You never know what nation you will be swept away to when walking down the streets of Manhattan.  A stand selling preserved eggs and fried tofu will take me to the Canton Provence of China. A Halal stand is a fun pass to multiple places in the Mediterranean.  But, Brooklyn has its own surprises that Manhattan does not–street cane, which will take you on a trip to the streets of Jamaica!

After gorging ourselves on Jerk Chicken, my college friend took us past a small table of coconuts and tamarinds next to a garage with the tall Ali chill’n under the table parasol.  ”Three cups of cane juice and two cups of coconut too, please.”  Ali pulled himself off of the wall he was leaning on, went into the garage, and rolled out an industrial juicer and his Machete. The trip was on!

The Machete went snicker-snack!  Ali shaved the outside of one tall, green cane and we commented on how much work it takes to get just a few cups of cane sugar.  ”It is nooo prob-lem.” Ali said and then he began to teach us a thing or two about sugar cane.  ”It’s tha num-ba one drink, ja.  Ind-i-a …Thai-land…Viet-nam.  Betta dan tha corn sug-ar.  Have a glass and work all day!”  He joked around with a big, smile and vibrant eyes as he pushed an invisible cart.

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Then my college friend asked Ali “Have you used the purple cane from Asia-Vietnam? That is the best one!”  Like an expert he replied, “I know all tha cane. Tha green…purple…red….tha black from Af-rica”  Rattling off that list of varieties may have been nothing to Ali, but now my fate is sealed. I must search out and try each color of cane in the rainbow.  Our cane guru continued to share stories of cane. He said in the Carribean the cane grows like weeds, but it’s not lawful to harvest the cane growing in graveyards or off of government land.  Graveyard cane? This experience was starting to become voodoo trippy.  ”Five dollars a joint if you caught.”  A joint?  Funny that a shoot of graveyard or government cane is synonymous to a joint of marijuana!

Different Varieties of Cane

By the time Ali started hacking away at the coconuts we almost forgot, my eyes were about to pop out of my head from his stories and all the work he was doing to give us our juice.  He pulled out a pretty impressive pocket knife to carve out the meat of the coconut.  I must have looked like a regular tourist as he proceeded to brag some more, “In Af-rica you can kill a Giraffe with this knife.”  I’d like to say I was a bit more discerning but I replied, “Reeeaaallyy? That is crazy!”  At least my naive indulgence won us a tip for a Caribbean treat: mix the coconut flesh with lots of brown sugar in a blender till pulverized, add some coconut milk if desired.  What a great day, thanks Ali for the juice, it was a great sugar high!

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