Our favorite Caribbean islands offer an array of delectable dishes just waiting to be sampled.
By: Karen Tina HarrisonJamaica
Photo courtesy of Rockhouse Hotel
The reggae island is the home of jerk cooking and the blazing Scotch Bonnet pepper, which fuels Jamaican hot sauces. Expect liptingling spicy eats and, these days, some refined kitchen wizardry. The island is also home to a collection of Ital restaurants. Painted red, yellow and green, these eateries offer Rastafarian meatless cuisine. Menu highlights include jerk tofu, ginger juice and bubbly stew with root vegetables and peanut.
Where to Eat: The Jamaica Jerk Trail, an island-wide foodie route, showcases dozens of the best jerk joints and their secret marinades. Favorite stops include Bourbon Beach in Negril, Supreme Jerk Centre in Green Island and Blueberry Hill near Port Antonio. Served at most resorts, the true Jamaican breakfast is saltfish and ackee. It combines cod with local ackee fruit (its yellow flesh fries up like scrambled eggs).
More Foodie Finds: Blue Mountain coffee, hand-picked and grown in central Jamaica’s highlands, is celebrated for its full-bodied, smooth flavor. Jamaican Rum is made the old-fashioned way, from molasses. Appleton Estate Rum offers tasty tours of its South Coast distillery. Resident donkey Pax demonstrates how juice was extracted from sugarcane 200 years ago.
Photo courtesy of Rockhouse Hotel
Where to Stay: Rockhouse is all about drama with its setting atop Negril’s rocky beach, its spectacular pool and its thrillingly romantic thatched-roof, ocean-view villas. Rockhouse’s Pushcart restaurant resembles a village plaza, with a rum bar, a fishmonger selection, and street-food treats like bammies (cassava flat bread) and spiced-stuffed pastries called patties (room rates start at $240 a night; rockhousehotel.com).
Jamaica Inn has no TVs or even clocks in its 47 rooms, just an inviting bed and a balcony overlooking the sea. The remote resort is so romantic that decades apart, Marilyn Monroe and Kate Moss stole away here. The meals are just as dreamy — a breakfast of Blue Mountain coffee and sliced mangoes leads to a light seafood salad lunch. Dinner is on a candlelit open terrace with a canopy of stars. Your entrée could feature a snapper you caught (room rates start at $310 a night; jamaicainn.com).
Puerto Rico
Photo courtesy of La Concha
Puerto Rico is an easy sell for all kinds of travelers. There’s no passport required, U.S. dollars are the official currency, and English, the language. The island sizzles with a salsa beat and a spicy attitude that extends to the cuisine. Puerto Rico’s signature spice, adobo, intensifies the island’s traditional comfort food: hearty rice and beans, roast pork and croquetas (deep-fried rolls of mashed potatoes and ground meat). There’s also a new guard in town — today’s hottest local chefs have kept the adobo, but lightened up recipes to create a cosmopolitan cuisine.
Where to Eat: Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan, teems with cultural attractions, high-end hotels and restaurants. Chef Juan José Cuevas helms 1919 Restaurant, with sophisticated prix fixe and à la carte menus. A highlight is the classic Tres Leches cake, done with dark chocolate. Sataella, a modern spot set beside the farmers’ market, showcases fresh ingredients delivered in inventive concert with each other. And Old San Juan’s Verde Mesa excels at Caribbean fish and vegetarian dishes. Traditional Puerto Rican fare — sancocho (rustic beef stew), caldo gallego (white bean soup), mofongo (mashed, fried plantain) — is served at Kasalta.
More Foodie Finds: Summer’s SoFo Culinary Festival offers traditional tastes and trendy treats served in the colonial streets of Old San Juan. Just outside the city is the Bacardi Rum Factory. A tour, which provides an in-depth look and taste of the famous brand, is free.
Where to Stay: Conrad Condado Plaza Hotel offers a pretty beach, a fun casino and Pikayo restaurant, helmed by local legend and Top Chef Wilo Benet. Of his tapas. we especially love the truffle cheese-filled oversize, dumpling-like empanadillas (room rates start at $225 a night; condadoplaza.com).
At La Concha, San Juan’s Condado neighborhood’s 1950s architectural masterpiece, dining options include Komakai Sushi Bar, Voga for trattoria dishes, Solera for poolside tapas and Aroma for a healthy breakfast buffet. The fine-dining Perla features chef Dayn Smith’s take on surf and turf (room rates start at $199anight;laconcharesort.com).
