Food gifts from Jamaica

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My wife returned from Jamaica on Saturday night with island specialties in her suitcase.

She unpacked a container of fried parrot fish, four plastic bags of fresh ackee from trees in the yard, breadfruit wrapped in aluminum foil, large avocados and two, 12-ounce bags of roasted Blue Mountain coffee beans ($19 for 12 ounces). 
 
But it wasn't Jamaican food she wanted before we drove home. With our son, we stopped at Wondee's Thai restaurant on Main Street in Hackensack for a wonderful dinner of vegetarian duck salad (made with tofu, not poultry), spicy Panang curry with large shrimp, a special of Chinese watercress and rice.

This morning, she prepared Jamaica's national dish: ackee and salt fish with sweet and hot peppers -- the bland fruit serving as a foil for salted codfish. On the side, she served the roasted breadfruit, which had been sliced and fried in canola oil. A great breakfast.
 

Why buy any other beef?

ShopRite has another sale on Nature's Reserve-brand beef, a product of Australia that is free range and grass fed. There is a minimum purchase of four pounds at $4.99 a pound with a Price Plus store card. 


The cut is whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon, which I've sliced thin for Korean barbecue or served as small steaks. When I bought this in the past, it required some trimming of fat.




The sale starts today and runs through Sept. 4. With such a low price for Australian beef , it doesn't make sense to buy beef raised conventionally with antibiotics and growth hormones, and fed who knows what.

Jamaican fish story

I know Jamaicans who smuggle cooked fresh fish, fruit and other items into the U.S. when they return from visiting their beautiful island, and who can blame them? You'd be hard-pressed to find decent breadfruit or custard-like sweet sop or the small, sweet fish they enjoy there in New Jersey or New York markets.

During my visit to Jamaica at the end of August, I stopped at some shacks at the side of the road less than a mile from my hotel, RIU Montego Bay, to see what fishermen were selling. The fish hung from wood slats on the table where they were gutted and cleaned. I was told that around noon, two of the shacks would open to steam fresh fish for customers.

The biggest fish was a barracuda, which I have enjoyed in Cuba at the home of a spear fisherman who rents a room to tourists. Also displayed was king mackerel, a favorite of many Jamaicans that, unfortunately, contains a lot of mercury.

I was told the others, which were much smaller, were jack, doctor fish ("see the needle"), parrot fish and goat fish. All the fish was selling for $200 Jamaican dollars per pound, or about $2.35 U.S. At the hotel, I was served what sounded like banga Mary. One of the fishermen at the side of the road said it was an ocean fish.

I didn't see any ice to keep the fish fresh. The fishermen said they can hang the fish in the August heat and humidity for two to three hours. I have my doubts, and probably would not buy fish there unless I saw it being hauled out of the water minutes before.