Jamaican food has its own vocabulary, and much of it carries history: Taíno cassava bread, West African fruit and greens, salted cod from the Atlantic trade, curry from Indian indentured workers, pastry from Britain. Here are the dishes, ingredients and kitchen phrases you'll meet at a Jamaican table, in Jamaica or abroad.
Eating and food in general
- Nyam: to eat. Dis nyam! also means "this is delicious".
- Bickle: food, a meal (from the old English word "victuals").
- Food: as well as its ordinary meaning, especially in older and rural speech, "food" can mean the starchy staples on the plate: yam, green banana, dasheen, potato, dumpling. These are also called hard food or ground provisions.
- Peas: beans. Red kidney beans, or gungo (pigeon) peas at Christmas.
- Pear: avocado.
- Tea: almost any hot drink, not only tea leaves.
Come nyam yuh dinna.
Come and eat your dinner.
Famous dishes
| Dish | What it is |
|---|---|
| Ackee an saltfish | The national dish: ackee fruit cooked with salted cod, onion, tomato and scotch bonnet. Ackee arrived from West Africa in the 1700s; saltfish came through the Atlantic trade. |
| Jerk | Meat (usually chicken or pork) marinated in scotch bonnet, pimento and herbs, smoked over pimento wood. Associated with the Maroons; the word likely comes from Spanish charqui, dried meat. |
| Curry goat | Goat slow-cooked in Jamaican curry, a dish brought by Indian indentured workers after emancipation. The centrepiece of weddings, nine nights and big Sunday dinners. |
| Rice an peas | Rice cooked with red kidney beans, coconut milk, thyme and a whole scotch bonnet. Sunday dinner without it hardly counts. |
| Rundung (rundown) | Mackerel or saltfish simmered down in coconut milk. |
| Escovitch fish | Whole fried fish under a hot vinegar pickle of pepper, onion, carrot and pimento. From the same roots as Spanish escabeche; a Good Friday and seaside favourite. |
| Oxtail | Oxtail browned dark and braised for hours, usually with butter beans. Once a cheap cut, now often the priciest plate on the menu. |
| Callaloo | Steamed amaranth greens with onion, tomato and thyme. In Jamaica this is a vegetable dish, unlike the dasheen-leaf soup of the same name in Trinidad. |
| Mannish water | A peppery goat soup, traditionally made with the head and offal, green banana and dumplings, served at parties and big occasions. Folk belief credits it with boosting men's strength, hence the name. |
| Patty | A turmeric-gold pastry filled with spiced minced beef (or chicken, vegetables and more). A Jamaican remix of the Cornish pasty, and the island's grab-and-go lunch. |
Breads, dumplings and sides
| Word | What it is |
|---|---|
| Bammy | Flat cassava bread, soaked and fried or steamed, served with fish. It continues the Taíno way of making cassava bread. |
| Festival | Sweet, cornmeal-enriched fried dough shaped into fingers, the classic partner for jerk and fried fish. |
| Dumpling | Flour dough, boiled or fried. Small boiled ones go in soups and stew peas; fried ones are a breakfast staple. |
| Breadfruit | A large starchy fruit, often roasted whole in the fire and sliced. It was brought to Jamaica in 1793 on Captain Bligh's second breadfruit voyage, as cheap food for enslaved people. |
| Hard dough bread | A dense, slightly sweet white loaf, the everyday sliced bread. |
| Coco bread | A soft folded bread made with coconut milk, famously wrapped around a patty. |
Seasonings and ingredients
- Scotch bonnet: the fiery, fruity hot pepper behind jerk, escovitch and much else. In rice and peas and soups it goes in whole, for flavour without too much heat, and is never burst.
- Pimento: allspice. The berries flavour stews, pickles and jerk; the wood is used for smoking.
- Thyme, scallion, garlic and onion: the base of most Jamaican seasoning.
- Coco: cocoyam, a starchy root. Not cocoa, as the proverb one one coco full basket reminds you.
- Gungo peas: pigeon peas, a Christmas favourite in rice and peas and soup.
Di food have nuff pepper.
The food is really spicy.
Sweets, baked goods and drinks
| Word | What it is |
|---|---|
| Bun an cheese | Dark spiced Easter bun eaten with a slice of processed tin cheese. |
| Bulla | A dense, dark, round cake sweetened with molasses or brown sugar and spiced with ginger, often eaten with pear (avocado) or cheese. |
| Gizzada | A crimped pastry tart filled with sticky spiced coconut, nicknamed "pinch-me-round". |
| Toto | A small, dense coconut cake, an old-time favourite. |
| Sorrel | The deep red Christmas drink made by steeping dried sorrel (hibiscus) with ginger and spices, often with rum. |
| Bush tea | Tea brewed from fresh leaves and herbs, such as fever grass (lemongrass) or mint, often as a home remedy. |
| Christmas cake | Dark fruit cake soaked in rum and wine, a December essential. |
Di sorrel have ginger inna it.
The sorrel has ginger in it.
Rasta food
Ital is the Rastafari approach to food: natural, unprocessed, usually vegetarian or vegan, often without added salt. The word is usually explained as "vital" with the Rasta I sound at the front.
Kitchen and table talk
These everyday sentences come up around any Jamaican pot:
Aunty a cook Sunday dinna.
Aunty is cooking Sunday dinner.
Put di pot pon di fire.
Put the pot on the fire.
Di food smell good bad.
The food smells really good.
Gi thanks before yuh nyam.
Give thanks (say grace) before you eat.
A who nyam di lass piece a chicken?
Who ate the last piece of chicken?
Mi belly full, mi cyaan nyam nuh more.
I'm full, I can't eat any more.
Tek some fi di road.
Take some for the journey.
A few more words worth knowing:
- Dutch pot: the heavy cast-iron pot used for stews, rice and frying.
- Run di pot: to be the one in charge of the cooking at a big occasion, a role with real status.
- Brawta: the little extra a vendor throws in free.
- Jerk pan: a steel drum cut in half and made into a grill.
For phrases to use when ordering, see ordering food and Jamaican phrases for travellers. You can also browse all the food words in the dictionary.
Questions people ask
Why do Jamaicans call beans peas?
In Jamaica, peas is the usual word for beans and similar pulses. Rice and peas is normally made with red kidney beans, or with gungo (pigeon) peas around Christmas. Stew peas is a stew of red beans, usually with meat and small dumplings.
What does nyam mean?
Nyam means to eat: Come nyam yuh dinna (come and eat your dinner). Said of food, it can also mean delicious: Dis nyam! It's one of the oldest words in Patois and very likely comes from West African languages.
Is ackee safe to eat?
Only when it's ripe and has opened naturally on the tree. Unripe ackee is toxic, which is why tinned ackee is the usual choice outside Jamaica. Properly prepared, it's the national fruit and half of the national dish.