Cuisine & Restaurants

Dining

The bad news is that dining in Jamaica is generally more expensive than in either the United States, Canada or Europe. Restaurant prices are more in tune with Europe, as virtually everything must be imported except the fish and Caribbean lobster. Service charges are automatically added to most restaurant tabs, usually 10% to 15%. Even so, if service has been good, it's customary to tip extra.

To save money, many visitors prefer the Modified American Plan (MAP), which includes room, breakfast, and one main meal per day, almost always dinner. You can then have lunch somewhere else, or if your hotel has a beach, order a light a la carte lunch at the hotel, the cost of which is added to your bill. On some MAP plans, you can arrange in advance to exchange lunches for dinners, so you can go out a few times. This is true for affiliated resorts such as Sandals, which has more than one hotel in the same resort, as it does in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.

The American Plan (AP), on the other hand, includes all three meals each day. Drinks, including wine, are usually extra. On this plan, it's cheaper and you don't need to rent a car or taxi at night, but you'll miss out on different dining experiences around your resort.

Before booking a hotel, it's wise to have a clear understanding of what is included in the various meal plans offered.

If you plan to eat out, here are some tips:

In summer, only the most elegant establishments require men to wear jackets. Most top-rated places today ask only that a man wear a shirt with a collar.

Check to see if reservations are required. In the winter you may find all the tables gone at some of the more famous places. Savvy guests often ask the concierge of a hotel to make reservations. At all places, wear a cover-up if you're lunching; don't enter a restaurant attired in a bikini.

Best Dining Bets (According to Frommers)

Sugar Mill Restaurant (Montego Bay; tel. 876/953-2314): Located in the Half Moon Club, this is the top restaurant in Montego Bay. The chef's smoked marlin is without equal, and he makes the island's best Jamaican-style bouillabaisse. Guests dine by candlelight indoors or on an open terrace.

Norma's (Negril; tel. 876/957-4041): Widely acclaimed as Jamaica's finest woman chef, Kingston's Norman Shirley has now brought her recipes to Negril's Sea Splash Resort. The Jamaican and international food here is the finest on Seven Mile Beach, and Norma gets the best produce from local vendors.

Redbone the Blues Cafe (Kingston; tel. 876/978-6091): In a former Spanish colonial house, one of the most elegant restaurants on the island is the setting for a refined Jamaican cuisine of artful preparation and unexpected flavors. Ever had shrimp, lobster, and salmon in a creamy coconut sauce?

Rockhouse Restaurant (Negril; tel. 876/957-4373): Perched above a rocky inlet, this restaurant serves terrific cuisine, such as smoked marlin and peppered pork with yams.

Bloomfield Great House (Mandeville; tel. 876/962-7130): Once part of a coffee plantation, this restaurant today serves one of the island's best-orchestrated menus-everything from smoked marlin with black caviar to the best pasta dishes in this part of Jamaica.

Evita's Italian Restaurant (Ocho Rios; tel. 876/974-2333): Evita (actually Eva Myers) is a local culinary star, devoting at least half her menu to pastas. Her recipes range from the north to the south of Italy. Try snapper stuffed with crabmeat or lobster and scampi in buttery white-cream sauce-all washed down with a good Italian wine.

Mille Fleurs (Port Antonio; tel. 876/993-7267): In the Hotel Mocking Bird Hill, this restaurant is terraced and perched 180m (600 ft.) above sea level with panoramic views. People come here for the delectable food, which have been praised by Gourmet magazine. Opt for coconut-and-garlic soup or the fish with a spicy mango-and-shrimp sauce.

Norma's on the Terrace (Kingston; tel. 876/968-5488): Kingston's Norma Shirley, the island's foremost female restaurateur, serves up a nouvelle Jamaican cuisine without equal in the area. Try such Jamaican specialties as chowder with crabmeat, shrimp, conch, and lobster, or grilled smoked pork loin in a teriyaki-and-ginger sauce.

Day-O Plantation Restaurant (Montego Bay; tel. 876/952-1825): On the site of the 19th-century Barnett Plantation-a house that sugar built-this fine restaurant, serving a refined international and Jamaican cuisine, is often a venue for singing and other entertainment. Jamaican spices and herbs permeate all dishes.

Strawberry Hill (Kingston; tel. 876/944-8400): This is one of the best modern Jamaican restaurants, tucked in the Blue Mountains. Even if you don't stay at this exclusive resort, try grilled fish with jerk mango or grilled shrimp with fresh cilantro in its restaurant

Food & Drink

A visit to Jamaica doesn't mean a diet of just local cuisine. The island's eating establishments employ some of the best chefs in the Caribbean, hailing from the United States and Europe, and they can prepare a sumptuous meal of elegant French, Continental, and American dishes.

When dining in Jamaica, try some fish, which is often delectable, especially dolphin (the game fish, not the mammal), wahoo, yellowtail, grouper, and red snapper. These fish, when broiled with hot lime sauce as an accompaniment, may represent your most memorable island meals. Sweet-tasting Caribbean lobster is different from the Maine variety.

Elaborate buffets are often a feature at the major resort hotels. These buffets display a variety of local dishes along with other, more-standard fare, and they are almost always reasonably priced. Entertainment is often a reggae band. Even if you are not staying at a particular hotel, you can call on any given night and make a reservation to partake of a buffet.

Before booking a hotel, it's wise to have a clear understanding of what is included in the various meal plans offered.

To save money, many visitors prefer the Modified American Plan (MAP), which includes room, breakfast, and one main meal per day, nearly always dinner. The visitor is then free to take lunch somewhere else. If the hotel has a beach, guests often will order a light a la carte lunch at their hotel, which is added to the bill. The American Plan (AP), on the other hand, includes all three meals per day. Drinks, including wine, are usually extra.

If you want to eat your main meals outside the hotel, book a Continental Plan (CP), which includes only breakfast. To go one step further, choose the European Plan (EP), which includes no meals.

Appetizers--Except for soup, appetizers don't loom large in the Jamaican kitchen. The most popular appetizer is stamp and go, or salt-fish cakes. Solomon Gundy is made with pickled shad, herring, and mackerel, and seasoned with onions, hot peppers, and pimento berries. Many Jamaicans begin their meal by enjoying plantain and banana chips with their drinks.

The most famous soup, pepper pot, is an old Arawak recipe. It is often made with callaloo, okra, kale, pig's tail (or salt beef), coconut meat, yams, scallions, and hot peppers. Another favorite, ackee soup, is made from ackee (usually from a dozen ripe open pods), flavored with a shin of beef or a salted pig's tail. Pumpkin soup is seasoned with salted beef or a salted pig's tail. Red-pea soup is also delicious (note that it's actually made with red beans).

Tea in Jamaica can mean any nonalcoholic drink, and fish tea, a legacy of plantation days, is made with fish heads or bony fish, along with green bananas, tomatoes, scallions, hot peppers, and other spices.

Main Courses & Side Dishes--Because Jamaica is an island, there is great emphasis on seafood, but many other tasty dishes are also offered. Rock lobster is a regular dish on every menu, presented grilled, thermidor, cold, or hot. Salt fish and ackee is the national dish, a mixture of salt cod and a brightly colored vegetable-like fruit that tastes something like scrambled eggs. Escoveitch (marinated fish) is usually fried and then simmered in vinegar with onions and peppers.

Among meat dishes, curried mutton and goat are popular, each highly seasoned and likely to affect your body temperature. Jerk pork is characteristic of rural areas, where it is barbecued slowly over wood fires until crisp and brown.

Apart from rice and peas (usually red beans), usually served as a sort of risotto with added onions, spices, and salt pork, some vegetables may be new to you. They include breadfruit, imported by Captain Bligh in 1723 when he arrived aboard HMS Bounty; callaloo, rather like spinach, used in pepper-pot soup (not to be confused with the stew of the same name); cho-cho, served boiled and buttered or stuffed; and green bananas and plantains, fried or boiled and served with almost everything. Then there is pumpkin, which goes into soup, as mentioned, or is served on the side, boiled and mashed with butter. Sweet potatoes are part of main courses, and there is also a sweet-potato pudding made with sugar and coconut milk, flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla.

You'll also come across intriguing dip and fall back, a salty stew with bananas and dumplings, and rundown, mackerel cooked in coconut milk and often eaten for breakfast. The really adventurous can try manish water, a soup made from goat offal and tripe said to increase virility. Patties (meat pies) are a staple snack; the best are sold in Montego Bay. Boiled corn, roast yams, roast salt fish, fried fish, soups, and fruits are available at roadside stands.

Drinks--Tea, as mentioned above, is a word used in Jamaica to describe any nonalcoholic drink, a tradition dating back to plantation days. Fish tea (see "Appetizers," above) is often consumed as a refreshing pick-me-up and is sometimes sold along the side of the road. Skyjuice is a favorite Jamaican treat for a hot afternoon. It's sold by street vendors from not-always-sanitary carts. It consists of shaved ice with sugar-laden fruit syrup and is offered in small plastic bags with a straw. Coconut water is refreshing, especially when a roadside vendor chops the top off a fruit straight from a tree.

Rum punches are available everywhere, and the local beer is Red Stripe. The island produces many liqueurs, the most famous being Tía María, made from coffee beans. Rumona is another good one to bring back home with you. Bellywash, the local name for limeade, will supply the extra liquid you may need to counteract the tropical heat. Blue Mountain coffee is considered among the world's best coffees-it's also very expensive. Tea, cocoa, and milk are also usually available.

Links & Sources:

• Frommers