Food

While most hotels, particularly major resorts, will provide cheeseburgers and pizza to tourists, visitors should experience the local cuisine. Jamaican cuisine is tasty, albeit not always healthy. Jerk chicken, curried goat, and oxtail stew are popular specialties, with rickety jerk shacks on the side of the road producing some of the best food. This is absolutely one of the things to know before traveling to Jamaica.

At most buffet stations and low-key establishments, rice and peas (kidney beans), fried plantains, sautéed callaloo (spinach-like greens), and bammy (cassava flatbread) are common side dishes. Breakfast should include saltfish and ackee (a fruit), which is the national meal. A strong cup of Jamaican coffee will help you digest everything.

A inexpensive supper of Jamaican patties (pastries packed with meats or vegetables) and Red Stripe beer, made locally, is also recommended. Jamaican cuisine has expanded around the globe with emigration, particularly during the twentieth century, when Jamaicans sought economic possibilities in other countries.

Rastafarian influences can be seen in Jamaican food, but not exclusively. Rastafarians follow a vegetarian diet and have added a variety of distinctive vegetarian dishes to Jamaican cuisine. Rastafarians abstain from eating pork. Pork, on the other hand, is a popular dish in Jamaica. Pork stew and jerk pork are two of the most popular preparations. Some people even believe in cooking with little or no salt, which is known as the 'Ital' method.