On the Menu

If you dine at a traditionally Jamaican restaurant, look for these local favorites on the menu:

Ackee and Saltfish. For breakfast, the national dish is ackee and saltfish. Ackee is cooked and looks (and tastes) much like scrambled eggs.

Bammy. This fried bread is made from cassava flour and is served with fried fish.
Blue Drawers. See Duckanoo.

Bulla. Spicy bun.

Bun. A favorite Easter dish, bun is a spicy bread eaten with cheese.

Christmas Cake. Visit a Jamaican home near the holiday season and, along with a glass of sorrel, you'll be served Jamaican Christmas cake. This delicious confection includes raisins, cinnamon, cherries, and, for some cooks, prunes.

Coco Bread. Ah, a warm, buttered piece of coco bread and a sandy beach...no one could ask for much more than that. This heavenly bread is best right out of the oven.

Corn Pone. Cornmeal gives this pudding its name. Made with coconut, sugar and spices as well.

Cowcod soup. Another one of those infamous Jamaican aphrodisiacs, cowcod soup is usually sold at roadside stands and includes bananas, pepper and white rum.

Curried Goat. You just don't get any more Jamaican than curried goat. Look for it on any true island menu and it's especially a favorite at festivals and parties.

Cut cake. This sweet is made with diced coconut and ginger toffee.

Duckanoo. Brought from Africa, this delicious dessert is concocted with cornmeal, coconut, spices, and brown sugar. The whole works is tied up in a banana leaf (hence its other names, Blue Drawers and Tie-A-Leaf), tied, and slowly cooked in boiling water.

Escoveitch. Escoveitch is a style of cooking using vinegar, onions, and spices brought to Jamaica by the Spanish Jews. In Jamaican grocery stores you can also find bottled escoveitch sauce to make the preparation easier.

Escoveitch Fish. A contribution by the Spanish Jews who lived on the island nearly 500 years ago, this fried fish marinated with vinegar is a spicy way to enjoy the local catch.

Festival. This bread is frequently served with jerk and is similar to hush puppies.

Fish Tea. This spicy soup looks and tastes much better than it sounds. Watch out for fish bones whenyou eat this popular favorite.

Fricasseed chicken. This tasty dish begins as chicken marinated with onion, escallion, garlic, and salt and pepper. After soaking overnight, the chicken is browned in oil then stewed.

Fritters. These deep fried breads usually contain codfish or conch and are served as an appetizer.

Gizzada. This confection is a coconut tart.

Grater Cake. Another confection made from grated coconut and sugar; usually pink and white.

Hard dough or Hard dough Bread. Brought to Jamaica by the Chinese, hard dough bread has become a staple in homes today.

Ital food. Nope, it's not Italian food but Ital (eye-tal). This is the food of the Rastafarians, a vegetarian cuisine that does not have any salt. Look for the red, green, and gold Rasta colors on dining establishments as a clue to locating Ital eateries, often small restaurants.

Jerk. The most popular dish in Jamaica is jerk. The meat-pork, chicken, or fish-is marinated with a fiery mixture of spices including Scotch bonnet, a pepper that makes a jalapeno taste like a marshmallow, pimento or allspice, nutmeg, escallion, and thyme. It's all served up with even more hot sauce, rice and peas, and a wonderful bread called festival, similar to hush puppies. Jerk is one of the ultimate Jamaican dishes, dating back to the island's earliest days. The practice of cooking the meat over the flame was started by the Arawak Indians and then later seasoned up by the Maroons.

Johnny cake. Sometimes called journey cakes (since you could carry them along on your journey), these cakes are actually fried or baked breads. They're a favorite accompaniment to saltfish.

Mannish water. This soup is reportedly an aphrodisiac (along with many other Jamaican specialties.) Made from goat's head, mannish water is sometimes called power water. Often men have mannish water before drinking rum. A real rarity on restaurant menus, usually mannish water is bought at a roadside stand where you might have it with roasted yam. This spicy soup is made with goat head (some cooks include tripe and feet as well), garlic, escallion, cho-cho, green bananas, Scotch bonnet peppers, and spinners. White rum is an optional ingredient.

Matrimony. This dessert is only found on the island near Christmas. It's made using star apple, a purple apple that ripens in the winter.

Patties. The patty is to Jamaicans what the hamburger is to Americans. Ask any Jamaican and he'll tell you his favorite patty stand. The patty is actually a fried pie, dough filled with either spicy meat or occasionally vegetables. One Jamaican told us his favorite was Tastee Patties. "They are the standard by which patties are judged," the devotee swore.

Pepperpot soup. Pepperpot is indeed peppery, although the main ingredient is callaloo, giving this island favorite its green color. Along with the spinach-like callaloo, the soup includes pig's tail or salt pork (sometimes salt beef), coconut milk, okra, and plenty of spices.

Pone. A pone is pudding.

Pumpkin soup. Caribbean pumpkins are not large and sweet like their American counterparts, but small and a favorite soup ingredient.

Red pea soup. Another one of Jamaica's famous soups, this one is made from kidney beans, salted pig's tail, beef, and vegetables.

Rice and peas. This dish is found on just about every lunch and dinner plate in Jamaica. Sometimes nicknamed the Coat of Arms, the dish is rice and either peas or beans cooked up in coconut milk and spices. "A home without rice and peas and chicken on Sunday is like no home at all," said Ralph Irvin, an excellent taxi driver who escorted us around the Montego Bay area one memorable trip. "Everyone looks forward to it." Called peas and rice on other Caribbean islands, in Jamaica the preferred "pea" is the red kidney bean.

Rundown. This entree is pickled fish cooked in a seasoned coconut milk until the fish just falls apart or literally "runs down."

Solomon Gundy. This appetizer, eaten on crackers, is a pate made of pickled fish.

Spinners. These dumplings are found in soups and stews and take their name from their thin, twisted shape.

Stamp and Go. You could call them fast food or appetizers but "stamp and go" seems much more descriptive. Stamp out these little fish fritters in the kitchen, grab some for the road, and go.

Stew Peas. Another of Jamaica's soups, this one is made with either red peas or gungo peas as well as pork and coconut milk.

Tie-A-Leaf. See Duckanoo.

Turned cornmeal. Cook cornmeal in seasoned coconut milk, add in some meat, fish or vegetables if you like, and you've got this tasty dish.