What to Order If You’re New to Jamaican Food
Walking into a Jamaican restaurant for the first time can feel a little like being handed a map without a legend. The aromas hit first, smoke, allspice, thyme, Scotch bonnet, onions cooked down into gravy, rice steaming somewhere in the back. Then you look up at the menu and see names that may be familiar in passing but not yet attached to a clear taste in your mind: jerk chicken, oxtail, curry goat, escovitch fish, ackee and saltfish, callaloo, festival. If yo