Yum

Thought I'd let everyone in on some of my favorite Jamaican foods:

Patties

Patties are kind of like a giant empanada. The dough is made into a circle, spicy beef or chicken or whatever kind of filling you want is put in the circle and then the dough is folded over and fried. The best pattie i've had so far is the beef pattie with cheese... mmmmm! It's pretty common for me to eat a beef pattie for lunch, but I’m gonna have to cut back on that or I'll be coming home real nice and fat in two years.

Mangos, Pineapples, and Guineps, oh my!

While you can get mangos and pineapples in the states, nothing really beats eating them fresh right off the tree. :) so nice and juicy! As for guineps, they grow in bunches like grapes but they have a thick skin and a giant seed in the middle. Once you break off the skin, you pop the piece of fruit in your mouth and suck the fleshy yummieness off of the seed. I've seen little kids eat the seed but it's pretty huge, I always spit it out afterwards. Unfortunately guineps are seasonal, so unless you come visit me in the summer you're gonna miss out on them.

Ackee and Salt Fish (Jamaica's national dish)

We eat it for breakfast. Ackee is a fruit that is poisonous until it is ripe and opens up. The fruit is boiled (it looks kinda like scrambled eggs after its boiled) and then its cooked up with salt fish and other flavorings, very nice and salty, I love it!

Festival

Festivals are basically a sweet breadstick, crunchy fried on the outside and nice and fluffy and sweet in the middle. Yes, another fatty food that I can't resist. :)

Swordfish fritters

Well I don't know much about how this is made, but its nice and crispy and salty, always a good combination to me!

I'm sure this list will grow as I try more and more food here, but so far these are my favs and you have a lot of yummy things to try when you come to visit me in Jamaica ;)