Kevin Skobac
lovelifenow
Welcome to our newest category at KA Eats, our eating adventures during our travels! Today we're featuring food in Jamaica. As a four year anniversary gift, Kev took me to Jamaica for 5 fun days in Negirl at Sunset at the Palms. While the resort was all-inclusive, and had some decent food selections, especially at the beach grill, we still had to venture out to dine on authentic Jamaician cuisine.
Getting off the airplane we were told by a friend to visit a restaurant called Scotchies which was the opposite direction from our resort towards Montego Bay. Unfortunately, our cab driver didn't want to double back so he took us to Jerky's instead, which he swore was the same. We're not sure if it is the same but we still enjoyed Jerky's Festival, Steamed fish and Jerk Pork.
For dinner one night we visited a restaurant called 3 Dives, right by the shore. It was fantastic. We ordered Lobster with rice and beans and Curry Goat with rice and beans. The dishes also came with a veggie called callaloo, a vegetable dish that tastes very close to spinich. Everything was tasty and so reasonably priced.
One day on an adventure trip to YS Falls and the Black River, we went to a nondescript restaurant for lunch. The place was completely empty and the owner had our table ready. The chef prepared fried chicken, boiled steam potatoes, Beef in Stew with a side of rice and beans and cole slaw. Again, phenomenal. I'm not a cole slaw fan since in the States its usually drenched in mayo and looks like a bowl of mush but the cole slaw here is fresh, light and so flavorful! I ate almost all of it.
Another night for dinner we went to a restaurant called Sweet Spice, highly recommended by one of our cab drivers. We ordered Oxtail Stew, Seafood Special in spicy sauce (lobster, shrimp, conch) with the usual side dish suspects, rice and beans and cole slaw. Everything was tasty again but I did find my seafood special a tad on the salty side. No worries though since I ordered the Sweet Spice Special Smoothie which included condensed milk and Irish moss. It balanced each other out. I never had Irish Moss before but it probably changed my life a little. It was too bad that was the last night we ate out, I would have ordered an Irish Moss smoothie every day.
Of course, whenever I'm in the Caribbean I need to get my usual young coconut and other fruit delicacies. We managed to get our cab driver to stop by a stand where a guy was giving out coconut drinks. We also wanted some sugar cane but it was sold out and we didn't get another chance to get some. I asked the cab driver where we could get the coconut open to get into the meat and he simply stopped at another coconut stand where the guy was nice enough to machete the coconut for us no charge. Respect!
At the resort had a daily nature walk around the grounds and the tour guide, Shorty, gave us a taste of the star fruit growing in the resort. Tasty!
Overall, the trip was amazing. Everyone (in the resort and out) was nice, resort was amazing, weather was perfect and the food was to die for. I will definitely want to go back since I know we just barely skimmed the surface of Jamaican cuisine.
