Jamaican food

Jamaican food is one of the hidden gems of the culinary world. For a long, long time, the cuisines of the Caribbean have been ignored by gourmands, or if not ignored then lumped together or ridiculed for a lack of sophistocation and diversity. But the fact is, Jamaican food has roots throughout Europe. That, combined with the traditional foods of the indiginous peoples of the island, has produced a varied, delicious and diverse combination of dishes that can be enjoyed no where else in the world.

What makes Jamaican food so fantastic is that diversity. Waves of immigrants from Britain, France, West Africa, India and even china have all brought their own cuisine-related particulars and added them to the melange of tastes and styles already at work in Jamaican food.

And it really works. There's far more than just jerk chicken and curry goat when it comes to Jamaican food; there's a wide variety that can satisfy the most finicky of eaters.

Take, for example, Ackee and saltfish. It's not as well known as jerk chicken and curry goat, but it's actually considered the national dish of Jamaica. And it has roots seemingly everwhere.

Ackee is a fruit that is actually native to West Africa - places like Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso and the like. It was brought to Jamaica with one of the many waves of immigration, grown and cultivated through the years. Saltfish is actually dried and salted cod, which was first introduced to Jamaica from Canadian trades - specifically those of Newfoundland and Labrador.

To make the dish, you boil the salted cod with the ackee, onions (which are native to south America and were brought to Jamaica by spanish explorers), Scotch Bonnet peppers - which contrary to their name don't actually come to Scotland - tomatoes, black pepper and allspice. So just like the people and the overall cuisine of Jamaica, the national food of Jamaica features a melange of styles and backgrounds that combine to form a delicious whole.

Another favorite - one that I can find on just about every corner here in New York City - is the jamaican beef patty. It's kind of the hamburger of Jamaican food, a standard that's easy to prepare, filling and ubiquitous.

Thing is, though, don't take too close a look at the ingredients of the jamaican beef patty if you want to keep eating it without a guilty conscience. Yeah, you can fill it with vegetables, but the yellow of the crust comes from the fat that the dough is cooked in. Yes, it's delicious, but it's also not very good for you.