Digging into my Butter Chicken in Runaway Bay, Jamaica

As some of our regular readers may have noticed, we haven’t posted anything on Big Apple Curry in a couple of weeks because…we took our first family vacation! With one year under our belts as first-time parents, we survived nursing, diapers, daycare, crawling, solid foods, teething, the works. We headed to Jamaica with our newly-minted 12-month old Liam. I couldn’t wait to get there, especially after  an unusually hard winter here in New York City. As we jetted off from JFK and landed in Montego Bay, I pictured the warm water, the warm sand, the warm air — anything warm, honestly. There is something about being in the ocean that soothes the body and soul. We tucked into a small resort in Runaway Bay, right on the Caribbean Sea. Having never been to Jamaica before, but growing up with Jamaicans in Canada and being avid fans of Bob Marley, Harry Belafonte, and Jamaican beef patties, Sean and I were looking forward to experiencing Jamaica firsthand, especially authentic Jamaican cuisine. We weren’t at all disappointed. Between the ripe mango and smooth local coffee at breakfast,  thick, richly-spiced beef patties and glistening, sticky jerk chicken at lunch, and freshly-picked raw coconut water in the hot afternoons, we were hooked — and literally ate the same thing every single day.

Our view at lunch on the Caribbean Sea about 90 min from Montego Bay

As we slowly began to relax, and the daily grind of our hectic Manhattan life melted away, I relished the chance to simply sit and listen to the ocean and point out different birds to Liam in the coconut trees. When in the Caribbean, I always reflect on its rich history, and try to picture what it must have been like when Christopher Columbus came ashore looking for India, discovering instead what would be called “The West Indies.” I always reflect on its rich culinary history as well. This couldn’t be more true for Jamaica, which has a cuisine that reflects different cultural influences over thousands of years, between its indigenous folk, Spanish explorers, African slaves, British colonists, and Chinese and Indian indentured servants. As I mentioned in What is Curry? India is renown for its historical position at the center of the global spice trade, as the influence of Indian spices, herbs, and preparations spread near and far from Japan to Jamaica.

“The Curry Trail’ map (Source: Madhur Jaffrey “Curries and Kebabs” cookbook)

In addition to being used to describe an Indian dish or blend of Indian spices, the word “curry” is also commonly used to describe Indian-rooted dishes that have been adapted and transformed by local ingredients in other parts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, Japan, Africa, and of course, the Caribbean. In the early 1800s during Britain’s colonial rule of India and Jamaica, many Indian immigrants became indentured servants and brought their spices to Jamaica with them. Over time, classic Indian spices like cinnamon, ginger, and turmeric were combined with local spices like Jamaican pimento (similar to allspice) and scotch bonnet pepper, resulting in a distinctive set of national Jamaican dishes like ‘curry goat’ and ‘jerk chicken.’ The dishes don’t taste like classic Indian dishes, instead boast a unique flavor profile, but you can almost put your finger on that thin, common thread because they share such deep roots with Indian flavors.

Jamaican curry powder n the shelf at my local grocery store in Harlem, New York — the influence of Indian spices and herbs are everywhere!

A little bit of Caribbean scotch bonnet pepper goes a loooooooong way. Buy one at your market and see. Whoa that’s hot!

To be sure, Jamaicans are friendly, welcoming people. We instantly felt at ease with everyone we met, and relished the way our new Jamaican friends described classic breakfasts like Ackee & Salt Fish and mainstays like Rice & Peas. At the helm of the resort’s main grill was Baushka, a welcoming, sunny guy who served up our beef patties and jerk chicken each day. Imagine our surprise when we learned he had trained at an Indian restaurant in Jamaica, and our delight at his excitement to prepare some dishes for us. Bauskha showed me his small tandoor oven inside the small grill hut — I had been standing there for days and hadn’t realized it was a tandoor! He said “Leave it to me, I will prepare butter chicken for you! Ya mon!” The next afternoon he proudly pulled this red hot skewer of chicken from his Indian clay oven, and turned it into a tomatoey butter chicken. Sean and I were in heaven. After we inhaled it with naan and mango rice, I sat and chatted with Baushka about how much tomato he uses (there is a trick to getting butter chicken right, which involves sometimes a combination of fresh tomatoes and tomato paste to get the blend of sweet and sour just right). As I stood up to head to the beach he said “Tomorrow I will make you samosas! Ok? Ya mon!”

Lo and behold, with Liam down for his afternoon nap the next day, Sean and I sauntered over to the grill hut and were treated to fresh potato and vegetable samosas, complete with homemade tamarind chutney. We kicked back at the bar and ordered fresh mango daiquiris and, well folks, all we could do was look at each other, smile, and say “Ya mon!”

Kicking back with a vegetable samosa and tamarind chutney near Montego Bay

Latoya handing me a fresh mango daiquiri with just a splash of Jamaican rum — what better pairing for an afternoon samosa?