![]() ![]() While the likes of ackee and saltfish (and the more famous jerk chicken) have come to represent the island, frugal soups and curries laden with un-photogenic starch are the real crux of Jamaican food. It’s a disconnect between manufactured resort beauty and raw local beauty-the private beaches of Montego Bay versus the raucous hustle and bustle aura of Downtown Kingston, underpinned by pulsing bass-heavy sound systems. The cake is still a reminder of the disconnect between the Jamaica the world sees and the Jamaica that Jamaicans see. Since then, the cake, like all recipes that travel the world, has morphed countless times in terms of size, layers, frosting, and design. The cake today is frequently termed a “Southern Classic” and remains Southern Living’s most popular recipe of any kind since its feature in February 1978 after a North Carolina resident submitted a version. The hummingbird cake, on the other hand, is an airy, soft sponge based on dairy products, nuts, cream cheese, and other ingredients that were all arguably informed by Jamaica’s British heritage.įood editors and the influencers of the day, particularly from the Southern states of America, got hold of this recipe and from there, you could say it went viral-rapidly spreading into the annals of American cooking and beyond. Denser cakes like the toto cake and bulla cake rely on starchy ingredients like grated cassava and the milk of coconuts. The elements of the hummingbird cake are rarely seen in traditional Jamaican baking. And it was time for Jamaican food to get its due. So the country leaned on its other renowned natural resources-scenery, sun, and sea-and started to foster a global-facing tourism industry in the 1960s as a means of creating a new primary income stream. Up to this point, Jamaica’s economy was based on its sugar industry, which relied on exploitative slave labor. The dwindling conclusion of the centuries-long transatlantic slave trade and subsequently the island’s 1962 independence from Britain left Jamaica in limbo, both in terms of its economics and its cultural identity. The roots of this musical explosion were borne out of the turbulence Jamaica was experiencing at the time. Bob Marley and his fellow Rastafari, with their free-flowing dreadlocks and the hazy smoke of marijuana amidst white sands and palm trees, became synonymous with Jamaica and the wider Caribbean by association. As the global airways of the mid-20th century began broadcasting the pulsating melodies and captivating instrumentals of reggae, a relatively minuscule island in the heart of the Caribbean became known around the world.
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