Jamaican gastronomy is a part of our history and our cultural heritage. Our gastronomy is a unique blend of flavors, spices, ingredients, and recipes that have been carried to the islands by various waves of migration to Jamaica. It is the recipes, the method of food preparation, and the types of food that have been eaten, enjoyed, and adapted over centuries. 

The era of colonization and slavery violently undid and remade the society of Jamaica, including it’s culinary practices. Enslaved Jamaicans developed many of our beloved foods out of extreme necessity, and applied the traditional methods of their homelands to new ingredients. Many of our dishes are made with the cheaper cuts of meat such as the extremities of an animal: the tail, foot, head or offal. These are generally slow-cooked stews or braises, with beans and spinners (finger-like dumplings) and served with rice and peas, or with various tubers, or roasted breadfruit. Salted fish or salted meat is also an integral part of Jamaica’s gastronomy. Salted fish was brought to the islands on the return voyage of the slave ships and banana boats because it could last the voyage. Many of our dishes also involve cooking with coconut milk. These rich stews made with vegetables, beans, or fish are called “Run Down” and come from the African method of cooking with coconut milk, where the coconut milk is reduced, or “oiled down” to a thick, custard-like consistency.

Photos by Robin Lim Lumsden

Preserving Jamaica’s gastronomy has many tangible benefits for our health and our planet. Eating food that is largely plant-based and minimally processed is vital for properly satisfying our dietary needs. We are blessed with a wonderful climate in which to grow produce and raise animals. It is important to support the Jamaican agriculture sector, but it is also lighter on the planet to prioritize eating food that doesn’t have to be shipped thousands of miles to get here. Showcasing our local produce in our unique cuisine is also important to the economy in other ways. The world travel organization claims that over half of the people who travel for leisure also travel to experience a country’s gastronomy. In a place like Jamaica which relies heavily on tourism, food tourism is important. There is also an enormous appetite among local foodies for new experiences that use and re-imagine our cuisine, as shown by the recent, runaway successes of operations such as “Stush in the Bush“, which serves creative, vegetarian fare.

Examples of tropical fruit and vegetables grown in Jamaica. Photographs by Robin Lim Lumsden

Traditional ways of preparing food minimized food waste, for example, by using every part of an animal slaughtered for consumption. Cow foot, cow skin cooked with broad beans, and corned cow tongue were common Jamaican delicacies a generation ago and are hardly ever eaten now. Similarly, there are many examples of fresh produce (fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices) that are coming back into vogue or being reexamined. Some of these are the cassava as an alternative flour, green Jackfruit and its seeds, susumbers, the heart of the coconut, and moringa leaves. Breadfruit, a plant brought to the island by Captain Bligh and which bears a bread-tasting fruit, is one of the unsung heroes of our cuisine that is being given more attention recently because of its nutritional properties and the fact that it is gluten-free. More ways of eating breadfruit and making value-added products, such as breadfruit flour, are being developed. “Trees that Feed” is an organization that was started by Jamaican philanthropist Mary McLaughlin to promote growing fruit trees like breadfruit around the world to address critical problems such as food scarcity born of the unfolding climate crisis.

Our dishes, like our people, are “a mix-up mash-up “; a rich cultural stew.  Jamaican gastronomy is as much a mixture of food traditions as is the makeup of our country’s ethnicities.  When I was writing the Belcour Cookbook, I thought about each recipe, where it came from, and how many different cultures were reflected in each dish I loved. My Chinese father used to remark that our beloved hard dough bread was very similar to the mantou bread he ate in his youth, and it is an interesting fact that most bakeries in Jamaica are owned by members of the Jamaican-Chinese community. Patties are a national fast food, and are more than likely a derivative of an English pasty, but with a spicy beef filling and sometimes with curried chicken inside. Another great example of our food being a reflection of our cultural integration is our national dish: ackee, and saltfish. Ackee is a fruit brought to Jamaica from West Africa and salted cod (saltfish, bacalao) has been imported to our shores from Scandinavia for centuries.

The photographs above are by Cookie Kinkaed were taken from the book Nyam Jamaica the best food travel log chronicling traditional Jamaican food around the island.  I am on the left in the middle discussing our Belcour Products with Norma Shirley food doyen and Nyam Jamaica cookbook author Rosemary Parkinson. On the right is Vincent Chang managing director of Tastee Jamaica Ltd., the largest patty franchise in Jamaica and perhaps the world.

Home cooking. On the left fried Breadfruit, stew peas rundown, and avocado on the right beef and corn soup is mostly made with beef bones and often served with slices of avocado pieces of corn, and slices of buttered hard-dough bread.

As a cook, I  have set out to learn some more esoteric traditional recipes that constitute Jamaica’s gastronomy but are seldom seen today. I was discussing traditional dishes and methods of food preparation with an amazing cook Lin Palmer. She shared with me the recipes for cow foot with beans, a dish our father loved, and how to make ducanou (or Blue Draws) which is a cornmeal pone with raisins, nutmeg and cinnamon. It is similar to a tamale because it is wrapped and steamed in a banana leaf. Everyone has an auntie or grandma who made some of these traditional recipes, my own grandmother made things like corned beef, cow tongue, and tamarind balls. At the same time, it can be difficult to find someone who knows old recipes and even harder to find people who are available to teach you how to make them.

I asked Lin why she had never mentioned how to cook some of these old-time recipes to me and she said she didn’t think I would want to learn them because they were “poor people’s food” and it wasn’t good enough to be thought of as “gourmet”. Food is also a gateway to memory and, unfortunately, our gastronomy is often a reminder of a painful past. While it is important to be sensitive around these topics, I believe all of our dishes are worthy of examination and appreciation. I never forget Norma Shirley saying that one of our traditional and ubiquitous dishes, stew peas run down (red beans cooked in coconut milk and sometimes made with salted pigtails) can be presented as a “gourmet” dish, if the pigtail is removed. Norma was the first generation of Jamaican chefs who recognized that preparing traditional Jamaican fare with a fresh perspective could raise them to the level of haute cuisine when served with her special panache.  

Lin Palmer is pictured on the left. The photograph of rice and peas on the right was taken from Nyam Jamaica.

So here are some common examples of traditional Jamaican gastronomy that, in my opinion, are as good as any dishes considered as being “gourmet fare” anywhere in the world.

Our national dish, Ackee and Salt Fish (salted cod) served alongside boiled starches and slices of roasted breadfruit.

Fricassee chicken (a braise) with the rich gravy poured all over rice and peas (rice made with coconut milk and beans) also known as Jamaica’s Coat of Arms and is standard at Jamaican Sunday lunch.

Oxtail with its succulent, fall-off-the-bone meat, broad beans, and gnocchi-like dumplings is a sublime combination.

Corned Pork, roast crispy pork, and of course or famous Jerk Pork all make the grade of gourmet Jamaican gastronomy.  Jerk pork is now a world-famous Jamaican dish and when served right off the fire, with lots and lots of the Scotch Bonnet vinaigrette, hot hard dough bread or roasted sweet potatoes is mouth-wateringly good. It is worth noting that our crispy pork with the crackling is probably a Jamaican adaptation of Chinese Crispy Pork belly.

Jamaican curried goat, lobster, or shrimp was brought by East Indian immigrants. Jamaican curry is a distinct blend of spices some of which are used in Indian curries.

For seafood lovers, oysters are shucked and served with a special Jamaican oyster sauce made with hot peppers, honey, vinegar, and pimentoes, which has to be one of my favorites and is as good as oysters served anywhere in the world.

The more ubiquitous steamed fish is similar to Cantonese steam fish with scallion and soy sauce, but here pieces of pumpkin and okra are added to it and it is served with soft, steamed “bammy” – a traditional bread made from cassava, first cultivated by the indigenous people of Jamaica, that is fried, baked or steamed.

Fried fish and fried lobster served with escovitch sauce made from pickled onions, scotch-bonnet peppers, carrots, and pimento berries in vinegar , originally thought to have come from Spain, could be a candidate for a “Last Supper”. The fish with its crisp skin and white flaky flesh inside, slightly salty and served with bammy or festivals (similar to beignets made from cornmeal) and washed down with a cold Red Stripe is, well, sublime.

There are many more examples of  Jamaican gastronomy that are common dishes that in my opinion constitute “gourmet food”. It is up to us to preserve our culinary heritage. It is up to our chefs to figure out how to incorporate Jamaican gastronomy with cosmopolitan influences and present them beautifully in a more modern way.

Fried lobster tails on the left and fried fish escovitch on the right with onion, carrot pickle, and festivals – fried cornmeal bread and fried green plantains (tostones).

When my niece comes home from University the first thing she asks me is “Auntie Rob when can you make some jiaozi for us?” Eating dumplings together as a family has been a tradition of ours for three generations. This was introduced by our father, who was Chinese and who migrated from China to the US in 1942. In 1956 he immigrated to Jamaica, where he met and married my mother. I am the first of their four offspring and I love to cook. 

Our father was sixteen when he left China. His godmother, Gan Ma, who had looked after Dad during the war, and her family also relocated to the US. Dad’s father was head of the Chinese Red Cross so he stayed in China until the Communists took over.

One of Dad’s vivid childhood memories was of Gan Ma making a hundred jiaozi just for him, although we always thought that was a bit of an exaggeration. I believe it was Gan Ma’s way of showing her love for him, and the memory stayed with him throughout his life. He had lost his mother the year before the Japanese invaded Beijing. Gan Ma had three girls of her own, but during WW2, she acquired two more charges: my father and his sister whom she looked after for the duration of the conflict.

Gan Ma and Daddy had a very special bond. Gan Ma, her daughters, and their families were a large part of our life growing up. They were his only family in the US and were his connection to his life in China. Whenever we visited them in the US they would all speak mandarin, especially when they didn’t want us, children, to understand. We would spend wonderful times together and eat delicious Chinese food that Ga Ma had prepared.

We learned to make jiaozi from Gan Ma when she visited us in Jamaican.  I was a child at the time and she was quite old. I don’t remember having many conversations with Ga Ma, but I remember that she was kind and quiet. I remember she picked our Jasmine flowers and made tea with them, she was skillful with a Chinese cleaver, and she really loved our Dad. I think teaching my mother how to cook a few authentic Chinese dishes that our father loved was probably her way of ensuring that Mum would continue to make them for him. Dad said he knew that Ga Ma had accepted Mum when she started speaking to Mum in Mandarin, although Mum did not speak one word of Mandarin.

Gan Ma would sit in the kitchen and show us how to make jiaozi, similar to how I have taught my nieces. She taught us how to use the egg white like glue to seal them so they didn’t open up while boiling, pleating the edges and curving them around like a crab. In those days we made the wrappers from scratch and it was hard to get them thin enough and it took forever. Now, of course, you can buy the skins in supermarkets and they are much easier to handle. I still prefer to make the filling of the pork mince and cabbage myself and use the store-bought skins for convenience. 

Even when you use store-bought skins, however, it still takes the better part of an afternoon to make the jiaozi for a group. So invite some friends and family over and put them to work! It’s fun sitting with a few people chatting, drinking, and laughing while making the dumplings. I suspect that this is an age-old practice, and I mean thousands of years old!

Our favourite way to serve jiaozi is to boil them in soup for about 12 minutes and scoop them out with a slotted spoon and gently put them in individual bowls. I serve the Jiaozi with small side bowls of dipping sauce made from soy, vinegar, Guiyang hot chili sauce. 

I prefer the pork jiaozi, but I have also made both the chicken and vegetarian ones and they are also delicious. My husband calls my chicken jiaozi in Jamaican chicken and corn soup my Jewish-Chinese-Jamaican fusion dish. 

My youngest sister and I visited China with our father in 2000. It was a nostalgic experience for our father, and deeply moving for us because our father hadn’t been back to China for over 60 years. We went to Xian and saw the Terra Cotta warriors and learned how a ruthless emperor had buried 40,000 workers alive after they toiled for 10 years carving thousands of warriors just so they could guard him in his afterlife. One of my most vivid memories of Xian, however, is going to a nondescript restaurant that served only jiaozi. The carts of different jiaozi just kept coming around in bamboo steamers and we gleefully tucked in. We washed them down with beer and when we were full we took the leftovers in black plastic bags back to the hotel. Even when cold they were delicious with a cup of tea.

Our family tradition of making and eating jiaozi, and other Chinese dishes that Gan Ma taught us, reminds us of our father and the memories he shared with us of our Grandfather and Grandmother and of growing up in Beijing. A tradition of spending Thanksgiving with Gan Ma’s family keeps those bonds and memories alive. These small little dumplings have been an expression of love, family and friendship, which I am sure will be carried on by future generations of our family.

– Robin

Naomi Cowan’s recent single “Energy” is a bop. Even though it was released a few months ago, it feels like a perfect summer tune. LA Weekly describes it as “a bouncy, cheerful, reggae-tinged soul anthem that praises the virtues of protecting your light and not letting anyone of anything dim it.”

When her team approached us to ask if they could use the cottage as a location for the music video, we were more than happy to say yes. Naomi and her amazing team spent a day exploring the property and and another day setting up the shoot. The filming went into the night. We didn’t know what to expect, but we were excited. The finished video a is delightful, sultry, technicolor dreamscape. We’ve never seen the cottage like this! The team covered everything in lights. Even our old rocker got some love.

Energy was produced by Izy Beats and the video was directed by Kia Moses.

Of course we had to give Naomi and the team some complementary Belcour Products!

So cool when a “young person” I met with my boys on a tennis camp trip so many years ago, becomes a chef and likes my cookbook. Thanks Christopher Fowler for the big up. Next time you’re home let’s cook together! Love that you’re adding your twist to the recipe by adding the rum. (You’re making me think that you could simmer the raisins in rum and then add them). Recipes are passed down through generations and are constantly evolving, particularly now when the world is becoming more of a melting pot of cultures. Experimentation can also yield some unexpectedly great results. Naturally, the converse is also true as my dogs can testify to being the fortunate recipients of many a kitchen disaster. Keep making recipes your own and you will create some brilliant ones and you will pass them down to the next generation too.

A good Banana bread recipe is essential in your repertoire. We’re also in for a very hot summer and bananas ripe really quickly so this is one of the best things to do with squishy bananas that everyone will enjoy. I put chopped dates (instead of raisins) in mine and the nuts too, either pecans or walnuts roughly chopped as you did, if I have them in my cupboard. If I’m feeling healthy I’ll add a tablespoon of wheat germ too. I use half brown and half white sugar and cream it for a little longer. I love to eat banana bread steaming hot. Ooh on a rainy afternoon with a cuppa tea. Delish. If you have bananas spoiling, freeze them (skin-on) so you can also use them for smoothies and banana fritters, etc. Please try the banana cake recipe in the book too. It was Mummy’s and it’s a really good one if I say so myself. I think you’ll like it.

I hope it may be helpful for those of you trying to equip an efficient kitchen and for someone who loves to entertain. The list should give first-time home cooks some tips on what to collect and also give suggestions for couples when making their bridal registry.

A Kitchen Aid should definitely be on the bridal registry and a professional knife set, with carving and/or cake knife. A set of good stainless steel pots should also be on the list. I got a beautiful cake knife as a wedding present (I believe from Tiffany’s) and have used it hundreds of times over the years.

In one of my next blogs, I will list the essential products and ingredients I have in my kitchen cupboards such as (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), dijon, red wine vinegar, Belcour Honey Mustard Pepper, Oyster and Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce etc.

Essential cooking utensils and cooking aids in my Kitchen

• A good set of knives imperative, a carving knife and fork, knife sharpener
• 2 pairs of scissors
• A garlic press, lime squeezer, an opener, carrot peeler
• food processor – big and little and a sturdy blender
• A Kitchen Aid
• A Cast Iron Skillet
• Graters- including zesters from citrus and nutmeg and ginger
• A Wok and Chinese Steamer and cleaver and at least one pair of chopsticks
• Cake cover, cake stand, and cake cutting knife
• Salad bowl, gravy bowl with serving utensils
• Plastic, parchment, and foil paper
• Stockpot and rice, extra small pots, extra small saucepans including the entire stainless steel pot and pan set,  a nonstick pan
• Comfy shoes and a recipe book stand
• Soup ladle, wooden spoons, slotted spoons
• Potato crusher and Mallett, tongs big and small rack for grilling
• Cookbook Stand and surgical gloves – I use them to handle meat
• Cutting boards at least 3 and mats to put hot things on
• Spice rack and Coffee and Spice grinder and black pepper
• Trays – at least 2 Olive Oil, salad dressing, and Honey pouring bottles
• A thermometer and a scale
• Pyrex dishes including pies and bread dishes and serving platters
• Bundt pan and cake pans and pastry roller
• Measuring cups and spoons – both plastic and glass
• Strainers-all sizes and colanders and lettuce spinner
• Spatulas – different types and brush and slotted spoons
• Bowls – Stainless steel and some plastic large and small bowls too
• Salad dressing container – pretty and a plastic storage one
• Tupperware – big tiny and medium
• Mits and towels including lots of paper towels
• A notepad and pen
• A bottle of wine and some music, my cell phone, and of course, a Belcour Cookbook.
• The excellent book SALTFAT ACIDHEAT BY SAMIN NOSRAT is also a great gift for any cook. I  got it last Christmas and I noticed that the book had a nifty picture of their recommended kitchen essentials. The list is very similar to mine. Here it is.

As Action Bronson’s presence in the “Food World” becomes more permanent, new and diverse opportunities are popping up for the self-proclaimed “Human Highlight Reel.” This time, it appeared in the most beautiful location possible: Goldeneye Resort, located in Oracabessa, Jamaica at the NyamJam culinary festival.

See this video and more at Vice Munchies