List of Jamaican dishes and foods

This is a list of Jamaican dishes and foods. Jamaican cuisine includes a mixture of cooking techniques, flavors, spices and influences from the indigenous people on the island of Jamaica, and the Africans and Indians who have inhabited the island. It is also influenced by the crops introduced into the island from tropical West Africa and Southeast Asia, which are now grown locally. Jamaican cuisine includes dishes from the different cultures brought to the island, while other dishes are novel or a fusion of techniques and traditions. A wide variety of seafood, tropical fruits, and meats are available.

Jamaican dishes and foods

Ackee and saltfish, made from the local fruit ackee and dried and salted cod (saltfish). This is the national dish of Jamaica. It is often served with bread, Jamaican
Cassava
Coco bread, made to sandwich the Jamaican patty
Cornbread bun-like pastry
Cow foot, stewed
Curry goat
Curry chicken
Dumpling, served boiled, fried, and/or baked
Escoveitch fish
Green bananas, eaten boiled, or sliced and fried to make banana chips
Jamaican festival, similar to a hushpuppy
Hard dough bread (hardo bread)
Jamaican patty, a savoury and spicy pastry filled with meats (such as beef, curried chicken, shrimp, lobster), or other ingredients like ackee, callaloo, cheese, soy, steamed vegetables and more
Jerk meats usually jerked: chicken

Oxtail with (broad beans)
Pan chicken (jerked chicken prepared and sold by street food vendors along with hard dough bread)
Peanut, available raw, or hot and roasted as street food
Peg bread
Peppered shrimp, spicy seasoned and cooked (red in colour)
Plantain, eaten green or ripe as is; can be boiled or fried. Usually served as side dishes.
Porridge, popular flavours include oatmeal, cornmeal, peanut, banana, plantain, and hominy corn porridge.
Rice and peas, the most popular style of rice for everyday use, and is a Sunday staple of most Jamaican households
Roast yam and saltfish (either 'cooked up' or roasted as well)
Roast conch
Roti
Run down, a dish consisting of pickled mackerel, coconut milk, herbs and spices
Solomon gundy, a salt herring pâté
Stamp and Go, dried and salted cod (saltfish) fritters
Stew peas, a stew of red peas (kidney beans) which may be vegetarian or have pieces of meat added such as cured pig's tail
Sugarcane, peeled, which is chewed to obtain the juice, or can be bought as bottled sugarcane juice
Sweet bread, softer than normal bread with a slight sweetness
Sweet potato
Taro, locally known as dasheen and coco
Taro dumpling
Tripe and beans
Water crackers
Yam

Fruits

Acerola cherry
Breadfruit
Coconut- young green coconuts provide coconut water and jelly, while the older coconuts are grated to make Jamaican desserts, sweets and coconut milk
Custard apple
Guava
Guinep
Jackfruit
June plum (Tahitian apple)
Mango, many species available locally. The popular species are locally called East Indian, Number 11, Julie, Milli, Stringy, Tommy Atkins, Blackie, Bombay and Graham.
Naseberry (known as Sapodilla throughout the rest of the Caribbean)
Otaheite apple (Malay apple)
Paw-paw (papaya)
Passion fruit
Pineapple
Pomegranate
Soursop
Starapple
Starfruit
Sweetsop
Tamarind

Desserts and sweets

Asham
Blue Draws, also called tie-a-leaf because it is cooked in tied banana leaves
Bulla cake
Busta coconut sweets (Bustamante Backbone)
Cocktion
Coconut drop (Cut cake)
Cornmeal Pudding
Devon House Ice Cream (variety of quality flavours)
Gizzada, also called Pinch-Me-Round
Peanut Drops
Plantain Tart
Rock cake
Rum cake
Spice Bun / Easter Bun, a popular sweet loaf (sometimes includes raisins or fruit), regular Bun is eaten all year, Easter Bun is often eaten around Easter
Sweet Potato Pudding
Tamarind Balls, tamarind fruit rolled into balls and lightly coated with sugar
Toto

Herbs, spices and condiments

Allspice, known locally as pimento
Cinnamon
Cloves
Curry powder, Jamaican or Indian, which features a blend of turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cumin, allspice, black pepper and cloves. Turmeric is the predominant spice and accounts for curry powder's yellow colour.
Escallion
Garlic
Ginger
Jamaican jerk spice, a blend of spices featuring allspice, locally known as pimento
Nutmeg
Pickapeppa sauce (usually made from small amounts of scotch bonnet pepper, and vinegar)
Rosemary
Scotch bonnet pepper
Soya sauce
Thyme leaves
Turmeric

Soups

Soups play an important role in the Jamaican diet, not only as appetizers, but also as main lunch and dinner dishes because they are filling on their own with tubers/staples (such as yam, sweet potato, white potato, breadfruit, Jamaican boiled dumplings, dasheen and coco), vegetables (such as carrot, okra and cho-cho/chayote) and meat. Many Jamaican families enjoy soup for lunch and dinner. Soup is often had alone, but may be served with hard dough bread or Jamaican water crackers. Soups are almost always served piping hot.

Chicken foot soup
Conch or janga (crayfish) Soup
Cow cod soup
Fish tea
Gungo peas soup, made with pigeon peas (locally known as gungo peas)
Mannish water (goat soup)
Pepperpot soup
Red peas soup, made with kidney beans, pigstail, beef or chicken, tubers such as coco, yam, potato and sweet potato, vegetables and spices
Pumpkin soup, made with butternut squash, chicken, chayote (locally known as chocho), and various other vegetables depending on the region.

Beverages

Hot beverages

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

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
Chocolate tea (Hot chocolate), traditionally made from chocolate balls
Herbal tea, can be made using packaged tea bags, but is almost always brewed from fresh local herbs. The commonly consumed ones include ginger, and mint. These are the most popular types of beverages served with breakfast dishes.
LASCO Food Drinks, instant powdered drinks made by adding hot or cold water, (Lasco Jamaica) with flavours such as vanilla, creamy malt, peanut punch, carrot, almond, etc.

Juices and cold beverages

Juices often include local fruits such as pineapple, Otaheite apple, June plum (Tahitian apple), acerola cherry, mango and guava, or combine them to make medleys such as guava-carrot and fruit punch.

Ginger beer
Jamaican rum
Red Stripe beer
Sorrel (drink), made from Jamaican sorrel (roselle), is enjoyed all year round but also drunk around Christmas holidays as a Christmas drink. White rum or wine is often added at Christmas.

References