My @Home Attempt at Raggabone's Jerk Pork / Therapy / Trip Report Preview

[NOLAnmr]

Just got home from Negril and had my first full day of work today. That was depressing so I tried my hand at this:




Seems like only a few days ago I managed to catch a bite at Red Dragon, oh wait, it was last Thursday. I gotta say, tonight's dinner was delicious. It's amazing how good food comes out when you are really into it with TLC. I put all my love and longing for Jamaica into it plus took out all of my despair of being back at work into it. Having a great infrared grill doesn't hurt either. I can honestly say that, though not fully authentic (has my personal twists to it), it could hold its own against some Jamaican Jerk. And how bout a dirty banana for dessert (drinking it now) with Sangsters Rum Cream, banana, milk, ice cream, crushed ice and Appleton Extra all in the blender topped off with some overproof (saw this @ Xtabi) and a dab of choc syrup in the glass. It was my first day back to work, and man was I bummed so I needed therapy. Anyone else treat their depression in a similiar way?

As you can tell, I do love to cook. I live in New Orleans, so I grew up with great cajun and NOLA cooking. I'm from Honduras so I definitely have a latin cooking flair, and in the past few years I've been adding Jamaican to my cooking reportoire.

One lesson I've learned from my trips to Jamaica is to bring some of the stuff I enjoy home (not ALL of the stuff b/c you can get arrested). I would always bring a little bit on previous trips. My first trip, I had a bottle of overproof bust in my luggage on my flight home. Before the luggage came out on the carousel, I could smell the smell and knew exactly what happened before any luggage came out. My senses were strong as I was totally hungover from overproof rum punches at Bourbon Beach. Needless to say, everybody was pissed because everyone's luggage reeked of overproof. I always felt bad but was able to blend in because it was everywhere and the culprit couldn't be identified. Oops! On my second trip, I had my hot sauces thrown away by MBJ airport security and then my unopened bottle of rum cream fell out of my fridge and busted all over my kitchen floor. My 13 year old akita (R.I.P. Nina) happily licked it up off the ground and got buzzed. At least she enjoyed it, I let her have at it after removing the glass. But I found that the little bits you get to enjoy at home do help. So this time I did it right. I brought home an arsenal, a liter of Sangsters, liter of Appleton Extra, bottle of JB, few bottles of Jerk, few bottles of scotch bonnet hot sauce and a couple of little Appleton and overproof bottles:



Now I'm set for a few weeks... As you can see, I've already broken in to some...

I'll follow up with a trip report soon after decompressing and my wife gets through her photos. We stayed 7 nights at Xtabi, went to friends' vow renewal ceremony at BGN, went with newbies, hung at Sunbeach on the beach, got a taste of Jamaican healthcare, saw the Sands at The Caves, went out to Alfred's and Beach Bar at night, hung with the greatest guide/driver the whole time, ate at Kuyaba, Xtabi, Ivan's, Best in The West, Ossie's, Rick's, Just Natural + others, went to Jerk Fest, went to Orange Hill, watched the Saints kick the crap out of the Giants (hehe), took the One Love Bus Pub Crawl, etc... I'll remember the rest in time. I did meet Sprat & husband briefly fresh off the plane with no sleep, met Poolguy Windsor on the pub crawl and said hi to Rob & Lisa again. Also met Sweetness at Westender Inn that was the last stop on the crawl.

More coming soon... Good night, gotta get ready for work in the morning.