Recently, Frommer's posted a story about my experience with local food and the emerging culinary scene in Jamaica. One example of that change from downtrodden island nation to an island of foodies has resulted four- and five-star hotels with pedigreed chefs and promotional events such as Kingston Restaurant Week, designed to make dining out affordable to average Jamaicans as much as it wants to encourage tourism. What's more, Jamaicans are infusing this with their own down-to-earth sensibility and the bounty of their landscape, resulting in unique but affordable dining experiences. It's a Jamaica that offers experiences beyond the all-inclusive possibilities that blanket the island and which have helped the country become a destination for honeymooners.
Some of what we witnessed en route to Kingston showed us that there is more to Jamaica than jerk pits and Red Stripe beer. Montego Bay's restaurant Wine with Me (tel. 879/588-9162), located on the Hip Strip near Margaritaville, features a wine list that is eclectic and is not inexpensive to bring to diners. Owner Cecile Levee, however, does not pass along the cost to consumer; the average wine price, by the glass, is $6 (all prices are indicated in U.S. dollars, to make things easier). It's a mid-ranged, cafe-style restaurant painted in vibrant red alternating with swaths of a chalkboard-like substance you can leave your mark on before you leave. The food was fresh, flavorful and well prepared; the menu can best be described as Caribbean-Mediterranean; dinner included options such as pasta with a cream sauce embellished with scotch bonnet peppers and a chickpea and pumpkin soup, but there's also a cheese menu and a salad with delicate greens. The food and the wine are the stars here, but the colorful, indoor-outdoor setting keeps everything laid back.
While en route to Kingston, we stopped for lunch at Royal Plantation (tel. 888/48-ROYAL; www.royalplantation.com) in Ocho Rios, a five-star, upscale resort located right on the water that offers the kind of amenities that can cater to your indulgent whim. Did you swim out from the shore and decide you want your drink? Someone will bring it to you. Are you sunning yourself and getting sweaty, but don't want to go swimming? No problem. The beach butler will mist you with rosewater and provide cool, soothing cucumber slices for your eyes. It's no surprise that the hotel attracts celebrities, actors, musicians, and other notorious folk with large bank accounts; you can even thumb through a photo album of all the people who've stayed there. The property is beautifully landscaped and appointed, and all of the hotel's 74 suites are beautiful and offer views of the Caribbean. Rates start around $700 and the high season rate is $831. The usual amenities for a hotel of its caliber are also part of the deal, such as championship golf course, fancy spa, wireless Internet, freshwater pool and two private cove beaches. Its stately, dark wood interior recalls vestiges of British colonialism; there's also the high tea and a cigar and cognac room. For the average American, it's pricey, but for a special occasion and with a cheap airfare deal, it'd be worth splurging on.
The food is taken seriously here, too, in a way that's consistent with what you would expect from any luxury boutique hotel but which also tries to make the best of its landscape. You can indulge in all kinds of food related activities, such as cooking with the chef at a wellness lunch and opportunities to pick herbs for your meal and select the fresh fish you want cooked. The hotel has the only caviar bar in Jamaica and offers drinks and events that celebrate Jamaica's Appleton Rum, with rum punch parities and rum tastings, along with martini evenings. The lunch we ate there was delicious, but more formal than any other places I experienced in Jamaica-a vestige of its colonial influences, perhaps-with white tablecloths and a sorbet course and a beautiful meal prepared by French chef Stephen Jondeau.
When we arrived in Kingston, we stayed at the efficient Jamaica Pegasus (tel. 876/926-3690; www.jamaicapegasus.com; rates range $180-$280) located in the heart of the city's business and commercial district and across from Emancipation Park. Our destination for dinner that evening was in the market place, at an Indian restaurant called Jewel of India (tel. 879-906-3983), which served Indian cuisine as tasty as what you'd find in any major U.S. city with entrees ranging from $14-$28. The marketplace, comprised of a collection of restaurants, is unusual for its cooperative nature: you can sit anywhere in its indoor-outdoor, covered patio seating area and order food from any one of the half dozen or so restaurants (just not during restaurant week). If you become inspired by the sushi from East Japanese Restaurant that got delivered to the table next to you, but you've just ordered curry, it's no problem. You can eat both. The restaurant owners work together to encourage grazing.
All of the restaurants in the marketplace were participating in Kingston Restaurant Week, the brainchild of marketing guru, event manager and food lover Stephanie Scott, with sponsorship from the national paper the Gleaner. In its inaugural year, 2005, it drew 23 restaurants across different cuisines. Jamaicans traditionally are not a people who dine out, but restaurant week makes it more affordable with discounted, prix fixe meals ranging from $15-$30, depending on the destination. More Jamaicans -- and more women -- are working outside the home and working longer hours, and that changes things. So does travel, satellite and cable television. We experienced the last few days of the third iteration of Kingston Restaurant Week, which boasted more than 30 participating restaurants. Scott says it's too soon to talk about the finer points of 2008's event, but it will take place November 8-15.
As part of restaurant week, we also experienced some classic Jamaican fare (pumpkin fritters!) at the Grog Shoppe (tel. 876.929-7027), an English-style pub with outdoor garden seating with an enormous tree providing shade. It's an affordable spot, with average prices range $6-$12. On our last night in town, we ate at a restaurant credited with doing much to get Jamaicans excited about dining out -- the Guilt Trip (tel. 876/977-5130). Owned by Colin Hamilton, it opened 13 years ago as a pastry shop and evolved into a restaurant. The location, situated off Barbican Road in Kingston, finds tables nestled among flora and fauna with candle-lit paths and water features. The menu has a Jamaican heart but is fusion and creative in its execution -- boasting the likes of a jerk chicken lasagna, for example, or curried snapper -- with moderate prices, ranging from $10-$20 for entrees. The dessert option I selected involved grapes, apples raspberries and pineapple suspended in a mint tea, garnished with a pirouline.
The experiences exposed us to just a tiny sliver of a diverse island of people and its food, but one that is slowly becoming more known not only to visitors but its inhabitants, too. As Virginia Burke, managing director for marketing for Walkerswood Caribbean Foods, says that many Jamaicans just don't have the exposure to a wide variety of food. "We often laugh and say we'd eat chicken and rice every day for the rest of our lives," she says. Dining out, however, is starting to mean something more than just fast food, and the idea of cooking as a career is less lampooned. "The Jamaican chefs are getting trained up. Their mothers no longer cry about their sons and daughters becoming 'cooks,' which used to carry a bad connotation. They see viable futures now," she says. Burke says that Jamaican chefs are rising to the challenge with typical passion and brio. It's up to the rest of the country, and the world, to come and step up to their plates.
Note:This trip was sponsored by the Jamaica Tourism board (tel. 800/233-4JTB; www.visitjamaica.com).
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