Where 007 used to hang out

Morgan's Harbour, the hotel in Port Royal that I wrote about earlier - see my blog Where pirates of the Caribbean used to hang out, was also a place where James Bond used to hang out. There was an article today on New York Times Ian Fleming's Jamaica, which traced places in Jamaica associated with Ian Fleming, who created James Bond and who regularly spent his time in Jamaica. I never knew this, but according to the article, some of the 007 movies were filmed at and around the hotel, and the car chase scene of Dr. No was shot on the road that I drive to go there! Watch a scene of the road to Morgan's Harbour in a French trailer of Dr. No, available on YouTube.

The U.S. election night

All day long, listeners are calling in to local radio stations to talk about the victory of Barack Obama. Needless to say, nearly every resident of paradise has been for Barack Obama, and everyone is excited about the U.S. presidential election outcome, as people in other parts of the world are. For some reason, however, I don't see CNN or ABC or New York Times reporting a scene of people celebrating this moment from the Caribbean! So here we go, I am posting the article by my favourite roving reporter Robert Lalah, who reports on how two residents of paradise spent the historic U.S. presidential election night, and what they expect from "Arack".
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20081106/news/news1.html

If you need some help in understanding Jamaican Patois, you could consult some of the websites listed here: http://www.jamaicans.com/speakja/.

U.S. General of Jamaican descent

I had no idea, but Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and former General of U.S. army, is of Jamaican descent. He was born to Jamaican parents. I learned this from an interview with him by the Jamaica Gleaner, published today: click to read
Barack Obama has commander-in-chief quality, says Powell.

By the way, I have been hearing and reading many people in Jamaica expressing their view that ironically it is Bush who paved the way for Obama to rise by appointing Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice for the high-profile position in his administration. I find it very intriguing that I hear this view quite often around here although I never hear it from the U.S. media. Is it that the perspective is totally irrelevant in U.S., or is it not expressed in U.S. for fear of invoking the "r" word, i.e. "race", or...?

Indian food with a Jamaican twist

Jewel of India, which is located next to East in the fancy food court in the Market Place, is one of the best Indian restaurants that I have been to in my life (note: I have never been to India). Their food is savory and has rich complex tastes. I especially like their mutton curry, which is always made very tender. This time, however, I was with a person who doesn't eat meat, and we ordered seafood.

I couldn't manage to fit the dishes in the camera frame very well because of darkness, but from the top, vegetable bullets (695JMD), shrimp angarry (1645JMD), Madras fish curry (1235JMD), and garlic nan (275JMD). I normally prefer grilled fish over cooked fish, but I was impressed with the fish curry. It wasn't spicy at all but very tasty, and the meat of the snapper - if you order a fish in Jamaica, it is always a snapper - was so soft and juicy at the same time. The shrimp curry was also very good. The sauce was mildly spicy and velvety, and the shimps were crisp. The appetizer vegetable bullets are supposedly their original. The separate sauce is a clear liquid type. It is vinegary and has cilantro in it.

Indian people began settling in Jamaica around the same time as Chinese people came, in the mid-19th century. As in the case of Chinese people, Indian people first came as indentured labourers. To know more about how Indian people came to Jamaica then, see Out Of Many Cultures: The People Who Came - The Arrival Of The Indians from the Pieces of the Past series of the Gleaner.

Jamaican food of Chinese descent

Continuing with yesterday's story on residents of Chinese descent in paradise, there is a very successful business family in Jamaica by the name of Hendrickson, who owns a major bread company National, and despite the name that sounds more Northern European than Chinese, they are of Chinese descent.

The family is known for having introduced to Jamaica a machine to slice bread, which made their small bakery grow into National, whose many products also include my favourite plantain chips. They then expanded into the hotel business, and now own numerous hotels and resorts in Jamaica and other islands, including Courtleigh that serves my favourite Jerk Chicken Linguine that I wrote about on October 21.

I was looking for a newspaper feature article on the history of the family that I read once, but instead, I encoutered an interesting interview with the head of the family published on the Gleaner in 2003 - Karl Hendrickson: A business titan speaks. His warning then about the risk of Jamaica becoming a country of buyers is spot-on in today's context.

In all those stories about the family that I read and heard about sporadically in different places, what left a lingering impression on me was this machine that sliced bread in a massive quantity. Every story about the family seems to begin with this machine, like a legend. Now every time I see the name National on a small package of plantain chips, the first thing that comes to my imagination is this legendary machine surrounded by people in awe. Beside the legend behind the name National, what I like about National plantain chips is that they are very light and crisp, they are cheap, and above all, they are put in small packages that help me not overeat them. Each small package is only 25JMD - that's only 32 US cents, and contains 120 calories.

Chinese food with a Jamaican twist

Residents of paradise seem to like Chinese food, and many Chinese restaurants and eateries are found in Kingston. Among them, Jade Garden is my most favourite, and probably the most expensive. It is on the top floor of the Sovereign shopping mall, and the dining hall is surrounded by large windows that provide a good view of mountains. Today, I had...

Steamed Black Bean Rib, from their daily Dim Sum menu. Very tasty.

Steamed tofu stuffed with shrimp. This is what I was craving for today. Delicate, warm, soft and light, it's my comfort food.

Baby pak choi sauteed with garlic. I always order this in a Chinese restaurant. I feel energized after eating this, just as Popeye would when he eats spinach. It is not on the menu at Jade Garden as often is the case with other Chinese restaurants elsewhere, but if you ask, they should be able to make it for you very easily as long as they have pak choi. Fortunately for me, pak choi is widely available in paradise, and you can find it in any market. Chinese people began settling in Jamaica long time ago in the mid-19th century when they came as indentured labourers, and probably they brought pak choi with them.

If you'd like to know a bit more about the history of Chinese people in Jamaica, read Out Of Many Cultures: The People Who Came - The Arrival Of The Chinese in the Pieces of the Past series of the Gleaner. The series is also published as a book, and it is available from Amazon.com here.

This sauce, which is soy sauce with chopped hot peppers in it, is always served in a Chinese restaurant around here. I have never seen it in a Chinese restaurant elsewhere, and I think it is very particular to Jamaica, though I am not certain since I have never been to China. It is very hot, and although I rarely use it, residents of paradise seem to put it on everything.

Delightful food with a great view does not come very cheap. The steamed tofu was 1300JMD (US$18.50), sauteed baby pak choi 1200JMD (US$17), and steamed black bean rib 400JMD ($5.50), all before taxes.

Heading East for sushi

I had a major craving for good sushi, and went to East. East Japanese Restaurant is found in the Courtyard, a fancy, high-end food court in the Market Place on Constant Spring Road. It is very popular, so popular that you need to reserve a table ahead if you want to make sure that you'd get to eat there.

East serves good, authentic sushi, though it doesn't carry raw shellfish, which was why I preferred the Japanese restaurant at Hilton before when it existed - basically, I only eat shellfish and toro when it comes to sushi. Today, I indulged myself in a sushi feast, with toro, salmon toro and uni, all of which were of good quality, though I couldn't capture it well in my photo above. I also had negi-toro, which I thought were in need of stronger negi flavour.

As is the case with every other sushi restaurant in the world, sushi at East is very expensive, and each little piece of sushi costs 300JMD. For the 6 pieces I had, I was charged 1800JMD (before tax), which is about US$25... Negi-toro was 430JMD (US$6).

Despite the popularity and the high pricing, the chef said the business was struggling. The price of raw fish went up by 30% in the last year because of the rise in the fuel cost that raised the cost for transporting fish. Then, due to the financial crisis in U.S., affluent Kingstonians are reducuing the frequency of their visits to this expensive restaurant. Here again, we spot a want, not a need, called sushi, though for me, sushi is nearly a need, and I really hope that East will survive this difficult time.