Jamaican cuisine facts for kids

Jamaican cuisine is a delicious mix of cooking styles, flavors, and spices. It has been shaped by many different cultures that have lived on the island of Jamaica. These include Amerindian, African, Irish, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Indian, Chinese, and Middle Eastern people.

The food is also influenced by crops brought to the island from Southeast Asia. These crops now grow well in Jamaica. You can find a wide variety of seafood, tropical fruits, and meats. Some Jamaican dishes are new versions of foods brought from other places. They are often changed to use local ingredients and spices. Other dishes are completely new and developed right there. Popular Jamaican foods include curry goat, fried dumplings, and ackee and saltfish. Jamaican patties, along with different pastries, breads, and drinks, are also very popular.

Jamaican food has spread around the world as people from Jamaica have moved to other countries. This happened a lot during the 20th century when Jamaicans looked for new job chances.

History of Jamaican Food

How Jamaican Cuisine Developed

Different cultures brought their cooking styles to Jamaica over time. African cuisine became very important on the island. This happened because of the many people brought to Jamaica through slavery. Dishes like rice and peas and Callaloo came from African traditions. The famous Ackee fruit, used in a popular Jamaican dish, was also brought by people from West Africa.

The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive. They added dishes like the vinegary escovitch fish, which came from a Spanish Jewish dish called escabeche. Later, people from Cornwall in England might have influenced the Jamaican patty. This is a pastry filled with spiced meat, similar to a Cornish pasty.

More Chinese and East Indian influences also joined Jamaican cooking. You can see this in dishes like Roti and Curry Goat. These came from indentured laborers who arrived after slavery ended. They brought their own cooking skills, especially using curry. Jamaican chefs sometimes use curry to season goat meat for special meals.

Rastafarian Influence on Food

Jamaican cuisine also includes ideas from the Rastafari faith. Rastafarians often eat food prepared in a vegetarian way. They have added many unique vegetarian dishes to Jamaican cooking. Rastafarians do not eat pork. However, pork is a very popular meat in Jamaica. Stew pork and jerk pork are common ways to cook it. Some Rastafarians also believe in cooking with little or no salt. This is called the 'Ital' way of eating.

Popular Jamaican Dishes

Ackee and saltfish are a popular Jamaican breakfast.

A Jamaican patty wrapped in coco bread.

A typical Jamaican breakfast often includes ackee and saltfish. It also features seasoned callaloo, boiled green bananas, and fried dumplings.

Main Courses

Soups

Side Dishes

Breads and Pastries

Jamaican Beverages

• Bigga and D&G sodas
• Bush tea
• Carrot juice with spices like nutmeg and vanilla
• Cocktails
• D&G Malta
• Fruit juices (cucumber, guava, mango, otaheite apple, pawpaw, pineapple, soursop, etc)
• Ginger beer
• Guinness punch with spices like nutmeg and vanilla
• Irish moss
• Limeade
• Liqueurs (Sangster's, Tia Maria, etc)
• Mauby
• Red Stripe
• Rums
• Sorrel
• Supligen
• Tamarind Fizz
• Ting

Desserts and Sweets

Mango and soursop ice cream are two popular desserts. Jamaican ice cream comes in many flavors like grapenut, rum and raisin, and Dragon Stout.

Other popular desserts include batata pudding, cornmeal pudding, cassava pone, gizzada, grater cake, toto, banana fritters, coconut drops, plantain tarts, and guava cheese.

Tie A Leaf, also called blue drawers, is a dish made by mixing a starch (like cornmeal or cassava) with coconut milk. This mix is then wrapped and tied in a banana leaf before being boiled.

Asham is roasted corn that is ground up and mixed with brown sugar.

Tamarind balls are candies made from the sticky fruit pulp. It's rolled with brown sugar into sweet and sour balls. You can also make a spicy version with hot pepper.

Bustamante Backbone, named after Jamaica's first Prime Minister, Alexander Bustamante, is a type of candy.

Jamaican Food Around the World

Jamaican food can be found in many places outside of Jamaica. It is very popular in North America, the United Kingdom, and other countries where many Jamaicans live. In the United States, there are many Jamaican restaurants in cities like New York, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Washington DC, and Philadelphia. In Canada, you can find Jamaican restaurants in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Ottawa. Some US restaurant chains, like Bahama Breeze, also feature Jamaican dishes on their menus.

Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill is a chain of about 120 restaurants across the U.S. These restaurants sell Jamaican patties, buns, breads, and other popular Jamaican foods. They also provide food to many places in New York.

See also

In Spanish: Gastronomía de Jamaica para niños

Images for kids

• 

  Women selling desserts in Kingston, Jamaica, around 1899.

• 

  Bammy flatbread, a traditional Jamaican side dish.

• 

  Jamaican coco bread from a bakery in Los Angeles.