Jamaica

Jerk chicken

Chicken rubbed with pimento and scotch bonnet, smoked slowly over pimento wood.

Ackee and saltfish

The national dish: cooked ackee fruit with salt cod, onion and pepper, at breakfast.

Curry goat

Goat stewed in Jamaican curry powder until it falls apart, served over rice and peas.

Oxtail

Oxtail braised with butter beans until sticky, the Sunday plate of choice.

Escovitch fish

Whole fish fried and topped with vinegar, carrot and scotch bonnet.

Rice and peas

Rice cooked in coconut milk with kidney beans, thyme and a whole pepper.

Festival

Sweet cornmeal dough fried into fingers, eaten with jerk or fried fish.

Bammy

Flat cassava bread soaked in coconut milk and fried, from the Taino kitchen.

Callaloo

Amaranth greens steamed with onion and pepper, eaten with saltfish at breakfast.

Patty

Turmeric pastry folded around spiced beef, eaten out of the bag with coco bread.

Run down

Mackerel or snapper simmered until the coconut milk breaks into oil.

Mannish water

Goat head and tripe soup with green banana, served at the start of a party.

Pepper pot soup

Callaloo and okra soup with salt beef and spinners, thick and dark green.

Fried dumpling

Flour dough fried into golden rounds, split and filled at breakfast.

Gizzada

Crimped pastry tart filled with spiced coconut, hard at the edges and chewy inside.

Bulla cake

Dense molasses and ginger cake eaten with avocado or cheese.

Sorrel

Hibiscus steeped with ginger and rum, drunk cold through the Christmas season.

Rum punch

One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak, with nutmeg on top.

Blue Mountain coffee

Mild, low-acid coffee from a narrow band of misty peaks, mostly sold to Japan.

Ting

Grapefruit soda, sharp and bitter, drunk plain or cut with white rum.