Day 8: August 2023

August 2023: my first and definitely not my last foray into Jamaican cooking.

A little fairy sent a copy of @riazphillips “West Winds” up to me in Scotland, where I was spending most of the month.

So, after sharing Riaz’s oxtail recipe with a Jamaican friend and getting his approval, (Joe is nothing if not opinionated, especially when it comes to his country’s food. Re the oxtail: “legit but would not have separated the oxtail from the gravy,”) I leapt enthusiastically in.

Jerk chicken. Rice and peas. And a cabbage dish whose name I can’t recall— and, because I’m back in Scotland and West Winds is at home in London, I can’t look up in the TOC.

It was indeed legit. Legit delicious. Truly. And made me want to cook more, learn more and eat more Jamaican (and other Caribbean) food. What a treat of a meal. What a treat of a cookbook. What an August delight.