Do you want to report "What is some of the best Jamaican food? Or food that is traditional to Jamaica?"
I plan on traveling there soon and would love to know what food I absolutely MUST try when I am there!
BREADFRUIT WAS MY FAVORITE JAMAICA DISCOVERY. Was walking down a dirt road in Negril trying to visit some markets and source out some local food for a wedding we were cooking for,, and this wonderful lady (named Lady) had a grill going on the side of the road and a table of bracelets & necklaces and she was grilling some jerk chicken and some breadfruit and selling it to anyone interested. I bought myself a plate of her chicken and breadfruit and she let me sit next to her grill and eat and she taught me all about the local produce while she prepared my plate and as she told me about the breadfruit she melted a big piece of butter over mine for me and then I popped a bite into my mouth….WOW. Blew my mind.
Wait, what? I was only speaking for myself in a shear moment of excitement. Maybe learn how to read the room a little better? I know it’s hard to read tone through text but it just seems like you’re TRYING to find something negative within my comment here.
Ackee and saltfish for sure. Run-down is another great breakfast dish. Both should be served with things like boild yam, dumpling, banana, and fry breadfruit.
Don’t overlook the soups. Mannish water, fish tea, pepperpot, red peas soup, pumpkin soup and so on are all delicious.
passion fruit juice straight from the bush, cornmeal porridge/ peanut porridge, ackee & saltfish with festival, roasted breadfruit & jack fruit from the tree, Sorrell, pig tail, fried green plantains, Guineps, spiced bun & cheese, Bulla, coconut drops, Irish Moss, true jamaican beef patties, red snapper w/ scotch bonnet (eskovitch i think its called), yam banana dumplin aka food (google calls it Hard food 🤷🏾♂️), fish & bammy, jerk pork, Callaloo & cheese, brown stew chicken, Hardo bread, Blue Mountain Coffee, Ting, Orange Peel tea, maybe Cerasee (very bitter, NOT for the faint of heart, but healthy, parents swear by it), fevergrass tea, sour sop tea (another parents one), ginger tea, tumeric tea, Biggs soda, Supligen (yes, i know… basically boost but the flavor is good imo), Jellies (baby coconuts), June plums, Nes berries (i just really want one rn…), suck suck (that’s what i remember it called, like a frozen bag you could drink from if you cut the end)
Best to keep your options open no? there are too many good foods back in Jamaica to possibly ignore any over a few “musts”.
oh yeah, Jamaican Fruit Cake is the best fruit cake 😋
Full Jamaican breakfast: ackee & saltfish, callalloo, Johnny cakes, boiled green banana, yam, breadfruit.
Peppa shrimp. Jerk chicken or jerk pork and festival. Fried fish and bammy. Stewed red peas with pig’s tails. Oxtail and rice. Brown stew chicken. Curry goat and white rice. Drum pan chicken.
Plantain in any form - roast, fried, or boiled.
Patties and cocoa bread. Bulla and avocado pear. Bun and cheese. Sweet potato pudding. Cornmeal pudding.
Ting and Kola champagne. Peanut punch. Sorell. Red Stripe. Appleton. Wray & Nephew Overproof whites.
Haha, it’s a rare one! My great grandmother would make it all the time. It’s regular rice and peas but it’s made with Jerusalem peas instead of kidney beans. It’s so good, the peas are really tiny but I loved it when she would make it. It’s more commonly cooked in Christmas time. Here is a video of it being talked about https://youtu.be/nOcaugtlPI8
ackee and saltfish, jerk chicken, curry goat, rice and peas, I feel like the answers are so obvious so I’m linking to a youtube page that has more discussion / visuals
https://www.youtube.com/c/JamaicaFoodBoss/videos
There’s too much to list, I’d say ensure to befriend a local and have them carry you to their favourite spots. My personal favourites are Oxtail and also Conch Soup. For pastry ensure that you try Devon House Shrimp Patty.
Ooh, jerk in all it’s forms, jerk pork and chicken is sooo good, food of the gods. My other go to meal is fried chicken, fried dumplings with plantain and a little stew gravy and steamed veg to go with it. I properly love dumplings so will take them any way they come, fried, or boiled with hard food (yam/green banana etc), especially good with a nice stew (such as brown stew chicken). Never had a chance to try it but red pea soup is on my list, looks delicious. As a Brit with limited access to exotic fruit, I adore Jamaican fruit and am always flabbergasted by the choice! Soursop, sweetsop, guinep, mango, star apple, June plum, my tiny mind was blown with the natural deliciousness of it all! I also love Jamaican bread pudding for a sweet treat. Drinks wise, pineapple punch, Guinness punch and a lemon or sorrel red stripe go down nicely on a hot day, plus juices made from those yummy fruits.
Breadfruit (roast or fried), jerk pork, jerk chicken (not oven baked chicken with jerk seasoning. That’s not jerk chicken 🙄), curry goat, Manish water, stew peas, turn cornmeal, dumplings (boiled or fried), bammy.
