Jamaica's
history is told by the food Jamaican's eat.
.
Rich
and spicy as the pepperpot soup that originated with the Taino
Indians, Jamaican cooking is a culinary melting pot that combines
a hint of Spanish, a dash of English and a heaping teaspoon
of Indian and Chinese with a cup or two of African ingredients
to serve up the Caribbean's most creative cuisine.
Jamaica's history is told by the food Jamaicans eat. The cassava
the Arawaks grew is used today as "bammie," a toasted
flat cake eaten with fried fish. The Maroons, always on the
run, devised a way of spicing and slow cooking pork that they
called "jerking", today's visitor tastes jerk chicken
and fish as well. To feed the slaves cheaply and well, the
ackee fruit was brought from Africa, as were breadfruit and
a variety of yams and root vegetables.
The Africans carried their own culinary secrets with them,
including duckunoo, a steamed pudding made of green bananas
and coconut. Breadfruit arrived on the island courtesy of
Captain William Bligh, of Bounty fame. And the ubiquitous
meat patties sold by roadside vendors are a direct, but much
spicier, descendent of English meat pasties.
Curried goat, a popular island dish often served with rice
and peas, dates to 1845 when -- following the abolition of
slavery -- plantation owners began importing indentured laborers
from India and later China; the new arrivals quickly added
their own contributions, including curry and other spices,
to the island's expanding palette of exotic flavors.
In addition to indigenous vegetables like cho-cho, which tastes
a little like squash, and callaloo, which is similar to spinach
and used in pepperpot soup, Jamaica's lively markets are piled
high with bananas, coconuts and pineapples, as well as the
more exotic guineps, pawpaws, sweetsops -- and the star apple
that, when mixed with oranges and condensed milk, makes a
delicious dessert called "matrimony."
The native pimento tree, the source of allspice, adds itself
to numerous Jamaican dishes. So do ginger, garlic, nutmeg
and Scotch Bonnet peppers, considered the hottest on earth.
These may or not be a key ingredient of the island's famous
Pickapeppa Sauce -- the recipe is a closely guarded secret
-- but they're essential when it comes to making the mouth-searing
jerked pork, chicken and fish for which Jamaica is equally
famous.
A technique thought to originate with the Maroons, descendents
of slaves who escaped from their Spanish masters to the island's
most remote mountain areas, "jerked" meat is marinated
for hours in an incendiary mixture of peppers, pimento seeds,
scallion, thyme and nutmeg, then cooked over an outdoor pit
lined with pimento wood. The low heat allows the meat to cook
slowly, so it loses little of its natural juices while becoming
saturated with the flavor of the wood.
Jerk stands can be found all over the island. Rastafarian
I-tal, or vegetarian, meals abound in Negril. In the Middle
Quarters area of the South Coast, dried peppered shrimp are
sold by the bag. Delicacies like Stamp and Go (saltfish cakes
eaten as appetizers) and mackerel Run-Down (whole salted mackerel
simmered in coconut milk, tomatoes, onions, scallions, thyme
and hot peppers, and served with boiled green bananas or yams)
can be enjoyed island-wide.
Source:
Jamaica Tourist Board
Date:
Year 2000
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