Trade Secrets?

[M&G Montreal]

I notice on here and on FB, there are a lot of people who have Jamaica parties or BBQ's back home - off island, if you will. We do, too! We just had the 4th Annual Jamadian Reggae BBQ. I think we have more Reggae BBQ decorations than we do Christmas decorations - and we have tons of them!

I would love to trade ideas, and stuff for what you do in your neck of the woods for this occasion! I'd love to know what other people decorate with, what they cook, how they cook it .... Jerk 'n Stripe Wisconsin Style got me started on this, so blame him! Great stuff, BTW!

Is there anything in Ja that you specifically bring back for your partay?
Is there anything particular you serve??
Is there a special way you do your Jerk Chicken? (cause I'm betting we ALL serve jerk ...)
How do you get around the hot versus not hot in the jerk for all your guests?
Fun games you may play? (we did night bowling this year ... the kids loved it!)

This year, we had an old gazebo that was being chucked out, and we turned it into Da Bar Nord (North)! It was awesome! It was also the first time we actually smoked the chicken and pork with pimento wood chips on charcoal - awesome. We always have Red Strip and Rum ... and Reggae music. We brought in from a local Jamaican resto festival, plantain, and fish cakes (uber good!). The owner delivered everything and stayed awhile and told us our Jerk was really, really good! But we needed to pierce the chicken more. (more? we never did that at all!!) Our BBQ Beeotches have special Bob Marley T's they wear when cooking!

Anybody willing to share ideas, recipes, thoughts,?????

I'd love to hear them, and I am hoping that there are enough interested people out there to get this going well!

Bring it on .....

[nutz4travel]

Great thread M&G!

While we don't host a party, I do make Jerk Chicken on my smoker. Still trying to perfect it, but last time was really good. I smoked the chicken (using pimento wood charcoal) on a bed of soaked bay leaves and pimento wood chips. Even if it doesn't taste authentic, at least it smells like Jamaica when it's cooking

[Mike_D]

I usually bring home a couple bottles (actually jars) of Best in the West Jerk Sauce. Good stuff! On our next trip I want to grab some of Eddie's granny sauce from De Bar. You typically have to give him a heads-up and he will prepare a bottle for you that you can pick-up later. Best in the West always has it readily available, so I usually have my driver stop there on the way back to the airport.

[Patricia]

We load up on a variety of spices from Valu-Master & bring home a bag of pimento seeds, leaves & wood for our grilling pleasure....

[Jamadian]

We're lucky enough to have 4 or 5 really good Jamaican friends that work for a farm nearby. We get together 3 or 4 times in the summer. We were at a party at their place two weeks ago where they cooked up traditional Jamaican dishes like Jerk Pork, rice and beans, callaloo and fried chicken and curry chicken. Sunshine (one of our Jamaican friends with a gold tooth, hence sunshine) has his own recipe for jerk which is fantastic. He cooks it on an old drum that’s been cut in half with a grate added. He used charcoal and wood pimento chips.
They love their music and they love it loud. Jamaicans come from many farms around the area, there were at least 70 there by dusk. We took a game over called monkey golf and the Jamaicans couldn’t stop playing it even into darkness. I’ve ordered a game that glows in the dark for Sunshine to take back home with him in October.
Sorry M&G for not sharing recipes but an idea would be for our Jamaican friends and us to hop in a van and visit your backyard party to give it more of a Jamaican feel…

[M&G Montreal]

Thanks, guys! This is great! Jamadian, you're on! I'll let you know the date for next summer's BBQ! That would, actually, be fun! I don't suppose there's a guy called Blake or Minister in that group ... have an old friend from Mobay who works summers on a farm (flowers I think) somewhere outside of London. But far outside of London. You never know!

There seems to be a repeating message here - pimento, pimento, pimento!

I don't know if that worked. It's Da Bar Nord!

Keep it coming

Any particular spices or wet sauce you guys get? Best in the West! I had no idea they sold theirs! AWESOME! In the green book of stuff to do for next year!
2nutz - you aren't far for next year! Jamadian can pick you up!

[M&G Montreal]

Oh. It worked. Twice. Sorry! YAY! I uploaded a picture without any help! I'm so proud of me.

Rob - watch out! I'm so gifted technically! LOL!

[nutz4travel]

LOL no, we're not far, could probably arrange to be hanging out at the side of the 401 around Prescott so that Jamadian can pick us up Red Stripe in hand...

[M&G Montreal]

2nuts - you gotta read the highway code better. I believe it's written in (in crayon) that it's illegal in Canada to drive further than 30 minutes without beer in the vehicle! And a Tim Horton's coffee. Bare minimum survival kit, guys! Of course Jamadian will have beer (although you may want to specify Red Stripe - but Jamadian is cool .... he' Cama, Jama - Jamadian! He knows the rules!) I will be so embarrassed if Jamadia is a her .. that is soooo not me) And our Red Stripe is made in JA! Jamadian - just bring rum. Oh crap! You are both so coming .. LCBO has Wray and Nephew OVERPROOF! Will pay a premium! This will be AWESOME!

[Chris B]

We've come up with a tasty beach concoction that we call the "Almond Joy". Suffice to say you'll need a blender and ice, and copious amounts of coconut rum, almond liqueur, milk (cow's or almond), and Sangsters Rum Cream.

Blend all the goodies together except the Sangsters... that gets poured over the top as a yummy finish when served.

If you can find it, there is a product out there (at last here in Wisconsin) called Tippy Cow Rum Cream in their vanilla soft serve flavor that we've used as a substitute for all or part of the milk.

Mix 'm up and enjoy responsibly... We may not drive on the Rock, but we do here!