Saturday, July 4, 2009

Traditional Jamaican Food Recipes

Traditional Jamaican Food Recipes
Traditional Jamaican Foods

By: Sunil Tanna, SITE

Jamaica is an island nation in the Caribbean. Located in the Greater Antilles chain, it is in fact the most populous English-speaking island in the region. The island is particularly known for its contributions to the fields of literature, music (including ska and reggae), as being the birthplace of the Rastafarian movement, and for its interesting and exciting cuisine.

Many Jamaican dishes make use of spices, and can even be quite fiery. Jamaican dishes are not only eaten in Jamaica itself, but also have been taken overseas, particularly to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom by Jamaica emigrants - and as a result become known in those countries too.

The most famous of Jamaican dishes are probably jerk dishes. These are meat (or nowadays also fish or even tofu) that has been prepared by marinading in a mixture of hot spices (principally pimento and Scotch bell peppers) before cooking. Jerk dishes are often cooked over a charcoal barbecue grill, but when this is not possible they can be cooked in a normal kitchen oven. In Jamaica itself, the traditional meats for jerk are goat meat or pork, but overseas you may perhaps more commonly encounter jerk chicken.

There are many other Jamaican dishes that you may also want to try. These include saltfish and ackee (salted cod together with ackee which is a kind of fruit - but note, ackee must be properly prepared, as if not properly prepared it is poisonous), fried plantains, and curried goat. If you are looking for a taste of the exotic or enjoy spicy food, why not try Jamaican cuisine?