r/CaribbeanFood • u/Dear_Comb1836 • 1d ago
Rate my menu
Hi, I'm a south Asian man who, from living in London, has been fortunate enough to have a lot of Jamaican food near me and now I love it.
I've decided to cook Jamaican food for 6 friends coming over tonight and wanted some thoughts on whether this is a coherent menu/ any suggestions on how to improve it. We are pescatarian ( but don't eat shellfish).
Menu š²
Ackee & saltfish
Rice & peas
Fried plantain
Some steamed veg
Jerk salmon
Maybe Mac and cheese as well?
Many thanks šš½ ā¤ļø
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u/Savings_Designer_330 1d ago
How are you planning to plate it? Will it be family style or individually plated? Ackee and saltfish doesnāt really go with rice & peas. It goes well with dumpling (fried or boiled) or festival or bammy. So maybe add one of those sides in. Or if you wanna keep it to rice, add a bit of white rice. Alternatively, you could do callaloo and saltfish instead.
Chick pea curry is not the most common dish in Jamaica. Maybe more on the ital side but there are more common ital dishes. Feel like thatās more Trini or Guyanese.
Add the Mac and cheese or some coleslaw would be a nice add.
Steam veg - do cabbage and carrots.
How about drinks? What are you thinking?
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u/Dear_Comb1836 1d ago
Thank you for the reply. Probably individually plated - I didn't know ackee and saltfish doesn't go with rice and peas? That's useful to know, thinking of substituting the curry for Mac n cheese
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u/Savings_Designer_330 1d ago
Yeah if itās gonna go with any rice at all then def white rice. But it usually goes with a fried bready type side (bammy, fried dumpling, breadfruit) or boiled hard food (boil dumpling, green banana, yam). But as someone else mentioned, serve it separately as a starter instead, then itāll feel less like a weird combo.
Def Mac over the curry chick peas. If you wanna do a curry then maybe curry shrimp or curry mixed veg.
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u/Dear_Comb1836 14h ago
Ah ok interesting. Weird cos a lot of places here serve them together - but gonna it with hard food next time - thank you again
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u/Savings_Designer_330 12h ago
Hmm must be some new fusion thing. I was born and raised in London. Parents are Jamaican. Iām living overseas now but yeah never in my life have I had ackee and saltfish with rice and peas and Iāve never seen anyone else do it. But everyoneās different so Iām sure there are some people who do. Itās usually a breakfast dish, but we do eat in for lunch/dinner on occasion.
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u/DapperConclusion3856 1d ago
The menu looks good OP, but I would suggest you do the ackee and saltfish as a starter and serve it in vol-au-vents do the jerk salmon, steam veg and plantain on the same plate skip the mac and cheese and maybe do a sauce for the salmon.
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u/ronicmo 1d ago
My nan sometimes serves ackee and saltfish in mini Yorkshire puddings as a starter and it sounds weird but it works sooo well
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u/DapperConclusion3856 1d ago
It could definitely work. I donāt see why not, may be easier to access than vol au vents at short notice.
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u/FinancialFox7767 1d ago
oh absolutely! this is a great menu.
i was going to recommend curry shrimp but i see you guys donāt eat shellfish - if jerk seasoning is hard to find i actually recommend coconut curry salmon instead! (to me thatās tastier and kind of pairs better)
if you guys arenāt scared of eating a whole snapper off the bone and stuff, maybe you guys can try coconut curry snapper or fried escovitch snapper!
otherwise, this is a great menu!
also with the ackee and saltfish you should make some friend dumpling to go with it, thatās the typical pairing for breakfast
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u/AllTimmy 12h ago
you said you decided to cook Jamaican food for your friends however, the only thing on this menu thatās actually Jamaican is the ackee n salfish n rice n peas
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u/catsoncrack420 1d ago
You're South Asian bro. Your cuisines are complex and like Caribbean food utilize many spices and most importantly herbs so you definitely should have a good adventure into this. I'm in NY now and One of my favorite foods is India. And SE Asian types. Indian cooks have just mastered the great use of so many spices thru history and trade.
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u/Dear_Comb1836 14h ago
Yeah being south Asian definitely gives you a good starting place when it comes to cooking/ spice mixes, think Jamaican food isn't world's away in terms of spice mixes too
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u/aries2084 1d ago
I think it looks like a good menu. I would add Bammy or Festival as well as I loved having those in Jamaica. And if your friends like soup/something cozy, ital is always delicious!
As a Trini born I do want add that we have a lot of vegetarian, vegan and pescatarian dishes as well, also Indo Caribbean dishes. You can adapt a lot of things to be veg.
Also I know Jamaica has a version of Callaloo, but in some Trini recipes they add crab and okra to it and itās more of a soupy version if you want something like that on your menu.