MENU GLOSSARY


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Entrees, regardless of the meal, are served with rice ‘n peas or “cooked food.”
If you want to keep it light, ask for your meal to be served with just vegetables. Chances are you will get callaloo or cooked cabbage.

--Ackee and saltfish: The national breakfast dish is ackee and saltfish (cod). The ackee fruit is bright red. When ripe, it bursts open to reveal three large black seeds and bright yellow flesh.
--Bammy: fried bread made from cassava flour and served with fried fish
--Breadfruit: starchy, large, green fruit with a pebbly green skin and potato-like flesh, typically served like squash--baked, grilled, fried, boiled or roasted
--Callaloo: a spinach-like, green, leafy vegetable, but not as gritty
--Cooked food: boiled banana, fried plantain, yam, and dumpling
--Escovitch: Spanish for "pickled." It usually refers to fresh fish that is fried and then pickled in vinegar, spices, hot peppers and oil.
--Festival: fried dumpling similar to hush puppies
Fish tea: spicy soup (like a fish bouillon) – watch out for fish bones!
--Fritters: deep-fried breads that usually contain codfish or conch
--Gizzada: coconut tart
--Hard dough bread: brought to Jamaica by the Chinese, hard dough bread is very dense and served with jerk chicken
--Ital: food of the Rastafarians, a vegetarian cuisine that does not use salt
--Johnny cakes: fried or baked breads, oftentimes served with saltfish
--Mannish water: spicy soup sometimes called power water, made from goats’ heads (some cooks include tripe and feet as well), garlic, scallions, cho-cho, green bananas, Scotch bonnet peppers and spinners (dumplings). White rum is an optional ingredient.
--Pepperpot soup: This soup is indeed peppery, although the main ingredient is callaloo, which gives its green color. Along with callaloo, it includes pig tails or salt pork (sometimes salt beef), coconut milk, okra and plenty of spices.
--Pumpkin soup: Caribbean pumpkins are not large and sweet like their American counterparts, but small and a favorite soup ingredient.
--Red pea soup: made from kidney beans, salted pig tails, beef and vegetables
--Rice ‘n peas: This dish is sometimes called the Coat of Arms. It features rice and either peas or beans, cooked in coconut milk and spices
--Scotch bonnet peppers: a pepper that puts the jalapeno to shame
--Yam: not to be confused with the Southern Sweet yam or potato, similar to the potato, but nuttier in flavor, served boiled, mashed or baked

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JERK


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~ A category worthy of being all on its own!

Jerk is a style of cooking native to Jamaica in which meats are dry-rubbed with a fiery spice mixture called Jamaican jerk spice. Jerk seasoning principally relies upon two items: allspice (Jamaican Pimento) and Scotch Bonnet peppers (among the hottest peppers on the Scoville scale). Other ingredients include cloves, cinnamon, scallions, nutmeg, thyme, garlic, which is mixed together to form a marinade which is rubbed onto pork, chicken, or fish. Jerk chicken, pork, or fish is said to be at its best when barbecued over aromatic wood charcoal or briquettes. Pimento (allspice) wood or berries placed over coals give Jerk its authentic flavor.

Jerking has evolved over time from pit fires to old oil barrel halves as the container of choice. In about the 1960s, Jamaican entrepreneurs sought to recreate the smoked pit flavor, and relatively quickly came up with a solution. The solution was to cut oil barrels lengthwise and attach hinges, drilling several ventilation holes for the smoke. These barrels are often heated by layers of charcoal, which some say lends itself to making the burnt smokey taste.
Street-side "jerk stands" are most frequently found on the side of the road. Jerked meat, usually chicken or pork, can be purchased along with Hard Dough or Jamaican fried dumpling served as a side. The starches in the breads lend themselves to counteracting the powerful pepper of the jerk. Recipes for Jamaican jerk spice vary, and it is often debated around jerk stands about which chef's secret recipe of spices and herbs makes the best Jerk seasoning.
Note: Your chicken will be served to go, in tinfoil, with very spicy extra sauce on the side and hard dough bread.

Our favorite Jerk Pits!
--Bourbon Beach (formerly known as DeBuss, two down from Bar B Barn): A rite of passage in Negril, Bourbon Beach’s jerk chicken is usually ready by late afternoon and open very late into the night since the rum and Red Stripes flow into the evening with live reggae shows three nights per week. It’s a short walk from Beach House Villas and you can easily get your food wrapped in tinfoil to go. You can purchase french fries separately. 957-4405
--Boston Jerk: side of the road barrel, across from Legends Hotel
--Best in the West (across from Coco La Palm): You can sit and eat there or get it to go. Mikey’s Grocery sells Juici patties next door and Jamaica Jane Gift Shop is a few more steps away.
--3 Dives (West End, next to Xtabi): picnic tables, known for lobster dinners/jerk and a long wait for your food, draws a sunset dinner crowd
--Smokey Joe’s: across from Kuyaba

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