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List of Jamaican dishes and foods

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Jerk chicken and pork served with hard dough bread, jerk sauce, festival, fried pressed plantain and coleslaw, in Jamaica.

This is a list of Jamaican dishes and foods. Jamaican cuisine includes a mixture of cooking techniques, ingredients, flavours, spices and influences from the Taínos, Jamaica"s indigenous people, the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Scottish, Irish, English, African, Indian, Chinese and Mildde Eastern people, who have inhabited the island.[1][2] It is also influenced by indigenous crops, as well as, crops and livestock introduced to the island from Mesoamerica, Europe, tropical West Africa and Southeast Asia[3][4]— which are now grown locally. Though Jamaican cuisine includes distinct dishes from the different cultures brought to the island, many Jamaican dishes are fusions of techniques, ingredients and traditions. A wide variety of seafood, tropical fruits, and meats are available.

Jamaican dishes and foods

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Ackee and saltfish (Jamaica"s national dish) with callaloo, fried dumplings and boiled yam.
Fried bammies—cassava flatbread which originated from the Taínos.
Escoveitch fish— usually served with festival and bammy.
Coco bread, sandwiching a Jamaican patty.
Stew peas
Typical Jamaican meal—fried chicken and oxtail, with a side of rice and peas (with gungo) and salad.
Curried shrimp
Rice and peas

Fruits

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Some typical fruits eaten in Jamaica—pineapple, guinep, melon and starfruit.
A basket of breadfruit and various Jamaican mangoes (East Indian, Julie and Haden).
Sweetsop
Otaheite apple
Soursop
  • West Indian cherry or acerola
    West Indian cherry or acerola
  • Guava
    Guava
  • Jackfruit
    Jackfruit
  • Coconut
    Coconut
  • Cocoa— beans are dried, roasted and turned into chocolate balls for tea.
    Cocoa— beans are dried, roasted and turned into chocolate balls for tea.
  • Naseberry
    Naseberry
  • Plantain—green ones are used to make chips, porridge and tostones.
    Plantain—green ones are used to make chips, porridge and tostones.
  • Starapple
    Starapple

Desserts and sweets

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Blue drawers, tie-a-leaf or duckunoo.
Rum cakes— flavours include fruit cake, coffee, golden, coconut, pineapple, banana and chocolate.
Gizzada
Spice bun and cheese
Devon House ice cream

Herbs, spices and condiments

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Pimento berries
Scotch bonnet and thyme
Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and pimento

Soups

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Soups play an important role in the Jamaican diet, not only as appetizers, but also as main lunch and dinner dishes, because they are hearty and filling. Jamaican soups consist of tubers/staples (such as yam, sweet potato, white potato, breadfruit, Jamaican boiled dumplings or dasheen), vegetables (such as carrot, okra and cho-cho/chayote), corn, pumpkin and meat. In Jamaica, soups are often prepared on Saturdays for dinner, but they may be eaten throughout the week or at special events. They are usually consumed alone, but may be served with hard dough bread or Jamaican water crackers. Soups are almost always served piping hot.

Jamaican chicken soup
  • Busso (rive snail) soup
  • Chicken foot soup
  • Chicken soup
  • Conch soup
  • Corn soup
  • Crayfish (Janga) soup
  • Cow cod soup
  • Cow skin soup
  • Fish tea
  • Gungo peas soup, made with pigeon peas (locally known as gungo peas)
  • Mannish water (goat soup)
  • Mutton soup
  • Pepperpot soup
  • Pumpkin soup, made with pumpkin or butternut squash, chicken, chayote (locally known as cho cho), and various other vegetables depending on the region.
  • Red peas soup, made with kidney beans, pigstail, beef or chicken, tubers such as coco, yam, potato and sweet potato, vegetables and spices.
  • Saturday soup (Beef soup)

Beverages

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Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
Red Stripe beer

Hot beverages

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Most Jamaicans begin the morning with a hot drink, either alone, with Jamaican tough water crackers, bread or along with a breakfast dish.

  • Chocolate tea (Hot chocolate), traditionally made from chocolate balls.
  • Herbal teas can be made using packaged tea bags, but are almost always brewed from fresh local herbs. Ginger, lemongrass and mint are commonly consumed. These are the most popular types of beverages served with breakfast dishes.
  • Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
  • LASCO Food Drinks (Lasco Jamaica)— instant food drinks made by adding hot or cold water to powdered mixture. Flavours include vanilla, creamy malt, soy, peanut punch, carrot, almond, orange-pineapple etc.

Juices and cold beverages

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Ting (soft drink)

Juices often include local fruits such as pineapple, Otaheite apple, June plum (Tahitian apple), acerola cherry, mango and guava, or a combination of fruits to make medleys such as guava-carrot, pineapple-cherry and fruit punch. Most homemade Jamaican fruit juices usually contain a little ginger and / or lime.

Jamaican rum
  • Irish Moss
    Irish Moss
  • Sorrel
    Sorrel
  • Ginger beer
    Ginger beer

See also

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References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cuisine of Jamaica.
  1. ^ "Taste Jamaica". Visit Jamaica/Jamaica Tourist Board. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
  2. ^ "Traditional Food Preparation in Jamaica: Tools & Methods" (PDF). Jamaica Information Service (JIS). 2014. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
  3. ^ Francis, John Michael, ed. (2006). "Columbian Exchange—Livestock". Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 303–308. ISBN 978-1-85109-421-9.303-308&rft.pub=ABC-CLIO&rft.date=2006&rft.isbn=978-1-85109-421-9&rft_id=https://books.google.com/books?id=OMNoS-g1h8cC&pg=PA303&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:List+of+Jamaican+dishes+and+foods" class="Z3988">
  4. ^ Crosby, Alfred W. (December 2001). "The Columbian Exchange: Plants, Animals, and Disease between the Old and New Worlds". National Humanities Center.
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