Jamaica - Jan 3rd 2003

From an email I sent to my followers:

Dear Readers,

Without any doubt, last night I made my most successful dinner since the beginning of the alphabet! Perhaps the rather ambitious and a bit risky menu resulted in a mixture of dishes that went together as well as cheese on maccheroni!

There were four of us at dinner: Eric and I and Katie and Richard who are becoming our main comrades of this culinary adventure (and also very courageous heroes that aren't afraid of trying my experiments).
Jamaica is definitely on the list of countries I'd like to visit one day. Who wouldn't want to visit that paradise? Any of you already been there perhaps? At least I'm sure this time I don't have to give you any geographical direction related to its location as we all know where it is.  It's also really densely populated with almost 2.7 millions inhabitants and a density of 241 people per sq KM...

And what about the weather? Right this moment it's raining on Kingston's beaches. But it's almost 21C... but before any of you plan a departure, I must tell you the forecast is for rain the entire week!

I can't omit a picture:



No words...

But let's move on to the menu:

Appetizer
Red pea sour with spinners: 9.5. Spinners are some kind of home made bucatini made of flour and water. Among the most curious ingredients: pig tail!

Main Course:
Jamaican Curry Goat served with boiled rice: 10-. 
accompanied by
Cold Mango Soup laced with Rum : 8.5
Proceeding in order... the goat curry was a delight. Very spicy thanks to the use of habanero peppers (also called scotch bonnet) that are the spiciest peppers in the world.
While preparing the soup, I was a bit unsure of its result.  Mixing chicken broth with mango? And sugar? I don't know.  And instead, so delicious! If you like mango, it's definitely something to try. The score reflects the personal preference of the guests.  Eric, for example, doesn't eat much fruit and so he scored it 6. Katie instead gave it a perfect 10. And I thought it was great. Moreover it really complemented the goat curry that as I mentioned was very spicy.

Dessert:
Chocolate Cake: 8+. Before you go ahead and say that chocolate cake isn't a Jamaican specialty... I'd point out that once you add rum and Jamaican spices it definitely becomes it. Again a delicious treat both to the eyes and to the palate.

To drink? No wine this time.  We had Red Stripes Jamaican Import Beer.

Really a great evening... and if you want the recipes, just ask!

Stay tuned, next dinner is Kazakhstan. But I've no idea when...