When Jamaicans say summen look farrin what they actually mean is that it looks like summen they’d see on cable or in this case a magazine, something of a distinctly higher quality.
That was exactly my first thought when I came across the “From The Comfort Of My Bowl” Instagram page, it looked farrin. It is a series of well photographed delicious dishes that literally makes you want to eat your phone screen.
Never mind it’s vegan and had ingredients I had never heard much less able to pronounce — like seriously what is a Kitsune Soba? No clue, but I was sold.
An Asian twist
The creator behind this gorgeous blog is Jhanelle Golding, a Jamaican food and travel blogger living in and exploring Asia — The Asian influences in her dishes are immediately noticeable.
Jhanelle shares the story of how she became a vegan on a whim after deciding one day she was tired of chicken and so went cold turkey.
“I literally just got up one day and just, they had chicken cooked in the pot and I was like you know what I’m so sick of this, I’m not eating chicken ever again.“
I guess once you go Vegan you never go back especially if you’re as good as Jhanelle at making tasty faceless grub (she doesn’t eat anything that once had a face). It was difficult at first because she really loves desserts and finding face-free options isn’t particularly, Jamaicans really love meat.
Vegan desserts too
“I couldn’t find any desserts without egg, dairy or anything like that. I decided well I’m gonna start baking and I go online I wasn’t even sure if this was even possible. So I looked it up online and people were doing it. But I wanted to find it here. I didn’t want to, I love baking but I didn’t want to really make it myself. I wanted to be able to go and find it, but turns out it wasn’t that easy so I started my own baking business. From that idea, just helping myself in the kitchen.“
And like that Jhanelle started Surprisingly Sweet, a seasonal bakery, specializing in (what I can personally verify) extremely tasty vegan desserts that fly off the figurative shelf in a matter of minutes after being posted.
“I spent about a month just testing recipes or just practicing writing recipes, trial and error giving to friends given to strangers, getting feedback. And then I launched surprisingly sweet in May 2017.“
Both pages quickly gained a loyal following on Instagram. On the From the Comfort of My Bowl page she documented her personal vegan journey through gorgeous photos and over on the Surprisingly Sweet page she was able to make a decent side hustle selling vegan desserts. She has now turned her Instagram pages into a full fledged blog and YouTube channel where you can watch her recreate these amazing dishes.
No salad to mi ting
“I do not like salads. I like my big plate of food. Just like any Jamaican big hearty feeling food. That’s why I have from the comfort of my bowl … just to show case that hey, vegan comfort food can be good, can be filling doesn’t have to be about salads.“
So, if you’re into vegan food and or want to try your hand at face less foods check out the Blog here or follow Jhanelle on Instagram.
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