What Makes Jamaican Food Special?

The sea, the surf, sun and sand, make the Jamaica a popular tourist destination. But aside from the beautiful weather, the amazing landscape and the total Jamaican experience, Jamaican food is unique and satisfying part of its existence. There is just something to be said about that great spicy Jamaican flavor!

Jamaican food is not like food from any other part of the world. The Italians have their pizza, the French their wine, rich cuisines and pastries, the English their ‘teacakes and crumpets’ and China has its dim sum, but Jamaica has its own undoubtedly unique spicy Island taste that many people appreciate. A lot of Jamaican food involves highly spiced cuisine that titillates the tongue and palate.

The Island of Jamaica is the third-largest island in Caribbean Sea, which is about 90 miles south of the region Cuba. Jamaica Island is made up of beautiful coastal lowlands, & the Blue Mountains. This region is deeply influenced on the ocean in their cuisine when it comes to tourism and cooking this influence shines through.

Many of the popular Jamaican food dishes involve ‘hot’ spices and choice ingredients, often in the form of curry and hot peppers. Jamaican cuisine offers shrimp, chicken, lamb, fish, beef and goat, as well as meats infused with the popular ‘jerk’ seasonings, making it hot, spicy and delicious. If you can stand up to the heat of Jamaican cooking, you can be in for quite a tasty experience. When you think of unique cuisine, Jamaican food is exactly that. Jamaica has its own unique variety of fruits and vegetables as well, such as callaloo (something that closely resembles spinach), Ackee is another (which is regional dish Jamaica like Saltfish ‘n Ackee), and there is also weirdly named fruit like ‘ugly fruit’, ‘star apple’ and ‘jack fruit’ the latter is used commonly in vegan cooking as a meat texture replacement. One of Jamaica’s most popular foods that has made its mark in the United States and Canada is Jamaican Beef Patty, a spicy handheld meat pie with a flaky crust.

Other Jamaican Islands have their own unique and tasty dishes as well. Jamaican food dishes like conch fritters, coconut mango chicken, Arroz Con Pollo (a Spanish-style rice and chicken dish), Jamaican Paella, and Red Pea Soup, arising from different Islands around Jamaica. The influence is spread all over the Caribbean along with dishes coming from Mexico like empanadas, burritos and enchiladas are all part of that great Jamaican taste experience. In Mexico, hot chili peppers are often part of the ingredients in many of their signature dishes as these vegetables were traded all over the island areas for generations.

As one might expect, Jamaican food often incorporates seafood into its cuisine. You can find many Jamaican recipes that include many types of fish or shellfish, such as cod fish, grouper, lobster, mackerel, crab, or even a combination of fish and shell fish as in a Boatman’s Stew, a Paella dish or a seafood chowder.

When creating a Jamaican food experience, you won’t go wrong when it comes to taste and flavor. In the Jamaica, the climate is heated up by the spicy offerings of the Jamaican food. Influences rom Cuba, to Turks and Caicos, Panama and Costa Rico, and the Cayman Islands to Mexico, Jamaican food is something everyone will enjoy.