Elly’s mother didn’t like cooking, but over time, she learned a few recipes from Elly’s grandmother that she could make very well. Her father came from the countryside and loved traditional Antillean food. So they often ate bean soup, beef stew, liver, goat, pork chops, soups, and on Fridays they preferred to eat fish with funchi and fried banana.

And if there was split pea soup or okra soup, funchi would naturally be added to the dishes. Elly’s mother preferred rice, as it was easier to cook for a family of eight. But for some of the traditional recipes, funchi was necessary. For that, she would head into the kitchen with a large pot of funchi to get the job done. To start, she would boil water with a bit of salt, then slowly add cornmeal to get the right consistency, and use the funchi stick to stir it together until it was no longer lumpy and reached the right texture.

This is what she called “Hala funchi” , the movement of pulling or stirring funchi. Hala funchi means keeping the funchi moving while it cooks in the pot. You use the flat side of the funchi stick to stir, and because it takes a lot of stirring, you have to be strong. The art is: don’t let it get clumpy, don’t let it burn, let it cook until the texture is just right.

Once it’s ready, you place it on a plate and use another smaller plate to shape it neatly and ensure the texture is correct. Before eating, it must be turned over onto a serving dish. I received this funchi stick when I started my own family and was living in the Netherlands. Elly has had the same funchi stick for over 25 years and still uses it to hala funchi.