Saturday, May 21, 2011

The Juice Man

Didn't get a pic of the juice guy - but this here is a passion fruit flower!
Scott and I were walking along the streets of Sint Maarten (the Dutch side), just wandering and exploring, looking for a place to get a bite to eat and scoping the lay of the land.

Unfortunately, sidewalks are not to be found here so we took a short cut through a parking lot to avoid the wet streets (it has been raining, off and on, a LOT).  We passed by a large, black man who appeared to be getting into his car.

"Heya" he said with a nod.

Thinking this was just a passing greeting we replied "Hello" as we walked past the trunk of his car.

This was not your standard greeting.

"You guys want some juice?" we heard him ask from behind us. We turned on our heels as he popped open his hatchback and made a sweeping motion with his arm to show us his bounty which was, much to our amazement, coolers full of home-made juice and little plastic tasting cups.

"Yeah - come try my juice.  No acid.  No additives.  All natural".  There were a few hand-scribbled signs reading "Home-made Juice" dangling off the coolers inside the truck.

This guy was a traveling juice salesman.  Weird.

We were still in awe of this strange set up as he rattled off his different flavors and produced each of them in recycled water bottles.  He poured us tastes of fresh passion fruit juice ("No acid - all natural"), mavi juice ("Good for da blood"), and a bizarre peanut-fruit drink which tasted exactly as it sounds ("Good for da love").

While some might scoff at drinking strange, home-made juice out of the back of some random man's trunk in a parking lot - Scott and I just went with it.  And I am here to tell you it was delicious.

After we licked our lips of the last taste - he went in for the kill.

"What'll it be?  Which one you want?"

We haggled for a liter of the cold passion fruit juice and drank every last drop as we continued down the road under the hot Caribbean sun.

Moral of the story:  Never underestimate the power of a man in a car with a bunch of home-made juice.

Love,
Brittany & Scott

1 comment:

Brett said...

You guys are my heroes and kindrid spirits. If I had a dime for every time a work colleague told me I was crazy for eating from some street food stand or weird venue in other counries I would be rich! Maybe I just have a strong stomach, but I prefer to think that maybe, just maybe, we are a little too cautious in the US of A.

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