Jamaican Cuisine & Culinary Delights

by Jessica Piccos

Famous Jamaican Cuisines

Jamaica, one of the largest islands in the Caribbean, has long been a popular destination for travellers, boasting glorious beaches, crystal clear seas and a laid-back atmosphere.

Arguably less well known, but equally as enticing is its cuisine. Combining South American, Creole, Asian and African influences, the food in Jamaica is packed with flavor.

With many operators offering trips to this island paradise, anyone should be able to find great deals on holidays to Jamaica and experience the cuisine themselves.

Below are a few of the culinary delights that await, all of which are popular across the island so can be found wherever you are staying.

Curry Goat

Curry goat betrays the influence of India on Jamaican cuisine. A mild mix of spices including pimento, garlic and ginger flavours the meat and the curry is typically served with fried plantain. Curry goat is extremely popular at parties and festivals.

Jamaican Christmas Cake

Jamaican Christmas Cake is a dark, heavy confection that takes a long time to prepare. Usually fruit is soaked in bottles of rum for two weeks before being baked in a traditional cake batter. The resulting cake is left for anything up to four weeks before serving to intensify the flavour.

Ackee and Salt Fish

Ackee has been appropriated by subsequent generations to become more and more a staple part of the Jamaican diet, and is a popular choice for breakfast.

A large orange colored fruit with a slightly nutty flavor, the ackee is traditionally boiled along with salt fish − the fish is usually cod that has been cured − as well as onion and tomato to form a hearty stew, served with fried plantain or cassava.

Ackee is the national fruit of the island, while Ackee and salt fish is the national dish, and is served all over the country. Any visitor to Jamaica must try it.

Jerk Chicken

The style of jerk cooking whereby meat is rubbed with a sticky, spicy mixture of peppers, allspice, garlic, nutmeg and cloves is native to Jamaica. The rubbed chicken is then barbecued over a grill to create a smoky, vibrant flavor.

Jerk chicken is a popular roadside snack and, particularly along the waterfront of many towns, you can find hawkers selling their wares from old oil barrels that have been halved and converted to grills, each with their own slightly different mix of spices. The smells wafting in the air in these areas are simply divine.

Duckanoo

A sweet dessert whose origins lie in Africa, Duckanoo is made by kneading and wrapping sugar, spices, cornmeal and coconut is a banana leaf and gently cooking in boiling water. Eaten from the leaf, it is perfect snack at any time.