"BEEF-VEGETABLE-CHICKEN-COCO BREAD"
(please credit this entire account and the photos of this fine man to Rambo and his wife CoComando (Ray and Jules Edwin) who are frequent visitors to Negril)
"PATTY MAN" is what he is normally called.....His real name is Neville Stewart, a man small in stature, but not in dreams or work ethic's.
He is a widower of six years from this writing (2009), and a father of 6 children. He lives in Grange Hall and leaves his bike near the beach area that he works each day, rarely taking a day off. He brings the "Patty Box" with him each day, loading it up in the morning with fresh pattys and returning at night filled with supplies for the next days sales.
His bike is safe-stored at the end of the beach, near where he starts and finshes each day. He has been pushing his bike through the beach sand for over 16 years now, and is in the process of fixing up a "scooter" to help him to get to work and home to cut down on his expenses so that he wont have to raise his prices........(smart man!).
His day usually starts about 5AM with the cooking and preparing of his days worth of patty's. A patty is a pastry shell filled with BEEF-VEGTABLE-CHICKEN-COCO BREAD, and then deep fried to a golden brown (like a brown taco) only soft and warm with a very light and flaky crust.
The patties filling varies with the choices, as does the prices...with the CoCo Bread being the cheapest. Normally we are talking about 1 US buck to a buck and a half a piece.......BIG Discounts for volume..LOL!
All the fillings are GREAT, with all being able to put that "certain" Jamaican "hot-ness" on the end of your tongue, which is washed away nicely with a Red Stripe or a Heinekins.
I made him a shirt with his photo on it and we gave it to him on our last visit so if you see a guy on the beach with a bicycle wearing a shirt with him on it - you have just run into the Pattyman!
As all Jamaicans do more than one job and so does the Patty Man. He will also will cook you a fine Jamaican Meal at your place or elsewhere, and deliver it to you.
We asked him for BIG LOBSTERS,,,and Mon did he deliver! We were taking a dip in the pool when he arrived at about 4 in the afternoon one day with a bag, in it were 3 of the BIGGEST JAMAICAN LOBSTERS we had ever seen. They were maybe 2 to 3 lbs of tail meat each!
A good sales day for Neville is 70 patties (when Spring Break is in session) going down to an average of only 35-45 per day during these slow times. He very rarely brings any back home with him, giving the last away or trading them for rides.
When he gets back home he does his "chores" and gets ready for the next day. When he's done he'll say his nightly prayers, and finally close his eyes...it will be around 11 PM!
So when you see the Pattyman, pushing his bike full of patties along on the sand in the blazing heat why don't you get up and go over and buy him out....and help him get that "scooter" on Di Road!
And as you watch him walk off, you can feel proud and honored that you have just met a real "Jamaican Legend".
By the way, this is the second article from Rambo (The Fruit Lady was the first)and we are encouraging Rambo and his wife to start a blog of their own so a few encouraging comments below from you readers here might help to convince them to do so.
