FOOD TO CELEBRATE MY JAMAICAN ROOTS
It is a tricky one, ‘celebrating’ Black History Month. On one hand, the existence of such a month highlights the lack of acknowledgement of black culture and history during the remaining 11 months of the year.
On the other hand, food has always been a vehicle for learning about other cultures and it remains a vital connection between different communities. And I will always celebrate my Jamaican roots and shout about them to anyone who’ll listen. Especially the food.
These recipes celebrate the food of Jamaica. Not the dishes the island is rightly famed for – jerk, ackee and saltfish, oxtail to name a few – but the ingredients and produce that are written into the island’s history and tell its story.
Jamaica’s indignous people, the Taino, cultivated cassava, sweet potato and corn. Cassava was a root so precious to them that they worshipped it – bread made from cassava flour could keep for months; a rare bonus in the pre-refrigeration days where any adverse
