Week 8: XAYMACA, the land of wood and water.
To put our Jamaican experience into perspective, I need to tell you about Wilbur Scoville:
In 1912, Wilbur Scoville took it upon himself to invent a scale to compare the spicy heat of chili peppers. The chili's "Scoville Heat Units" (SHU) will determine where it sits on the scale. For example, the green pepper or capsicum we use in salads has a SHU of zero (no spicy heat), whereas the jalapeno pepper has a heat rating of 8,000. Let's leave that there for the moment.
Our Jamaican adventure takes us to Jamroc Jamaican in Fortitude Valley, a suburb 1km to the east of the city. It was established in 1886 by Scottish immigrants who arrived on the ship SS Fortitude. In the early 1900, it was a thriving shopping precinct with supermarkets, department stores and flourishing small businesses. The 1960's saw the rise of the suburban shopping centre and the closure of the tram network. This was the death knell for The Valley as it soon fell into urban decay and disrepute as it devolved into a hub for illegal gambling and brothels. Urban renewal started in the late 80's, and today it is a major entertainment destination with night clubs, bars, restaurants, live music venues.....and of course designer shopping (coming full circle!)
The traditional jerk seasoning of Jamaican cuisine has two principal ingredients: Pimento (Allspice)and the Scotch Bonnet pepper (also known as the Boab Bonnet), with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme and garlic added to the mix for flavour complexity. The jerk seasoning can be applied to meat (mostly chicken) as a dry rub or a wet marinade. At Jamroc Jamaican, whatever dish you choose, comes on a scale from "Chill Out" on the mild end, to "Rasta Revenge" at the other extreme. Most of us settled somewhere in the middle for "Hot Affair". We ordered some jerk chicken wings and chicken kebabs to share while deciding on our mains. They looked delicious, beautifully flame-grilled with just the right amount of char. We soon were elbow deep in jerk sauce, in weekend mode, and into sharing our Jamaican facts. But it was as though someone, without any warning, switched off the sound, as we all sat there, on our little red, yellow and green stools, huddled around our table in this tiny restaurant that can seat no more than 10 people, speechless, gasping for air. Keith was in such obvious discomfort that I nearly dialled 000 for paramedic intervention. Nielen, Boet and Olivia were stunned into silence for what seemed to be forever before a gush of omg's were expleted. Lani, Betsie and Ophelia could well have been mourning the loss of an old friend as tears were uncontrollably rolling down their cheeks....and this was only after the starter!
Back to Mr Scoville: he gave the Jamaican Scotch Bonnet a value of 1,000,000 SHU (yes, one million!) If we struggled to handle the "Hot Affair", can you imagine the wrath of the "Rasta Revenge"? Having had our senses muted, the mains all appeared to be quite benign: Brown Stew Chicken, Oxtail in Broad Beans, Goat Curry and the Kingston, Montego, Mandeville and Hungry Rasta jerk chicken burgers. Disturbingly, the Scotch Bonnet is not the spiciest chili on the planet. That honour goes to the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper, with an SHU of 2,000,000.
Under assault of the Scotch Bonnet, we still managed to share our wisdoms on the history of Jamaican Art; the Rastas , their belief that they are the lost tribe of Israel, the importance of cannabis(tree of life) for its natural consciousness exalting properties, and their desire to return to the promised land (Ethiopia); Ian Fleming, his house "Goldeneye" in Kingston where he wrote 10 of his 007 novels, and how secret agent James Bond got his name (the book "Guide to the Birds of the West Indies" by James Bond just happened to be lying next to Ian when he had to name his hero)......and a fascinating fact about the Jamaican flag: did you know that it is the only flag in the world that does not share a single colour with the American flag?
Well, I believe it is time for the pendulum of culinary exploration to swing back to the sensible centre. Next week:
Vive la France!
Brown Stew Chicken
Oxtail and beans
Kingston Burger
From outside
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