Jamaica

🇯🇲Jamaica

Ackee and Saltfish

Boiled ackee — the soft yellow arils of the national fruit — sautéed with flaked salt cod, onion, tomato, scotch bonnet and thyme until it resembles scrambled egg.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Appleton Estate Rum

Appleton Estate

Aged pot-and-column rum from the Nassau valley in St Elizabeth, distilled on the same estate since the 1740s and sold by age statement.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Asham

A traditional Jamaican sweet snack of dried corn parched and ground with sugar and ginger, eaten as a sweet, gritty powder, of African origin.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Bammy

Flat cassava cake pressed and dried by a Taino method that predates the Spanish, soaked in coconut milk and then fried or steamed.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Banana Fritters

A Jamaican snack of ripe mashed bananas mixed with flour, sugar and nutmeg, deep-fried into golden, crisp fritters, a simple, comforting treat.

🇧🇧Barbados

Black Cake

A dark, rum-soaked fruitcake of dried fruit, brown sugar and spices, the traditional Christmas cake of Guyana and the Caribbean.

🇯🇲Blue Mountains, Jamaica

Blue Mountain Coffee

Jamaica Blue Mountain

Arabica grown between 900 and 1,700 m in the Blue Mountains, certified by origin and among the most expensive coffees in the world.

🇧🇧Barbados

Brown Stew Chicken

Chicken browned in caramelised sugar, then simmered with onion, carrot, pepper and thyme into a dark, glossy gravy.

🇪🇹Ethiopia

Bulla Cake

Bulla

Dense, dark, barely sweet round cake of flour, molasses, ginger and nutmeg, sold in packs and eaten with cheese or avocado.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Bustamante Backbone

Grated coconut boiled hard with dark sugar and ginger and set into a brittle slab, named for a famously tough prime minister.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Callaloo

Amaranth leaves steamed down with onion, tomato, thyme and scotch bonnet, eaten at breakfast with dumplings or as a side.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Cerasee Tea

Cerasee

Infusion of wild bitter melon vine, drunk as a cleansing bush tea and famously unpleasant.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Coco Bread

Folded, buttery, slightly sweet bread roll made with coconut milk, split and used to hold a beef patty.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Coconut Drops

A Jamaican sweet of grated coconut simmered in brown sugar and ginger, dropped onto banana leaves or wax paper to set, a rustic, chewy candy.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Cornmeal Porridge

Cog

A creamy Jamaican breakfast porridge of fine cornmeal simmered with milk, condensed milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla and bay leaf, a comforting morning staple.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Cow Foot

Jamaican cow foot boiled for hours with broad beans, pimento and thyme until the skin and cartilage turn gelatinous.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Curry Goat

Goat on the bone browned with Jamaican curry powder, scotch bonnet, pimento and thyme, then stewed until the meat falls off and the sauce thickens.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Duckunoo

Tie-a-leaf

A traditional Jamaican sweet pudding of sweet potato, cornmeal, coconut, brown sugar and spices, tied in a banana leaf and boiled, of Taíno and African origin.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Escovitch Fish

Whole snapper or parrotfish fried crisp and doused in a hot vinegar dressing with onion, carrot and scotch bonnet cut into strips.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Fish Tea

Thin, peppery broth boiled from fish heads and bones with pumpkin, yam and green banana, drunk from a cup before a meal.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Fried Dumpling

Johnny cake

Round of flour dough fried until it puffs and browns, split and filled with saltfish, callaloo or fried plantain for breakfast.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Gizzada

Small open tart with a pinched pastry rim holding a filling of grated coconut cooked with brown sugar, ginger and nutmeg.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Grater Cake

Grated coconut boiled with sugar and pressed into rounds, half of them dyed bright pink, sold from jars at shop counters.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Guinep

Bunches of small green-skinned fruit cracked open with the teeth to reveal a sweet-sour pink pulp around a large seed.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Hard Dough Bread

Hardo bread

Dense, slightly sweet white loaf with a fine tight crumb, sold in a waxed wrapper and eaten with jerk, saltfish and cheese.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Hominy Corn Porridge

Hominy

A traditional Jamaican breakfast porridge of dried hominy corn simmered with coconut milk, condensed milk, nutmeg and cinnamon, of Taíno origin.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Hummingbird Cake

A Jamaican layer cake made with mashed banana, crushed pineapple, and pecans or walnuts, frosted with cream cheese icing.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Irish Moss

Sea moss boiled down with milk, condensed milk, nutmeg, vanilla and sometimes stout into a thick tonic drink.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Jackass Corn

A traditional Jamaican hard biscuit of coconut, flour and sugar, baked until crisp and dry, named for its toughness, a durable, long-lasting snack.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Jamaican Chocolate Tea

Chocolate tea

A traditional Jamaican hot drink of hand-rolled cocoa balls grated and simmered with milk, water, cinnamon and nutmeg, of Taíno origin, a breakfast staple.

🇦🇮Anguilla

Jamaican Festival

Festival

Sweetened cornmeal and flour dough rolled into a finger shape and deep-fried until golden — the fixed accompaniment to jerk and fried fish.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Jamaican Ginger Beer

Ginger beer

Fresh ginger grated and steeped with lime and sugar until it turns fiercely hot, then strained and chilled.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Jamaican Patty

Patty

Half-moon of turmeric-yellow flaky pastry filled with heavily seasoned minced beef and scotch bonnet, baked and eaten from a paper bag.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Jamaican Sweet Bread

Sweet bread

A dense, moist Jamaican quick bread of flour, coconut, sugar, spices and sometimes raisins, baked into a loaf with a crisp, sweet crust, a tea-time staple.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Jerk Chicken

Chicken marinated for a day in pimento, scotch bonnet, thyme and escallion, then smoked slowly over pimento wood on a grate laid across a split oil drum.

🇯🇲Jamaican Coast, Jamaica

Jerk Pork

Pork shoulder cured in the same pimento and scotch bonnet paste and smoked over pimento wood until the outside blackens and the fat renders.