Ackee and saltfish
The national breakfast dish is ackee and saltfish.
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Bammy
This fried bread is made from cassava flour and is served with fried fish.
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Bulla
A spicy bun.
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Bun
A favorite Easter dish, bun is a spicy bread eaten with cheese.
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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.
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Corn pone
Cornmeal gives this pudding its name. It’s made with coconut, sugar and spices.
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Cowcod soup
Another one of those infamous Jamaican aphrodisiacs, cowcod soup is usually sold at roadside stands and includes bananas, pepper and white rum.
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Curried goat
You just don’t get any more Jamaican than curried goat. Look for it on any traditional island menu. It’s especially popular at festivals and parties.
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Cut cake
This sweet cake is made with diced coconut and ginger toffee.
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Escovitch
Escovitch 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 escovitch sauce to make the preparation easier.
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Escovitch 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.
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Festival
This bread is frequently served with jerk and is similar to hush puppies.
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Fish tea
This spicy soup looks and tastes much better than it sounds. Like a fish bouillon, this broth captures the taste of the sea. Watch out for fish bones when you eat this popular favorite.
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Fritters
These deep-fried breads usually contain codfish or conch and are served as an appetizer.
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Gizzada
A coconut tart. Hard dough, or hard dough bread - Brought to Jamaica by the Chinese, hard dough bread has become a staple in homes today.
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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 make use of salt. Look for the red, green and gold Rasta colors on dining establishments as a clue to locating Ital eateries, which are often quite small.
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Jerk
The most popular dish in Jamaica is jerk. The main ingredient – pork, chicken or fish – is marinated with a fiery mixture of spices, including Scotch bonnet, a pepper that makes a jalapeño taste like a marshmallow, pimento or allspice, nutmeg and thyme. It’s all served up with even more hot sauce, rice and peas, and the wonderful festival bread (see above). 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.
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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.
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Mannish water
This spicy soup is reportedly an aphrodisiac (along with many other Jamaican specialties). Mannish water is sometimes called power water, and is made from goats’ heads (some cooks include tripe and feet as well), garlic, scallions, cho-cho, green bananas, Scotch bonnet peppers and spinners. White rum is an optional ingredient. Often, men enjoy mannish water before drinking rum, but this item is a rarity on restaurant menus – it’s usually sold at roadside stands, along with roasted yam.
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Matrimony
This dessert is available only near Christmas time. It’s made from purple star apples, which ripen in the winter.
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Patties
The patty is to Jamaicans what the hamburger is to Americans. Ask any Jamaican and he’ll tell you his favorite patty stand. This fried pie is filled with either spicy meat or, occasionally, vegetables.
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Pepperpot soup
Pepperpot is indeed peppery, although the main ingredient is callaloo, which gives this island favorite its green color. Along with the spinach-like callaloo, the soup includes pig tails or salt pork (sometimes salt beef), coconut milk, okra and plenty of spices.
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Pone
A pone is pudding.
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Pumpkin soup
Caribbean pumpkins are not large and sweet like their American counterparts, but small and a favorite soup ingredient.
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Red peas soup
Another one of Jamaica’s famous soups, this one is made from kidney beans, salted pig tails, beef and vegetables.
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Rice and peas
This dish is found on just about every lunch and dinner plate and is sometimes nicknamed the Coat of Arms. It features rice and either peas or beans are cooked in coconut milk and spices (in Jamaica the preferred “pea” is the red kidney bean). “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.”
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Rundown
This entrée is pickled fish cooked in a seasoned coconut milk until the fish just falls apart or literally “runs down.”
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Solomon gundy
This appetizer, eaten on crackers, is a pâté whose main ingredient is pickled fish.
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Spinners
These dumplings are found in soups and stews and take their name from their thin, twisted shape.
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Stamp and go
You could call them fast food or appetizers, but “stamp and go” seems much more colorful. Stamp out these little fish fritters in the kitchen, grab some for the road, and go.
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Stew peas
Made with either red peas or gungo peas, this soup also includes pork and coconut milk.
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Tie-a-Leaf
See Duckanoo (above).
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