The first thing that jumps to mind is sun dried tomatoes. A few years back,, I discovered Bella Sun Luci tomatoes in olive oil and the only word that comes to mind to describe them is awesome.
The thing is, down here in the Caribbean, finding a proper fresh tomato is a somewhat problematic affair. What is available is, usually, pretty awful quality wise and at a price that is just plain silly... I mean, who wants to pay a dollar for a bruised, battered, and mostly tasteless tomato?
Luckily both in St Martin and the USVI you can find Bella Sun Luci tomatoes (made by Mooney farms) for a very reasonable price (around $10 for the two pound jar) but you should be warned that once you start using them they become a staple...
Even better is that each jar of tomatoes is packed in eleven ounces of olive oil which can by itself be used any number of ways. You can use the oil to flavor things, fry with, or in our case we find the remaining oil and jars are perfect for storing cheese à la the oil method.
Of course, some folks on boats don't like the idea of glass jars or olive oil but luckily the people who make the Bella Sun Luci Tomatoes have also added a variety of pouched alternatives in 3.5 ounce sizing (Lisa Mooney tells me that six pouches have about the same amount of tomatoes as the two pound jar)...
Me, I'm sticking with the jars...
The real attraction of the sun dried tomatoes is they are just so flavorful that they really make whatever you put them in just that little bit better. Which is, after all the whole point of the exercise!
