The ultimate Jamaican food list

So I’m flirting with the idea of converting this blog half-time into an ode to the awesomeness of Jamaican food. Until I make the transition, check out this Business Insider article on the world’s most delicious traditional breakfasts. You can also check out the ‘Ultimate Jamaican Food List’ that my wife, brother and cousins came up with:

Fruits:
Sweet sop
Sour sop
Jack fruit
Sugar cane
Star apple
Otaheite apple
Guinep
June plum

Soups:
Peanut soup – Hard to find. I can vouch for Howie’s if you find yourself on that part of the island.
Fish tea
Pumpkin soup with chicken and dumplings
Pepperpot soup
Mannish Water – I used to LOVE this as a kid. I honestly don’t know if I can still stomach it.

Any Jamaican soup you can find because Jamaican soups are amazing.

Breakfast food:
Roast breadfruit
Ackee and saltfish
Boiled bananas
Sauteed/stewed callaloo
Fried dumplings

Lunch/Dinner:
Jerk chicken (of course!)
Patties: From both Tastees and Devon House
Escoveitch fish and bammi
Festivals
Curry goat
Rice and peas
Roast yam
Plantains
Callaloo yet again
Sorrel – a tasty drink
Ting – a Jamaican grapefruit soda
Jamaican Kola Champagne – another Jamaican soda. My wife doesn’t like it. She is wrong.

Misc:
Bun and cheese – a quintessential Jamaican snack. Three gold stars if you stop in a gas station and buy it from there with the small individual packs of cheddar cheese.
Ital food: food from the Rastafarian culture. It’s all veggies and fish and deliciousness.

Places to eat:
Scotchies: perhaps the best jerk on the island. If you’re in Ocho Rios, you should also sample the Ocho Rios Village Jerk Centre. An uncle of mine thinks it’s better than Scotchies. He is wrong.
Seafood at Helshire Beach near Kingston
Seafood at Little Ochi -the best seafood in Jamaica IMHO. Hard to get to though.
Pineapple, mango, coconut and rum raisin ice cream from Devon House in Kingston.
Survival Beach Restaurant – wonderful hole-in-the-wall ital restaurant just east of Port Antonio.