roti in a mug. -Oh, okay.
-Yeah. Drop it in there, and I shake. Oh, wow. Comes out nice and soft. Yeah. [ Laughter ] How often did you use
the shaker? I don't use the shaker. No, we don't use it
over here, very sort of, like,
modern mom. -I got to say, that's...
-Modern, yeah. -...very modern mom.
-That's smart. -I'm the old-fashioned.
-No, no, I'm with you. -I'm with you, but...
-Yes. -...the roti looks good, though.
-That's the roti. Yeah. -Good, yeah.
-Wow! ♪♪ So right now, we're sitting
three generations, right? -Right, yeah.
-I love it. Like, I'm from Africa.
It's the same thing, but y-- you do realize
it's quite rare, right? -Right, man.
-Why do you think that is in Guyanese culture? The culture is
very closely knit. We kind of take care
of each other. -Without helping each other...
-Mm-hmm. -...they don't thrive.
-That's good. That's really the key
to their success. But I have one question -- When are we doing
the dad-son show? -Oh.
-When -- when -- when is Father coming out of retirement?
-He retired. When -- when we do a party
in the basement. [ Laughter ] Basement and backyards,
that's Queens, and that's also
like you made it. Dad and mom,
they get their house. They move to bigger house. Now they're middle class, and then the kids are just,
like, '90s kids,
typical New Yorkers, but I do not think
that it compromised on their Indo-Guyanese value. That's the cool thing though
because, like, you know, a lot of, like, typical
"brown" parents, they'll... -Yeah.
-...be totally against, like, us following those dreams...
-Yeah. -...and really taking that...
-Beautiful. ...seriously as, like,
a -- a career one day. -Mm-hmm.
-Right. And they're --
they're very practical. They make sure that, you know,
as long as we're in school... you know, we're doing
what we have to do... and we have a plan B...
then go for it. So that's --
that's a good thing. -Mm-hmm.
-We're very grateful to have parents like that.
-Right. So your kids were all born
in America, right? -Mm-hmm.
-Yeah. These -- these boys are
all -- and girl, one girl, all American.
-And -- and -- and how -- and how do you guys
connect to Guyana? How do you express
your Guyanese culture? We almost live
through the stories... -Yeah.
-...from our grandparents and from our parents. Jaya and I have never
even been to Guyana. -Yeah?
-Yeah. But we feel so close
to it because of... you know,
how we were raised. And what --
what are you into? What do you -- How do you
keep the Guyanese culture? Jaya: Well, ever since I was
little, my parents entered me... -Oh, yeah.
-...in dance. The majority of my life,
I've been doing Bollywood. -Mm-hmm.
-So, you know, and it's... -How cool!
-...really cool. That's kind of how I've kept
my culture with me. -That's really cool.
-And I've also been involved in the Indian pageants...
-Yeah. ...you know, because
Guyanese people were -- My ancestors are Indian, so...
-Mm-hmm. -Yeah.
-...technically, my heritage is Indian as well.
-Mm-hmm. -With Indian.
-Some, yeah. With my grandmother, she speak,
uh, Indian language, Hindi. When we were growing up,
we were under the British rule. -Mm-hmm.
-We went to English school. -Sure.
-And we forget the Hindi... -Mm-hmm.
-...and the Indian language. Yeah. When --
when you guys move out of the house
and eventually start your own families,
how much of the Guyana culture do you think
you're going to keep? -All of it.
Everything we've learned. There's no ifs, ands,
or buts. Like, you have to
keep the culture alive.
Otherwise, it'll die out. We want to just
bring awareness to what Guyana is and
what the culture is. You know, even though we
don't speak with an accent. -None of us do.
-Yeah. -Oh, yeah.
-Nice. Awesome. [ Indistinct chatter ] ♪♪ Singh: The Indo-Caribbean people
lost a lot of things when they traveled over
to the Caribbean, but we tried our very best
to hold on to our culture, our religion. Our ancestors took with them
their sacred books like the "Ramayana." They took certain seeds so that they could grow
in the Caribbean land, but we were taken over
by the British. We were indentured laborers, which are basically
a nicer word for slavery, so we were not able
to keep our language. ♪♪ [ Man speaking in Hindi ] Samuelsson: Lakshmee Singh
is described in her community like the Guyanese Oprah. She has her own TV show on a local network
that you can see both in Queens,
but also in Guyana, and she also basically
grew up in the temple. [ Man speaking Hindi ] [ All speaking Hindi ] And we will say, "Victory,"
to that one who has brought us here today and given us life. ♪♪ Singh:
The Shri Lakshmi Narayan Mandir was the first
Hindu Indo-Caribbean temple built right here
in Queens, New York. I remember as a child, I must
have been about 5, 6 years old. My parents would go
every weekend and help build that temple
brick by brick by brick. [ Singing in Hindi ] The temple is beautiful. The -- the spirituality
is so felt. It's filled with warmth. Take your shoes off. You're in a completely
different world. You give an offering.
It could be food. It could be flowers,
and you get blessed... [ Speaking Hindi ] ...pretty much similar like
going to a church in Harlem. How many people
are we expecting? -I would say about 120.
-Yeah? And this temple,
in the basement, they got some of the best
vegetarian food in all of New York City. What's the dish
that we're cooking? Paltooram:
So we're making potato curry. Sahabir: Whenever we have
religious functions, it's all-vegetarian diet.
-Nice. So, uh, potatoes are
your basic staple food. Yeah. It's going to cook for, like,
about 10, 15 minutes, and then we usually take out,
like, a portion size and offer it to the deities. Everything we do,
we offer to God first. -Yeah.
-And then, afterwards, we bring it back down,
and we mix it back in here, so it's blessed. [ Indistinct chatter ] ♪♪ [ Indistinct chatter ] Every bite is so flavorful. See?
When you have a hand in it, so it tastes
a little extra special. Everybody gets to enjoy. It's -- it's a cool atmosphere
to, like, prepare food in. When you get to share it
with your congregation and... -Yeah.
-...you know, you're eating together,
it's a different kind of family bond
that you create. You know, I saw that
a lot of people that -- that are not from the Caribbean
are participating, too. That's beautiful. It's very diverse
and very open. -Mm-hmm.
-It's on Liberty Avenue, so anybody can walk in. It's part of, like,
the melting pot. Even in our countries
back home... -Yeah.
-...Guyana and Trinidad, culturally, whenever you
come to a prayer service, regardless of your --
your religious beliefs, you're always welcome. Tell me a little bit about
the history of the temple. Well, back in the day, back in,
like, the '70s, the '80s, um... -Mm-hmm.
-...people would either pray from, like, one house
to another house... -Oh, wow, in the basement or...?
-Yes. -In basements.
-Right. And then, you know, eventually, they started saving up money,
doing little fund-raisers. You know, no one could really
afford, like, a construction company...
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. ...per se, you know,
to do everything. No. Uncle Joe was the
construction guy. Yeah. You know, you had people
who came together who said, "Okay.
You know, we'll do the"... -Pooled your resources.
-..."electric, electrical work." -That's beautiful.
-Yeah. But, I mean, to sit here
and see the progress of that... -Mm-hmm.
-Because once you have a place to come together
and pray, it's one of the staples in the
community, in any community. -So...
-It's pretty awesome. What does it mean for you to
be connected to the temple and work here and --
and carry the tradition? Well, it's super meaningful
because, I mean, in this day and age now
with the resources you have on the Internet
and things like that... -Yeah.
-...books are so available. -Yeah.
-Like, back when they would practice in Guyana
and Trinidad, they basically had
word-of-mouth knowledge from their foreparents
that came from India, so it was, like,
you know, a disconnect with the culture once you...
-Mm-hmm. ...boarded that boat
and went to these islands, and now here we are in America.
-Yeah. You have access to all of
these authentic texts now. You have the ability to learn
Sanskrit and Hindi and... -Yeah.
-...you know, reconnect... -Yeah.
-...with your culture and understand
who you are as a person. Yeah. Okay. ♪♪ A lot of Indo-Guyanese people
come to think about this rupture that happens when we migrate, both from India to Guyana
and Guyana to the United States, that there is a deep emotional,
psychological splitting apart that takes a lot of time
to heal and to repair. When I come here
to Liberty Avenue and, you know, you immerse
yourself in the food and the sounds
and the music and the culture, there's something deeper
going on, and that is a way to really heal that kind of rupturing that
migration enacts on families. That's the killer right here.
Yeah. And just like you have...
-Hey, Marcus. -Hey, man. How are you?
-Good. -Welcome to the Mohan house.
-Good to see you. -Yeah.
-Oh, I'm excited. What's up, Sky?
How are you? -How's everybody doing?
-Oh! -My older sister, Debra.
-How are you, Debra? -Nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you. -Oh.
-Oh. And that's my brother, Rick,
and Chef Freddy. -Yeah, Freddy.
-How you doing, Marcus? Walking into Raymond's house,
of course, the whole family was there. [ Indistinct chatter ] We're going all the way back
to the backyard, and we're going to do
a bush cook. I've never been to a bush cook.
What is it? Raymond: My dad used
to take us bush cooking in -- in the jungle.
Mm-hmm. And you would bring all these
ingredients, the rice, the... -Mm-hmm.
-...black-eyed peas, the salted beef,
whatever they could find. -Beautiful.
-But in -- in Guyana, you know, you do it, uh,
over a wood fire. -Yeah.
-But in America, we're doing it in American style.
We're doing it... -Yes.
-...our way now, you know? We do it induction style,
yes, yes. Yeah, we're doing it
with induction burner, yeah. Yeah. I love this style of cooking
because it's also -- open your refrigerator
and, you know, "What do we got?" Sometimes you don't have
all the ingredients. I invite you.
You bring some rice. -Yeah. Yeah.
-I invite Ray. -He bring the meat.
-Yeah. Some other guys come with
vegetables, you know? So it's really like
a potluck right there? -Yeah.
-Y -- yes, yes. -Nice.
-Yes. -Yeah.
-We got pig tail and salt beef in there.
-With the salt beef. -Right.
-So you got salt from the salted beef,
heat from Scotch bonnets. So the -- the peppers
are not broken, so at the end, we're going to
pop one of them to release some heat -- just the --
just the right amount of heat. Oh. Coconut milk is going
to make it all smooth, a little bit of water,
a sip of El Dorado. You're off to the races. Tell me, when you came,
the week before, like, you're packing up
your stuff. -Oh, man.
-How do you -- Tell me a little bit about
that, coming to JFK? That's -- Yeah, that's --
that's -- that -- that's heartbreaking,
man, you know? Because you're saying
goodbye to your girlfriend... -Oh, man. Everybody.
-...your buddies. -Your neighbors. Your friends.
-Yes. People who you don't know...
-Yeah. -...they come to wish you
good luck, you know? -You might never go back.
-Exactly. -You know, you don't know.
-You know? Did it take you a while
to adjust? -Did you like it right away?
-No, I didn't. -Right?
-Yeah, take you a while. -Took you a while?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take you a couple years. What did a place
like Liberty Avenue where you saw
other Guyanese -- That must have been
a place of comfort. You feel like, you know, like,
like you're part of something. -Yeah.
-You know, when you go there, you see all the, you know,
people, you know, from your country.
You feel -- you feel at home. -Yeah.
-You feel fitted. -Pick up a roti with some...
-Yeah. -...tamarind sauce or...
-Yeah. -Mm-hmm.
-...some callaloo or, -you know...
-So it was an important street for you just to be
connected, right? -Yes.
-As an immigrant, we always have this dialogue
between the home country, the old country
and the new country, right? Sometimes when you go back
to the old country, it's not what
you thought it was. -Yes.
-And -- and sometimes, you're just like, "I would just
want to go home," and home
is actually America." Had that ever happened
to you guys? -Uh...
-Well, it -- it happened to me. -I went back, and...
-Yeah. ...I lost my paper,
and I -- I -- I find myself in American embassy, and I'm
like, "I want to go home." -Yeah.
-And at that moment, I realized, like, America is now
my home, and Guyana... -It's now your home.
-...is a place I visit. -Yeah.
-And, um, uh, and I learn a lot growing up there. It's made me who I am
in America. -Yeah.
-But America is home, and, uh...
-And -- and Guyana is where some of your memories
are and always something to sort of think about. -Yes.
-Well, congratulations. You guys have worked real -- I'm sure the journey
was not easy. There was a lot of
different struggles. -Yeah. Yeah.
-But, uh, you cooked your way
through it. -Cooked our way, and loving it.
-Yeah. -Love the whole journey.
-Yeah. Look at that.
Now we got a bush cook. -Ah.
-Oh, yes. -Very cool.
-We're going to bring it inside? We're going to bring it
inside now. -All right.
-All right. Here comes the bush-cook pot. -All right.
-All right. [ People cheering ] -Voilà!
-About time! [ Laughs ] Good things
take a while, you know? -Yeah.
-Looks good. -Nice.
-Ooh. -Nice.
-Don't bust the pepper. -Don't bust the pepper.
-Find a pepper. -You got to find a pepper.
-But I can't find it. [ Laughter ] [ Indistinct chatter ] -Thank you.
-There you go, Aunt Mav. Yeah, right here, right here,
right here, right here. -I'm on the tour.
-Yeah. Yeah. And a little spinach.
I love it. The ladies didn't have
to do any cooking. That shows progress. That's good.
That's good. -Freddy, you did good.
-Oh, thank you. -Thank you, bro.
-You did good. Raymond,
you got good food. You got different types
of food. It's basically the whole world
in one country. -Yeah.
-You take, uh, a little bit from every...
-Everything. ...every culture to
to make one pot, right? -Yeah.
-It's food for the senses. Thank you, Ray.
I ate very, very well today. ♪♪ ♪♪ The Indo-Guyanese community
has really dark, tough history. The journey was not light,
and the journey was not easy, but when you're with anyone
from the community, it's an up experience. Phagwah is a holy
Guyanese festival that is a celebration
of good over evil. You go from hard winter
into spring. There's a level of hope. There are togetherness. That is very inspirational
to me. They offer this an incredible
way of saying, "Here's our values
from the old country. We're going to stick
to some of them that are really,
really important to us," and I think you see it
in the spirituality. You feel it in the music,
and you feel it in the food, but they incredible good
at choosing when to put
the Indo-Caribbean hat on, then take that off
and say, like, "We're part
of the larger Caribbean," and then say,
"You know what? We're New Yorkers
just like everybody else." It's really a great community
to look at, see, like, how do you keep a sense of self
in this big city that we call New York City? ♪♪ I can remember the first time
I walk on ice. [ Laughter ] Oh, man, yeah, I -- I... My cousin call me and tell me
it's snowing outside, so I put on, like, two socks,
put on my long johns, something. -Yeah.
-Once I open the door and I see the snow,
I was like, "What's that?" And then I put my foot inside. Then I asked my cousin, say,
"Yo, can we put some sugar, take some syrup and eat this?" He's like, "No, no,
can't do that, no."
