1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (173 page)

Looking rather like a smooth-skinned, reddish peach, the ackee belongs to the same family as the lychee. Inside the fruit are three shiny black seeds surrounded by a fleshy, creamy coat that is its only edible part. The ackee is best enjoyed at the height of ripeness, when it is succulent, pleasantly oily, and sweet, and it may be eaten raw, fried in oil, or roasted (when cooked, its texture resembles that of scrambled egg). It’s also canned, and because ackee seeds are toxic if the fruit is under-or overripe, only the canned, cooked
fruit can be imported to the United States.

In Jamaica, ackee refers not just to the fruit but also to the national dish, in which it features prominently along with salt-preserved fish, almost always cod or mackerel. Traditionally eaten for breakfast, the dish resembles a kind of egg scramble in which the salted fish is sautéed with boiled ackee, onions, hot Scotch bonnet chiles, tomatoes, and plenty of black pepper. Pimiento peppers, bacon, and fresh tomatoes are the usual garnishes. It is a delicious mishmash of contrasting flavors, colors, and textures, especially when served with rice and boiled plantains—a dish as restorative for homebodies as it must have been for sailors setting out to trade rum, in need of sustenance and the comforting flavors of home.

Where:
In Kingston, Jamaica
, Jamaica Inn, tel 876-974-2514,
jamaicainn.com
;
in Miami
, Jamaica Kitchen, tel 305-596-2585,
jamaicakitchen.com
;
in New York
, Miss Lily’s at two locations,
misslilys.com
.
Mail order:
amazon.com (search ackee).
Further information and recipes:
Authentic Recipes from Jamaica
by John De Mers and Eduardo Fuss (2005);
Jamaican Recipes Cookbook
by K. Reynolds-James (2013);
saveur.com
(search ackee and saltfish).

Although it’s a Christmas classic throughout the Caribbean, so-called black fruitcake is especially celebrated in Jamaica, where it was likely developed. The spicy, fragrant, boozy fruitcake is steeped in both dark rum and tradition. Dense, moist, and festively rich, the cake’s gorgeous dark-brown color results from the combination of brown sugar, molasses, and rum—the very ingredients that drew British colonists to the islands.

The British plum pudding probably inspired this holiday dessert, but while British cakes are often made with brandy (originally as a way to preserve them), the Jamaican black fruitcake features local rum, sometimes combined with a red Jamaican cooking wine called Red Label, and perfumed with almond essence and rosewater. Into that brew go raisins, prunes, dried cherries, and currants, left to soak for months at a time in cool cellars. When it’s time to make the cake, the softened, tipsy fruits are ground into a paste, making for a smoother texture than that of other fruitcakes. The finished cake is encased in a satiny, hard white icing and served in thin slices as a celebratory finish to Christmas
dinner. The process is time and labor intensive, but the sweetly rich reward is a highlight of the holiday season. And, if there are any leftovers, one need only douse the fruitcake with additional rum to restore the texture and keep it moist and delicious for days.

Where:
In Kingston, Jamaica
, Susie’s Bakery and Café, tel 876-968-5030.
Retail and mail order:
Jamaican Black Cakes, tel 561-907-8150,
jamaicanblackcakes.com
; The Sweetest Thing Cupcake and Bakery Shoppe, tel 876-410-6576,
thesweetestthingja.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Visions of Sugarplums
by Mimi Sheraton (1981);
Jamaican Recipes Cookbook
by K. Reynolds-James (2013);
allrecipes.com
(search jamaican fruitcake).
See also:
Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce
;
Irish Whiskey Cheesecake
.

A famous high-altitude crop.

Nestled high in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, at more than 3,000 feet above sea level, some 15,000 acres of coffee trees produce what many connoisseurs call the best beans in the world. They are certainly among the most expensive, retailing for $35 a pound or more, and very elusive. As much as 90 percent of Blue Mountain coffee is sold directly to Japan, and the remaining 10 or so percent is split up largely among American and European buyers. While some coffee drinkers find the acidity a bit overwhelming, to its devotees Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee has a perfect balance between acidity and body, a distinctive mellowness and sweetness, and an unforgettably rich, fruity aroma.

The drink, made from the roasted beans of the
Coffea arabica
plant, has been known and enjoyed since at least the thirteenth century and is thought to have originated in Ethiopia. But something about the terroir (the special combination of soil and climate) in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica produces an extraordinary product—in contrast to coffee beans from the lowlands of Jamaica, which are so ill-valued they’re used only as filler in cheap blends. Part of the Blue Mountain bean’s charm is its scarcity and unpredictable nature—when not produced at optimal conditions, or when improperly roasted, it can taste almost ropy. It has a passionate following, however, and true believers insist that no one can legitimately be called a coffee connoisseur without having tasted Blue Mountain beans.

Retail and mail order:
In New York
, McNulty’s Tea and Coffee Co., tel 800-356-5200,
mcnultys.com
; Zabar’s, tel 212-787-2000,
zabars.com
.
Further information:
Are You Really Going to Eat That?
by Robb Walsh (2004).
See also:
Ethiopian Coffee
;
Colombian Supremo Coffee
.

Though Zora Neale Hurston is best-known for her fiction, she was also an anthropologist, and in 1938, she published an ethnographic account of voodoo and related African rituals in Jamaica and Haiti. In it, she recounts an epic prewedding groom’s feast of curried goat, served with banana dumplings and copious amounts of rum. It seemed remarkable to her because women were never allowed at such a feast—a feast so masculine, she wryly notes, that “chicken soup would not be allowed. It must be made from roosters.”

If that custom has changed, the dish itself remains: a hearty, warming, spicy concoction of goat meat slowly stewed with wafts of curry powder and mellowing touches of onions, tomatoes, and potatoes, all to be ladled over steamed rice and peas. The recipe likely came to Jamaica by way of East Indian immigrants who moved to the island (then a British colony) after slavery was abolished there in the 1830s.

Traditionally, it’s served alongside “mannish water,” a very peppery soup (which supposedly acts as an aphrodisiac) made from a goat’s head and innards boiled with yams, bananas, carrots, and turnips. No longer for men only, curried goat is now a mainstay throughout Jamaica and just about anyplace Jamaican dishes are served.

Where:
In Kingston, Jamaica
, Jamaica Inn, tel 876-974-2514,
jamaicainn.com
; Miss T’s Kitchen, tel 876-795-0099,
misstskitchen.com
;
in New York
, Miss Lily’s at two locations,
misslilys.com
;
in Bronx, NY
, Kingston Tropical Bakery Inc., tel 718-798-0076;
in Miami
, Jamaica Kitchen, tel 305-596-2585,
jamaicakitchen.com
;
in Honolulu
, Jawaiian Irie Jerk Restaurant, tel 808-388-2917,
jawaiianiriejerk.com
;
in London
, Chef Collin Brown, tel 44/20-7515-8177,
chefcollinbrown.co.uk
.
Further information and recipes:
Authentic Recipes from Jamaica
by John De Mers and Eduardo Fuss (2005);
Jamaican Recipes Cookbook
by K. Reynolds-James (2013).

A spicy, flavorful meal in a pocket.

Meat-filled pastry turnovers are favored in many cultures as a delectable way to turn inexpensive cuts of meat into tantalizing and elegant morsels. In Jamaica, they take the form of pungent, juicy meat patties, derived from Spanish
pasteles
and English meat pies and enhanced with the signature Afro-Indian touches that add such zest to Jamaican cuisine. Meat patties have become famous, treasured as a street snack or quick and simple main course, and wherever Jamaicans are to be found, you will also be lucky enough to find vendors and shops dedicated to this island specialty.

Their popularity is well-deserved. The flat, turmeric-gilded crescents of crisp piecrust reveal supple, fragrant fillings: ground beef, thyme, and breadcrumbs accented with onions, garlic, zaps of Jamaica’s favorite Scotch bonnet chiles—and always with a curry powder that is redolent of cumin, turmeric, dried mustard, fenugreek, ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon, a reminder of the East Indian indentured servants who did much of the cooking in British colonial days. When baked, Jamaican meat patties are warmly satisfying and successfully stand up to reheating; fried, they are even more crackling and juicy, though they don’t reheat as well and are, of course, less healthful.

Although usually filled with beef, curried goat (see
listing
) is a festive and savory stand-in, as is callaloo (see
listing
), fish, or vegetables. Sweet patties might be served for special occasions such as weddings, filled with meat, apples, and cinnamon—a nice patty if you can get it.

Where:
In Kingston, Jamaica
, Jamaica Inn, tel 876-974-2514,
jamaicainn.com
;
in New York
, Miss Lily’s at two locations,
misslilys.com
.
Mail order:
Tower Isle’s, tel 718-495-2626,
towerislespatties.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Brooklyn Cookbook
by Lyn Stallworth and Rod Kennedy Jr. (1991);
The Sugar Reef Caribbean Cookbook
by Devra Dedeaux (1991);
cookstr.com
(search jamaica beef patties);
islands.com
(search jamaican meat patties);
jamaicans.com
(search meat patties).

To Europeans and the fans of their food, sorrel denotes a tart, spinachlike herb used in soups and sauces. But in the Caribbean and in parts of the Middle East, it refers to a tropical bushy shrub (
Hibiscus sabdariffa
), also known as hibiscus or roselle (see
Karkade
). The plant came to the Caribbean from India via British colonists, and arrived in Jamaica in the eighteenth century. Its edible red petals taste like a cross between rhubarb and cranberry, a flavor that becomes the eye-opening, sweet-tart basis for
the lively, garnet-colored Christmas drink of Jamaica.