I love legumes and turn to them whenever I feel like taking a break from meat. Mostly, I make stewed peas, which is red kidney beans that’s cooked with spices and coconut milk. Traditionally you make stewed peas with meat – pig’s tail, corned beef or pork, or chicken. But a few years ago, perhaps as a result of the popularity of the Rastafari’s ital way of cooking, which excludes...

Last weekend, I had such a craving for bully beef and rice that I decided to make it for dinner. As I was chopping up the onions, scallions and tomato, I began thinking. Why is it called bully beef? Why is it red? How did it get to Jamaica? And why do we love it so much? Bully beef is how we English speakers say beouf bouilli, which is French...

Most times, travel is about a destination. But what about the people and other characters we meet along the way? Sometimes, it’s all about them. Sometimes, they help us make lasting travel memories. I had several ideas and a few half-written posts that I could have used for this week’s photo Thursday but I kept going back to this photo of a Rastaman I took on the beach in Negril....

Cooking is as much about skill as it is about passion. Either of these on their own can produce a satisfactory dish; bring them together and you have a delicious meal. My first attempt at making Rundown, or Rundung in our Jamaican dialect, was for a dinner party I gave. I approached the making of this mildly complicated dish armed only with an inflated sense of confidence. I’m sure I...

Musical acts that open for big name performers, to use a Rodney Dangerfield phrase, ‘don’t get no respect.’ That’s mainly because the audience is so anxious for the headliner to take the stage that they mostly ignore the opening act. I wasn’t paying much attention to the opening act when [simpleazon-link asin=”B00864489G” locale=”us”]Rebirth[/simpleazon-link]’s Rivers Crossed Tour stopped at Howard Theater in the Nation’s Capital a few weekends ago. And even...

I’d been hearing about pig roasts for months following my return to Jamaica in 2011 and wanted to go to one. I even went to a fund-raising event because I heard that they would have a pig roast. As luck would have it though, the year I went, the organization did not do the roast. I was disappointed.  The practice of roasting a whole pig, usually a young pig between...

Traditions, such as how to prepare certain meals are generally passed from mother to daughter, the older women in the family to the younger ones. Though a very talented cook and baker, my mother never taught me how to cook. By the time I was old enough to start learning, she’d passed the responsibility for preparing meals on to our helper, going into the kitchen only at Christmas to bake...

There are certain meals that every self-respecting Jamaican cook must know how to prepare, with his or her eyes closed, if need be. One such meal is escoveitch. Typically, escoveitch fish is reserved for fish but chicken can be used as well. I prefer fish – red snapper or king, but porgies or any type of fish that is suitable for frying can be used. Escoveitch refers to a way...

The monkey jar has been used for several centuries in Jamaica and the Caribbean though no one knows the origin of the name. (There’s probably an interesting, perhaps even a funny story that could be inserted here.) The technique used to make earthenware pieces, like the monkey jar was brought to the Caribbean by enslaved Africans. Once here, they adopted European, indigenous Indian and other local techniques that influenced form,...

Soup, especially red pea soup, is comfort food to me. I make it when it rains or snows, when it’s cold or when I need a pick-me-up. Sometimes, I make it just because. I love soup. I love the convenience of it. Even cleanup is simple as there’s only one pot. The only thing to master about making soup, however, is timing. Too little and you end up with a...