A taste of Jamaica

Every year around this time I get a craving for Jamaican food, and it's a hard one to satisfy. Although Tokyo is a great city for eating and has nearly every type of cuisine out there, there are a few that are either really hard to find, or missing entirely. And Jamaican food is definitely one of those cuisines, so if I want to eat it, I've got to make it.

Fortunately many Jamaican dishes are not hard to recreate here in Japan. And although a few substitutions and missing ingredients are necessary the results are pretty good.

Red pea soup is probably the easiest, at least in part because there are so many versions. It can be vegetarian or be full of beef and salt pork. Spinners (long dumplings) and coconut milk are optional, you can choose either potatoes or yams or both, and you can load it with vegetables or keep it plain. The four constants seem to be red peas (aka kidney beans), thyme, scotch bonnet peppers and a member of the onion family (scallions, onions or both). In the soup above I went with kidney beans, bacon, potatoes onions, fresh thyme, fresh aotogarashi (Japanese hot peppers), and spinners. And it tasted wonderful, although I made the spinners too big and they were closer to suiton (Japanese dumplings).

After the soup was jerk pork, rice and peas, and a spinach salad (not really Jamaican but the plate needed some colour). The pork was marinated with a bottled jerk paste and cooked in the oven, so it wasn't terribly authentic. But it turned out better than I thought and it's nice to know the bottled jerk, which I can buy here, is not bad. It made a good sauce too, with the addition of soy sauce, ginger and a little honey. The rice and peas were a bit mushy because Japanese rice is just too sticky. Which I already knew but am willing to live with considering the price of imported rice here. All in all a very good meal, and I'd even call it fantastic if I'd never tasted the real thing back home (where we have a large Jamaican community) or in Jamaica.

I ended up with huge amounts of rice and soup, even though I'd halved the recipes-- something that always seems to happen when I make non-Japanese food. So it was a great excuse to have another Jamaican meal today. This time I thinned out the soup with a bit of leftover coconut milk and served steamed spinach (no way can I find callaloo here). And I tried the jerk paste on a boneless chicken thigh and boy was it ever good. Somehow barbecue recipes with chicken suffer less than with other meats when cooked in the oven. Especially the thigh-- it's so hard to screw up and it certainly came out nicely tonight.

So why do I feel like Jamaican food this time of year? My parents go to Negril every February, and I've gone with them a few times. While they're gone I get nostalgic and wish I was there, and naturally I feel like eating the food. I also like to pull out the pictures, and have just uploaded some photos from my last visit (a whole four years ago). Here a few below, the rest are here.

Comments

[Tess]

I'm looking out my window at a snowy Christmas scene—4" to 5" of new snow and still falling. So when I saw your pictures of palm trees and beaches, I can absolutely understand your craving for Jamaican food.

Question about "suiton." I did a recipe test for of a Hawaiian/Japanese soup.
(look at my blog for Jan. 30, 2008)
I'm wondering if the recipe was closer to those dumplings than to Dango? Or do you have a recipe for suiton? I couldn't find one online.

[Donna Hastings]

Hi there. I have written before and you may remember that I advised you how to get that roasted chicken skin crispy. I am that Jamaican-born woman living in Frankfurt via NY, Ca and Berlin. I LOVE your blog. Very inspiring and somehow sympathique. I do not prep Japanese food but eat it all the time - today in fact - and enjoyed a blissful holiday in Kyoto and Tokyo about 6 yrs ago where I munched out and even went for a full kaiseki dinner. Ouch in terms of finances!!! But heavenly.

Loved your Jamaica urge b/c I was just thinking of soaking some red beans. Your efforts are so admirable even if I make better spinners. Btw have you tried to use Uncle Ben's long grain rice for the rice 'n peas. I know it's cheating but it works!! I once had a horrible experience in Italy making rice and peas with risooto rice but the Italians loved it. They called it Jamaican risotto. I was SOOO annoyed.

We will be moving back to Berlin in the summer (my place in the sun) and there are actually a couple of Jamaican restaurants incl. a long-established one in the gay ghetto. They even have fried dumplin, ox-tail, ackkee and saltfish etc. and I am a regular.

Thank you for bringing a bit of sunshine into another expat's life.

Donna

PS I ended up in Berlin due to personal choice but Frankfurt has been due to my hubby's career and my sense of compromise. I can get all the ingredients here for everything but it is unfortunately a somewhat soulless place... Glad to be headed back to Berlin!!

[suzy]

When I lived in Ebisu we stumbled on AAla Wi (http://www.bento.com/rev/2280.html), and ate jerk chicken there. I've never been to Jamaica so I don't know how authentic it is, but we enjoyed it!

[Teri]

I was going to suggest Aala Wi, too. It's probably not perfect, but it's a fun little place. The rice and peas used non-sticky rice, for what it's worth. Next time I'm going to try the tofu jerk, just for fun. If nothing else, they have ginger beer, which makes it worth the trip.

I've been in Tokyo for about a year and your blog has been so helful to me. Thanks so much! I'm making my own Japanese-inspired messes here: http://gingersaltpeachlime.blogspot.com/. If you ever consider cooking (or just as important, shopping!) lessons, let us know.

Cheers,

teri

[Amy]

Tess, that recipe is about involved for suiton: most often all you do is mix flour and water to make a thick dough (commonly described as "earlobe texture", whatever that means) and then pinch off little pieces, roll them into balls and drop them in the soup. Some people refrigerate it to firm up the dough, and it's possible to thrown in black sesame, toru or other additions, but it's really just a simple flour dumpling.

Donna, thanks for the comment! Your spinners have got to be better than mine. I hope I get points for effort though. Japanese rice is similar to risotto rice so I feel your pain. As for Uncle Ben's, I doubt I can get that here. Hard to think of Uncle Ben's as exotic, but that's expat life for you!

Suzy and Teri, thank you! I'd never heard of the place but now it's on my list of places to try. I guess Tokyo really does have everything!

And Teri, nice blog! There are so few Japnese food blogs in English so it's great to see a new (or new to me) one.