Delicious Kingston (and Porty) (070110, Thursday, Day 1 Cont'd)

I suggest that we eat at the museum's Legend Cafe before the tour, as I haven't had anything since a Chili's enchilada/fajita hybrid at 8:30 the night before. Plus a bag of JetBlue Terra Chips.

This is a preeminently good idea, as I can later spend the tour properly appreciating Marley, as opposed to cursing him (for accomplishing so much and being such a hero and producing so much offspring) simply because I'm starving.

Rice and peas ("peas" = red kidney beans)



Mmm, delicious, perfectly spiced, curry goat. I'm going to hazard a guess that this originates from Indian immigrants to Jamaica.


Curry fish--fucking awesome. And, yes, for those GD nit-picky Brits, I mean in the sense of "inspiring awe and fear."


Escoveitched fish--but according to the Ts and S, it's the hack, museum restaurant version, since the fish itself should not be fried, then topped with escoveitch, but rather marinated in the pickled onions and peppers before cooking.


Chicken with brown sauce. More accurately, "brown stew chicken."


And finally, a delicious mango juice with ginger. Mangoes, they is better is Jamaica.

During the four hour, spine-tingling, ear-splitting (because of the reggae we're planning) drive to Port Antonio ("Porty," the capitol city of Portland parish), we stop to grab beef patties at Juici Patties:


I feel like they were more delicious when served to the free and reduced lunch kids in NYC.

Then we're off for take-out at Zilla's, where I order curry goat ('cause I j'adore it, but turns out to be a little too salty this time around) and festival, a cross between a fried donut and cornbread (yum).


Eating outside my room, lagoon-side

But not before my pre-dinner snack of conch with okra, which I purchase off a street vendor, grilling aluminum satchels filled with the mixture. It's aiite, and not much better than it looks:



Then, off to the market, where S takes charge of the purchase of a breadfruit--the old woman who sells it to us was going to have it for breakfast, but says, "looks like you need it more than I do"...



and ackee, Jamaica's national fruit, which we'll be having for our breakfast tomorrow:



The first night in Jamaica ends with floating on my back, the near-equatorial starscape, the Big Dipper, and what I think is the constellation of Scorpius, but I might just be talkin' out my ass.