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Words by Alexandra C. Wood—
A native New Yorker and graduate of The French Culinary Institute, Alexandra C. Wood has sampled soupe joumou, the squash-based soup traditionally consumed to celebrate Haitian Independence on New Year’s Day, from Manhattan to the Marais. She shared her own variation on her family’s recipe from Haiti.
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Words by Jessica Freites
The LargeUp Miami office had a little holiday get-together the other night, centered around the creation and consumption of coquito. After we drank it all, we had our Boricua correspondent and the night’s chief coquito mixologist, Jessica Freites, break down the science behind Puerto Rico’s favorite winter drink.
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Words and Photos by Erin MacLeod
Tropical climate, lush, green mountains, and access to the ocean make Jamaica a paradise for tourists, but also a tasty destination for folks who love food. Jacqui Sinclair, Melanie Miller and Leisha Wong made this fact deliciously clear, with the first edition of their Kingston Kitchen pop-up food events this past Sunday afternoon. They call it an “artisan open-air food court and food market series,” but it’s also a magazine and a concept. The women behind Kingston Kitchen (the slogan to which is “Love Yuh Like Cook Food”) want to encourage Jamaicans to appreciate the local flavors of the island—especially when working with local ingredients.
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Words by Jesse Serwer
Red Stripe recently contracted artist Yuri Suzuki to create a unique, 8-foot-plus-tall sound sculpture made from thousands of recycled Red Stripe beer cans, many of which were collected at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival. The project, the first in a series of “Make Something From Nothing” cultural projects that the beer brand has commissioned celebrating Jamaica’s DIY culture and music, features audio contributions from DJ Al Fingers and one of our favorite reggae singers at the moment, Gappy Ranks. The sculpture will be unveiled tonight at a launch party at the Village Underground in London. For those who can’t make it, watch this video documenting Suzuki’s creative process—and Gappy singing into one of the most novel-looking microphones you can ever expect to see:
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Words by Jesse Serwer, via the Jamaica Observer
If you’ve been to England recently and were surprised to find Jamaican-style jerk sauce on your table at the pub or prominently displayed at the supermarket, credit Levi Roots. A native of Clarendon, the reggae artist-turned-entrepreneur starred on season four of the entrepreneurial reality show Dragon’s Den a few years back, turning a sauce he had been selling at the Notting Hill Carnival for years into the phenomenon that is Reggae Reggae Sauce. Roots, who was once nominated for a MOBO Award and has a catalog dating back to 1981′s “Poor Man Story,” became an overnight celebrity in England thanks to a sales pitch that included his “Reggae Reggae Sauce” theme song. In the years since, he’s released his own cookbook and hosted the BBC2 cooking series Caribbean Food Made Easy; Reggae Reggae Sauce meanwhile has turned up everywhere from Sainsburys to a sandwich at Subway. Last week, Roots traveled to Kingston to launch the brand, which has evolved into a line of foods including potato chips and ginger beer, in Jamaica. As Roots put it, “If it nuh buss a Jamaica, it nuh really buss.”
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Words by Jesse Serwer, via Max Glazer’s Twitter
Yes, there is a rum named after Ron Jeremy and, yes, there is a good reason to talk about it here. Ron de Jeremy is the idea of a company called One Eyed Spirits, who apparently had a light-bulb moment upon realizing that the Spanish word for run, ron, is also the first name of this most famous of porn stars. But while the concept is novel (and the marketing predictably references Jeremy’s unlikely powers over women), Ron de Jeremy is not a novelty product. It is distilled in Panama by Cuban master blender Francisco “Don Pancho” Fernandez, who is apparently kind of a big deal in the rum world, and the reviews of it generally seem to be very favorable. For now, the rum, which is aged seven years, is available only by web order (for $30), though the product is coming soon to stores and bars, according to the Ron de Jeremy website. Tip of the hat to super DJ Max Glazer for calling us out on Twitter for sleeping on this fine product!
