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On Location: Eating Local on Jamaica
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Where to satisfy your craving for all things Jamaican
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BY TERRY WARD
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An oceanside cottage at the Negril resort Citronella; jerk chicken at the Sky Beach Bar & Seafood Grill.
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Ward’s pantry shelves are often overflowing with items bought during visits to Jamaica—Busha Browne’s hot pepper jelly, Eaton’s Boston Bay jerk seasoning, Pickapeppa mango sauce. On her last trip, to research the feature in our Winter 2011 issue, she asked the Jamaicans she met where to find the best eats, from the person pumping gas into her rental car to the captain of a snorkeling boat.
DAY’S CATCH
It was the marketing director at Half Moon resort (halfmoon.rockresorts.com) who turned me on to Sky Beach Bar & Seafood Grill (876-956-5006; dinner for two, $25*), an oceanfront restaurant in Hopewell, just west of Montego Bay. Each table sits in its own palapa (thatched palm) hut, and the parrotfish, steamed with okra, had been speared just that morning. The beautiful pink and white shells scattered about the rocky beach could well have been the former homes of the tender meat in my conch fritters.
DO YOU WANT YAMS WITH THAT?
While picking up a few groceries for my cottage kitchen at Citronella in Negril (citronellajamaica.com), I asked the checkout clerk where to get an authentic Jamaican breakfast. She recommended Juicy J’s (on Negril Square, behind the Scotia Bank; 876-957-4213), an A-frame shack decorated with photos of Obama and Jamaican tourism posters. An enormous breakfast of ackee fruit with saltfish (dried cod), green bananas and yams—grand total, $4—fortified me for a day of cliff jumping on the West End.
SHRIMP LOVER’S DELIGHT
During the lovely day I spent in the farm community of Beeston Spring with Countrystyle Community Tours (countrystylecommunitytourism.com), I was invited into a home to sample some pineapple cake spiced with ginger. The same root made an appearance in pineapple cherry juice—a refreshing combination I plan to try in my own juicer at home.
After our village tour, we moved on to Middle Quarters, a shrimping and fishing community not far from the entrance to YS Falls (a less touristy climb-the-waterfalls alternative to the north coast’s Dunn’s River Falls). Lunch was at a roadside shack called Billy’s Grassy Park across from the ocean on the main road through town (lunch for two, $12). Owner Bilroy Kerr, who grows his own rice and will happily take you to tour his paddy, tends to scores of cast-iron pots bubbling over hot coals. There are only a few plastic tables, so it’s a place you’d probably drive right by, but I’m so glad we stopped. The reward was tangy shrimp curry—a nod to Jamaica’s Indian influences—and delicious pepper shrimp caught in bamboo baskets in a nearby river. Following Kerr’s lead, I tucked into the crustaceans Jamaican style, popping off the tail and head but leaving the carapace on the shrimp’s tender body, then crunching away, shell and all. If this is what counts as roughage in these parts, I’m fine with that.
*All prices have been converted to U.S. dollars. Meal prices do not include drinks, tax or tip.
NOTE: Information may have changed since publication. Please confirm key details before planning your trip.
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Published: October 14, 2011
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Photos: Erin Kunkel; Sky Beach
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