Food in Jamaica….where do I begin?

I guess this will probably be a two part post because it is important to note that you can find any type of cuisine in Jamaica for any kind of palate and on any type of budget.

Maybe I will just borrow the categories that restaurant week uses so that I can separate and give you a variety. Let’s start with restaurants that serve Jamaican fare, and we’ll call that Tasty! The first ones that come to mind are Starapple’s on Hope Road in Kingston, Bobsled in the Montego Bay Airport Departure Lounge, Gloria’s Roadside and Top Shop for seafood in Port Royal, Gimbilyn Restaurant at the Alhambra Inn in Kingston and for local flavor if you are adventurous, the “pan chicken” stop at the corner of Mannings Hill Road and Whitehall Avenue also in Kingston. Those would be my top picks for great Jamaican flavor anytime. There are certainly many other places that you can find the experience but these are my favourites.

At the restaurants, you can find traditional Jamaican meals such as the island’s national dish of ackee ( a local tree grown vegetable) and saltfish (salted cod) with fried dumplings ( a mixture of flour, salt and water, made into a dough and then fried) or boiled green bananas. You will also have a choice of many more local or regional dishes to tempt your palate with island flavor. You will also be able to get fresh seafood, and when I say fresh, I mean literally just caught and brought to the restaurant directly from a fishing boat (Gloria’s for example, is right by the seaside) cleaned and seasoned and cooked to your liking.

No Jamaican experience would be complete without jerk chicken or jerk pork with festival (a dough made from flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar and water and fried…yes we do love fried!) hardough bread or bammy (a savoury cake made from dried cassava flour and salt and baked on a large flat, metal disc over a wood fire). You can find this quintessential Jamaican dish on any street corner, on any road, in any parish on the island!  There are many popular places for this in every parish, Faith’s Pen in St. Catherine, enroute from Kingston to Ocho Rios Portland Jerk Center as well as a myriad of stops on Spur Tree Hill on the border of Manchester and St. Elizabeth.

Stay tuned for more epicurean and delectable Jamaican delights from our diary as we taste our way through 2009!