Keeping Caribbean flavors alive in the Bronx

The Kendleys (Charles, Keisha, Aidan) sitting down at the table after they finished dinner. Photo: Jordan Muto.

As soon as the doors open, the aromas of garlic and fish fill the air. Cartoon Network is on the television. Charles Kendley sits on the couch fiddling on his iPad. His wife Keisha sits beside him going through the mail. Their son Aidan, four, whips around a plastic snake. It’s 7:15 p.m. It’s almost dinnertime.

For two full-time working parents, dinner at their Bronx townhouse is often a last-minute project. Keisha is a school program coordinator in Mount Vernon, where she focuses on cultural enrichment for teen girls. Charles works in the NYPD’s school safety task force division. Neither of them gets home before six.

“Basically, we open the fridge, scratch our heads and will be like: ‘What’s for dinner?’” said Charles.

Even with their hectic schedules, the Kendleys eat a home cooked meal at least three times a week. The other nights it’s takeout and on the weekends, they go out either with Aidan or on their own.

“Sometimes that’s when you get to find out what’s going on in each other’s days. It’s just another moment to spend time together, even though we spend most of our time trying to get Aidan to eat,” said Keisha. “We try to eat at the table, but sitting still is hard for him.”

Aidan’s arrival changed what they eat, as well as when and how. “In our twenties we really didn’t care about what we ate,” said Charles, 46, who has been married to Keisha since 1997.

Now they do. Each move in the kitchen is strategic. If they use oil, it’s canola oil. Starches are brown rice or couscous. Charles’s latest specialty is eggplant lasagna, using eggplant instead of pasta. And they rarely eat fried foods.

“My metabolism isn’t the same. Things change whether you want them to or not. You realize you can’t do that anymore,” said Keisha, 38, who previously drank soda and ate fast food. “We’re trying to start healthy eating habits with Aidan.”

A bowl of kiwis, apples and oranges, readily available for snacks, sits on their oval dining room table, on a red floral tablecloth. Keisha says she often grabs a piece of fruit on her way out for breakfast since she’s usually in a hurry. As Aidan waits for dinner, he pulls out a bottle of Naked fruit smoothie from the refrigerator, requesting some as a snack.

The salmon sitting on the stove before Keisha serves it. Photo: Jordan Muto.

The couscous and asparagus cooking on the stove. Photo: Jordan Muto.

At about 8 p.m., it’s time to eat: roasted salmon rubbed in garlic and onion puree and cooked with peppers, with asparagus with olive oil and garlic and couscous. Keisha serves the meal on white dinner plates with blue trim, plating Aidan’s in a smaller white bowl with red trim; it’s easier than having it served family style with a toddler in the house. As they sit at the table, Aidan recites grace.

Keisha serving dinner for her family. Photo: Jordan Muto.

“I don’t have the time, which is why I made this because he likes fish and I didn’t want to struggle with him tonight,” said Keisha about cooking dinner.

They usually save dessert, typically something healthy, as a tool to encourage Aidan to eat. Keisha bribes Aidan to sit still with more of the smoothie. He also requests a pop tart, but eventually settles for the smoothie when his mom won’t give in to the additional request.

Aidan’s happy with tonight’s dinner. He eats a second serving of both the salmon and asparagus, although the couscous never leaves his plate. His strong food preferences present another set of hurdles for his parents. He doesn’t like meat, pasta or cheese. His current favorites are fish and asparagus. He also likes green juices. Before this, it was chicken.

The Kendleys dinner ready to be taken to the table to eat. Photo: Jordan Muto.

“One minute this will be his new favorite,” said Charles. “He eats healthy, but then that limits what we can give him.”

While Keisha did the cooking tonight, that’s not always the case. It’s about 30-70, explained Charles who cooks most of the time. The dishes are always a shared task, though, regardless of who’s in charge.

“Most of the time to make life easier, Charles will be the sous-chef — that means he does all the prep work and I put it together,” said Keisha about when it’s her turn to make dinner. “I think the combination works. He’s creative and I’m the flavors.”

Since Charles does the bimonthly grocery shopping and weekly store runs in between, he decides on the menu.

“I go to Aldi for meats, cold cuts, ground meat, cheese, cereal products, eggs, and almond milk because they have great prices. Palm Tree for Caribbean ingredients like fish, seafood, spices, flavors and things that you find in the islands and Stop & Shop for generic items,” said Charles.

Their Bronx neighborhood, Williams Bridge, is known as a West Indies and Caribbean enclave. Keisha is originally from Jamaica and spent most of her childhood there. Introducing her culture’s flavors to Aidan is important.

Keisha watched her parents cook at home as a teenager, and some nights she will make chicken, rice, beans and vegetables that remind her of those family meals. Charles, who grew up in Harlem, now uses Caribbean flavors in his dishes.

“The Caribbean part, everything she cooked I watched,” said Charles who learned to cook from his mother. “Learn how to cook because you might marry someone that can’t. That’s one thing my mother taught me.”

The Kendleys have lived in the Bronx for the last 18 years and in their current home for the past eight. They’re currently in contract to sell their home, and plan to move either upstate or possibly Westchester County.

“It’s not the type of neighborhood where I’d like to raise my son,” said Charles who wants to move somewhere with a backyard to grill in, where Aidan can play outside without them watching.

With their move, they may not have access to the same abundance of Caribbean flavors. But, in the meantime, they encourage Aidan to learn the basics of cooking. Tonight, he helped season the salmon.

“I think he was born with it. He will definitely pick it up from us. He always tries to help when he’s in the kitchen,” said Keisha. “By the time he’s 16, he’ll be good, which I think is a cool thing for a man to do.”

Jordan Muto