[A quick roadside jerk lunch. Read about my own adventures in recreating mouthwatering Jamaican jerk chicken here.]
[Mama's fish stew with okra. Sometimes it gets easy for me to slip into a negative cycle of complaining about the size and limitations of my kitchen, and then I meet someone like Mama, who happily bustles around in a kitchen the size of my bathroom. She had about two square feet of counter space — total — yet she managed to make the most delicious meal. She would slice vegetables in the palm of her hand, and drop the pieces right into the stew. No cutting boards needed. I'm not as confident in my knife skills, but she was an inspiration, to be sure.]
[You know a goat curry is really, really good when there are tiny shards of bone and gristle laced throughout the stew. That's where the flavor is, and that's what makes me happy. Jamaicans liked to tell us how much you have to 'work' to get the meat. That's what makes it so amazing and worth it. They're right. That's why I hate boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Where's all the work, the flavor, the payoff?]
[The intrepid journalists hard at work.]
[While we were there, I fell in love with callaloo, which is a Jamaican dark green similar to collard greens or swiss chard. They eat it for every meal there — breakfast, lunch, and dinner — and I never, ever got tired of it. In the mornings, I would order a huge bowl of it (which they stew in citrus and vinegar and garlic and hot sauce) and eat that for breakfast with some ackee and salt cod. It's basically my dream breakfast. I haven't had any luck finding callaloo in North America, but collards, swiss chard, or spinach seem to do the trick. Adam and I decided that if I ever open a restaurant, I will call it Lady Callaloo, which is what he called me for the entire time we were in Jamaica.]
The photos, they keep coming. See Jamaican Me Crazy Part 1 and Part 2.
Our photographer, John Cullen, posted a selection of images on his blog, too. They’re insanely beautiful, of course. He has such a talent for capturing the most magical moments. See them all here.