You haven’t truly experienced the Ritz-Carlton in Rose Hall, Jamaica, until you’ve been to the Jerk Center.
Excuse me a moment, I’m still not done giggling about it.
Okay. Ahem.
Jamaican jerk is a traditional spice, one that is usually used to make jerk chicken, but it turns out that just about anything can be jerked.
This is just an example of what you can learn at the Jerk Center, where they make jerk-everything and serve it up to you with Red Stripe right on the beach — you eat with your feet in the sand. And so does this bird, who I’ve named Steve Martin:
Jerk spice is, as you might guess, spicy, and somewhat reminiscent of Cajun blackening spice. It’s one of those styles of cooking where you know the blackest part of your food is going to taste the best, carcinogens-be-damned.
It turns out I prefer jerk lobster. Here’s a picture of me making some:
Check out my cleaver. Hot damn!
Mmm, delicious jerkfood:
That’s chicken, lobster, and some traditional Jamaican sides. Yum!
Photos courtesy of Annie Scott.