Back with questions about food!

Greetings all!

It has been a busy summer and although I have been lurking around here it's been awhile since I've posted on the board or logged into the webcast chat room. With summer wrapping up and our first trip to Negril getting closer I'm sure you'll start seeing more of me.

With that said, my girlfriend asked me to post a few questions for her that I didn't know the answers to:

1. What wines are available in Negril? Mostly we are wondering what wines we would find in stores for drinking at the hotel or what wines are typically found at bars and restaurants. We're not wine snobs so we'd be happy with just about any but are curious about what we could expect.

2. What kind of fish is usually served? We've seen many pictures of fish dishes but we can't really tell what type of fish it is. It appears most fish is served whole which sort of freaks the girlfriend out a bit but I suspect she'll get over that once she has a taste.

Thanks in advance for any responses!

I like that Sling Shot Wine.....it must be good as IRIE-FM runs ads on it all the time...."It's good for the man" wink!!!

The whole fish you see is usually Snapper or Parrot fish...Both white and sweet...Ther larger Snapper is done in fillets...these they make fish and chips and many other dishes...Then you have the "slick" skinned fish such as Tuna or King fish cut into steaks and stewed or escovitch....Also many times the road side barrels stuff it with veggies and "steam-roast" it over the coals in foil...It is all wonderful...

All the fish is very very very fresh and almost always very good. Cooking methods vary from pan fried to battered and deep fried, stemed, stewed, escovitch which I would decsribe as kinda viniger flavoured (quite delicious). I'm probably missing a few cooking methods. Fish is IMHO usually the best thing on the menu. Oh...if the head freaks you out, simply ask that it be removed before serving. If you don't ask, it will surely come head attached.

Kevin...the link below is the main distributor for wines to Jamaica.

http://www.lascellesjm.com/index.php...=84&Itemid=193

The first Peruvian wines I ever ran into were in Jamaica in the mid 90's. A few years later they made it to the states. A friend likes a nice red and seems to be satisfied with a Tacama. My cousin likes a bottle with dinner and the selection seems very good at Mariposa, Catcha, Xtabi, Sunrise and Norma's,,,,,, but I will admit the norm for us is a que of rum, bowl of ice and bottle of pepsi or coke

I have always seen Yellowtail at a lot of places.

Suggest you take a ride to the grocery store called Hi Lo....there is a good selection of wines there that are OK if you arent a wine snob :). Yellowtail as mentioned and any of the Concha Y Toro wines are decent as well. I don't purchase wine at the little shops on the beach and road since its hard to tell how long they have been sitting there for (usually in the sun all day too).
If you order fish in most restaurants, head and tail arent usually included! BUT...if you are fish lovers, suggest you try some from vendors too, especially if they have "fry fish", head and tail on but the best ever.

Thanks all! You answered my questions as usual. It certainly appears finding a wine will not be an issue at all. For the most part it will be RS for me and rum "concoctions" for the GF but we'll need a break from one or other and that's were the wine comes in.

do not expect large bone free "steaks" or large fillet's................as a rule you wont get it.........we love fish such as Sea Bass and Halibut, Salmon or Ocean Perch, but fish in those sizes are normally not featured...........

But it will be "tasty" no doubt, unlike you have had before

Per restaurant, it can depend what is available that day. Jack is a nice fish for steaks. (and using the head for Fish Tea!)

I have been going to Negril for many years, and I don't eat whole fish .... childhood memories that still cause me to avoid bones...lol! When I'm not sure looking at the menu I always ask my server, whether at a fancy restaurant or at a smaller place, if I can get just fillets. Sometimes it takes a little longer, but I'm rarely charged more and usually it's "no problem". I can count the times on one hand that I haven't been accommodated. Tell your girlfriend not to worry at all.