Sunday, August 02, 2009
Food, Travel, In this Issue..., Reviews

Eat Jamaican, Mon!

Destination dining in Montego Bay and Kingston

By Hope S. Philbrick

Reggae. Off-shore reefs. Friendly people. Underground caves. The laid-back vibe. Mountains, waterfalls and beaches. Colorful flowers and birds. There are many reasons to visit Jamaica. Perhaps most tempting is the food.
Jamaican cuisine has a number of influences, with Amerindian, Spanish and African cooking traditions topping the list. One-pot stews, barbecue and complex seasonings are common themes in Jamaican cooking. Modern trends include an increased emphasis on local, seasonal fare—of which there’s a dizzying array of options—and incorporating healthy cooking techniques into traditional recipes.
Some tastes should not be missed when visiting the Caribbean’s third largest island.

If you find a Jamaican chef who will share the recipe for jerk chicken with you, odds are they’re leaving some information out. The island’s most famous dish is generally considered a national treasure and thus a closely guarded secret. I was able to find out that key ingredients include scallions, scotch bonnet peppers, thyme, onion, garlic, ginger and “seasoning mix”—but couldn’t persuade anyone to disclose the details of what goes into that mix. Cooking the chicken over a smoky pimiento wood-burning fire is also crucial. The island breeze may play a key role, too, because the jerk chicken I devoured in Jamaica was superior to any that I’ve had anywhere else. (By the way, don’t skip jerk if you don’t like chicken: “Basically, you can jerk anything you can think of: vegetables, meats, fish,” says Shorty Allen, cook at Scotchies in Montego Bay.)

Who’d guess that four simple ingredients could create a party for your mouth? Festival dough is made of just cornmeal, flour, salt and sugar. Hand-rolled to approximately six inches long and one inch wide, it’s deep fried until crispy-crunchy on the outside yet soft-gooey on the inside. Typically it’s served alongside jerk as a sweet contrast to spice.

Don’t miss fresh fish—especially when you can get it straight from the boat at any one of the seafood shacks on Hellshire Beach, just outside of Kingston. Snapper and grouper are great choices. Whether grilled or fried, douse the fish with escoveitch sauce, which is made from onion, spices, vinegar and scotch bonnet peppers. The fish will be tender and succulent, the sauce tangy and spicy. It’s a mouth-watering, perfect match.

Curried goat, a dish that locals commonly serve to houseguests, is popular because it’s oh so good. Goat meat tastes similar to lamb, and when treated to this preparation, it’s fabulous.

The national breakfast dish is ackee and saltfish. With its big black seeds that peer out of the shell-like eyes, ackee is an alien-looking fruit. But when its yellowish flesh is cooked, it looks, feels and tastes like scrambled eggs. Saltfish (dried and salted cod) adds bite.

Flaky, golden yellow patties are fried pastries filled with spicy meat or vegetables. Alongside this popular lunch option, try some sorrel juice, a refreshing red drink that’s a blend of tangy and sweet.

The Red Stripe beer that is available in the United States is labeled Red Stripe Light in Jamaica. The regular Red Stripe found on the island is more full-bodied and richly flavored than that available here.

The name of rice and peas, a popular side dish, is somewhat misleading because it’s often rice and beans. But why get picky when the bottom line is that it tastes so good? Coconut milk gives the dish a sweet base of flavor.

Greens for breakfast, lunch and dinner? When it’s sweet callaloo, go for it. All greens are not equal, and this one is delicious.

Even if you typically add cream and sugar, you may find it’s unnecessary when drinking Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. Cool, misty growing conditions at a minimum of 2,000 feet above sea level yield a coffee that’s less bitter, more full-bodied and silky smooth, with rich concentrated flavor and complex acidity. “It’s naturally 65 percent lower in caffeine than average coffee,” says Alton Bedward of Jamaica UCC Blue Mountain Coffee Company Ltd. “So docile and balanced, it won’t flutter your heart.” It will, however, inspire true love. SP