Monday, May 12th, 2008...10:02 am
Jerk at Boston Bay
Boston Bay is possibly the best place to sample all things Jerk in Jamaica and is also home to the island’s scrumptious “Jerk-Fest”, held on the 1st Sunday of July every year. Tonight I met David and Glen, the proud owners of Little David’s Jerk Centre. They have every right to be proud as their charcoal craft and concoction of spice and herbs has brought them the fortune of being awarded the accolade “Jamaica’s second-best jerk restaurant, 2007″. I couldn’t find the first-best restaurant, perhaps they had packed-up-profitably for the night to rest on their chargrilled laurels, and scotch-bonnet peppers of course.
And so, here it is…The 2nd Best Jerk Sauce In The World. EVER!..
Ho’ ho’ hot and a bottle of rum:
Rice and peas plus a heavy handful of veggies make for a delicious and honest homemade plate:
Price: On request, dependent on weight and varying from jerk stall to jerk stall. Bargain on a few hundred dollars, plus extra for sides, for a decent dish.
Ingredients: If you fancy making some of your own jerk seasoning, there’s a dozen or so suggested ingredients below to give you an idea of what you will need. I pressed David and Glen to give me the full list from their winning recipe…but every stall has it’s own secrets, of course…
allspice berries
brown sugar
cinnamon
cloves
garlic
ginger
nutmeg
onion
black pepper
salt
soy sauce
scallions
thyme
And Scotch Bonnet Peppers.
How to get there: Click here for google map…
Words and photographs by Oliver Wright.
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May 14th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Tarrus Smiley sings “She’s Royal” and the local guys in the Jerk Centre groove to his lyrics like you wouldn’t believe. They play the song over and over and over again on Tuesdays and Sunday nights when the ten-foot boom boxes set the tone for the evening. Women and girls seem to control one side of the Strip while the men and boys spread along the other. As far as I can see, there’s little interaction between the men and women so I asked a local man, let’s call him Desmond, if he had a wife or girlfriend.
“Chu, naw. Dem is pure trouble!” Pure trouble was when he came home from working hard all day and there was no cooked food.; It was when she didn’t want to wash the clothes or keep the house, and yet would hold out her hand on payday.
And Tarrus sings…”…she’s royal and I want her in my life. She has the qualities of a Queen, she’s a Queen! What a natural beauty, no need no makeup to be a cutie…and when they ask what a good woman’s made of, she’s not afraid and not shamed of who she is..she’s royal, so royal and I need her in my life..oooh Nubian Queen, my Queen, so supreme.”
What’s to be made of the popularity of that song among the men where Jamaican men are notorious for abandoning their women and children?
As I probed Desmond a bit more, I asked him about his house (he had it built with 7 bedrooms and just as many bathrooms) and who lives with him (his mother, grandmother, a sister and a few children) and where it was located (up on the hill over there, he pointed). I found out that they all depend on him for various amounts of support.
It was most notable to me that he supported two women completely and un-ambivalently: his mother and his grandmother and to some extent, his sister. How come? They’d watched over him, took care of him and sacrificed for him, he shared. He’s grateful to them, and happy that he’s in a position to help. I’ve heard that from more than one man.
Queens are mothers, grandmothers, sisters, but hardly ever girlfriends or wives. Desmond doesn’t have any children however in many cases, when a man’s woman “misbehaves”, the children become more hers than his.
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