Dining

Breadfruit is amazing, and there are many ways to prepare it. Breadfruit is fruit from the jackfruit family and a ground provision in the Caribbean. Breadfruit is classified as a fruit, but it falls into the starch category in the Caribbean. Preparation methods for breadfruit in Jamaica include grilling, baking, or making it into a puree. Breadfruit is highly nutritious, and very tasty.  

Oxtail is the instruction to Jamaican food for most.  It is literally the tail of cattle. Like with most other stew dishes, the oxtail is first seasoned with herbs and spices, fried, and then slow cooked. This process can take a couple hours, on a low heat, or in a pressure cooker. Served with rice and peas this is one of the heartiest and most delicious meals you will have in Jamaica. 

Made from cassava, bammy is a name you’ll have to get familiar with in Jamaica.  Bammy is made from cassava root and coconut milk fried until golden brown. It is usually served as a side dish, at any time of day, but is popularly served alongside callaloo. Some people eat bammy for breakfast with syrup, but it works just as well along with your main dish. 

A Jamaican patty is a pastry that contains various fillings and spices baked inside a flaky shell, similar to a Spanish empanada.  Jamaican patties are flavorful, and usually filled with chicken, beef or vegetable filling.  The patty is the shape of a half circle, and its color is influenced by turmeric or curry, giving it an orange or yellow tint. 

These Jamaican saltfish fritters are also known as Stamp and Go.  They are typically eaten for breakfast, but they can also be served as a snack or an appetizer. Shreds of salted fish mixed with scallions, onions, tomatoes, and garlic are incorporated into a simple batter. Black pepper, thyme and Scotch bonnet pepper  seasoning is a must.  No Stamp and Go is complete without these three. 

Jerk cooking is 100% Jamaican right down to its very core. Fragrant, savory, sweet and tenaciously hot, jerk is truly a part of Jamaica’s history.  There is a special method for cooking meats that result in this flavor, and a particular homemade sauce that is used in most instances for the incredible, spicy taste.  Often the tastiest variety is prepared in a metal drum at the roadside.  

Callaloo is one vegetable that even kids have a hard time saying no to when it is cooked just right. The green, leafy vegetable is served as a side in Jamaica with most meals, but it can also be made into a super tasty soup. Some say its flavor is comparable to that of kale, and when it’s on your plate more than likely it’s been sautéed with onions, garlic, and perhaps even scotch bonnet peppers.

Fish Escovitch [Eh-shuh-vich] begins with a fried whole fish, usually Red Snapper. It is then topped with pickled vegetables, including carrots, onions, peppers, pimentos and chayote. Jamaican Fish Escovitch is often paired with bammy and inspiration for this dish is said to have been brought to the island with Spanish Jewish settlers hundreds of years ago.

Ackee and saltfish is Jamaica’s national dish. It is made with the ackee fruit, which was imported to this region from Ghana in Africa by slaves in this territory. Now the fruit grows in abundance in Jamaica, and has become an island staple served side by side with stewed salted codfish sautéed with vegetables and other herbs and spices.  Ackee can resemble scrambled eggs when cooked. 

Jamaican festivals are a kind of deep-fried bread, typical of Jamaican cuisine.  This street food is made with cornmeal, sugar, flour, spices, milk or water.  Despite its slightly sweet taste, is served as a side dish to dishes such as jerk chicken or escovitch fish. 

Throughout the Caribbean, there are many opportunities to try this dish which is typically made by frying ripe plantains – the riper, the better. In Jamaica after the plantain is fried, it is sometimes coated with butter, and salt and pepper is sprinkled over top. You will love this with any dish.

Toto is essentially a coconut cake, which is a traditional Jamaican dessert. Its roots go back to the colonial era, when slaves often only had coconut molasses and flour to put together a meal. While the basis for this dessert remains the same, there are a few added ingredients today which have helped seal its place as a permanent fixture of Jamaican family events. 

Ting is an underrated tropical soft drink made with grapefruit concentrate. You can spice it up by using it as a base for a cocktail; it goes well with citrus vodka, and can be your go-to drink while in Jamaica. 

If you haven't already, by the time you are ready to leave Jamaica, hopefully you have had a chance to taste Red Stripe, a light-bodied, local favorite which is also available outside of Jamaica. You will also see Red Stripe Light, Red Stripe Bold and flavors including lemon and sorrel. 

A three-layered liquor drink consisting of strawberry, crème de banana, crème de menthe and overproof rum.  They also make it in a shot glass.  Don't leave Jamaica without enjoying at least one!

One of the oldest and most popular, Appleton Estate Rum started over 270 years ago in the mystical Nassau Valley with caves and underwater sources.  Other must-try brands include Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum, Hampden Estate Pure Single Jamaican Overproof Rum,  Smith & Cross Jamaica Rum, and Worthy Park Single Estate Reserve.  There are tours of select distilleries you can sign up for while in Jamaica to do taste tests, like the Appleton Estate Rum Tour. 

Rum punch is the ubiquitous party drink in Jamaica.  Most any event or large party will have punch.  Any self-respecting Jamaican can knock up a punch in minutes - but be careful, it is powerful stuff and it sneaks up on an inexperienced drinker.  Flavored syrup, overproof rum, fresh fruit juice, fresh lime - bam!  Punch is typically served chilled.   

Jamaican ginger is one of the best varieties in the world, and this is something which helps make Jamaican ginger beer stand out. Sugar, honey, and lime juice are some of the ingredients typically involved in the making of ginger beer, and if it’s done right like it is in Jamaica, it makes a great chaser for local rum.