Jamaica Food and Drink Festival Night Two: One for the Decade

Four of the most iconic events. All wrapped up in one food haven. The quartet of Crisp, Chopstix, Pork Palooza and Picante pulled strings to orchestrate a savoury meets sweet symphony experience at the Jamaica Food and Drink Festival Decade, held at The University of The West Indies, Mona campus, leaving many requesting an enticing encore. Culinary content curator Tiana ‘WongaGyal’ Chung sat front row and centre for this concert, making her own play on Decade’s high notes.

Living up to its legacy of enchanting taste buds with familiar, refreshing and exciting flavours, history repeated itself at the vent with a tasty twist.

For Chung, Chopsticks was by far one of her most beloved sections for the event. Trying just about everything from every chef featured there, she was really impressed.

“My favourite bite from the entire festival was also in this section – the tandoori salmon with garam masala cornbread by Chef Trevanne Donegal of Sear274. The simplicity of it was so beautiful, and the sweet, savoury and umami flavours married perfectly, in my opinion,” she told Food.

The Chopstix section, powered by Absolut Vodka, also presented crispy pork belly with sesame sweet plum drizzled in an Asian sauce from Chef Junior Rowe; Korean sticky chicken with coconut jasmine rice and a purple cabbage mango sesame slaw by Chef Débè-Ann Lange-Chen; crispy pork belly, sesame sweet plum drizzled with an Asian slaw prepared by Chef Junior Flemming of Flaming Wok; and shrimp shumai, rich prawn sauce and Istry chilli crisp from Chef Jamie Allen.

Due to the poor weather earlier in the day, the lush grass of the venue quickly turned to mud. Getting from booth to booth proved to be difficult, taking away from the immersive food experience.

“The spicy Sichuan pulled pork with a soft shell taco and green papaya slaw from Chive was amazing. Jamaicans don’t cook with Sichuan peppercorn often, so it was great to see such a unique Asian flavour on the menu,” Chung said. She explained further that Chef Nanda Dukharan did not disappoint, cooling that infamous mouth-numbing effect of the spice from the Sichuan with the papaya slaw.

Other booths in that section included Walkerswood, with their Texas-style firestick chicken spicy chilli and jerk black bean sliders, each topped with a caramelised onion slaw from celebrity chef and Walkerswood’s brand ambassador, Patrick Simpson. Chef Evrol Ebanks of Rick’s Cafe served up some Tajin spiced trout bites, drizzled with cilantro and mango buttercream, with a crispy cayenne corn chip and roasted corn salsa. Those requiring extra heat were invited to try the Scotchie chilli dip. While Mama’s Pasta and Grill used the Barilla brand to make jerk shrimp pasta Alfredo rundown and shrimp pasta with spicy tomato pasta paste.

“The Häagen-Dazs tent, strategically positioned right beside the Picante section offering vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream with toppings, was a genius move by the team because the spice level was dramatic in the best way possible, and the quick cool down right after with cold ice cream made all the difference,” she added.

Crowd favourite Pork Palooza, courtesy of Copperwood Pork, rose to the occasion, delivering great taste in epic portions, “The best bite in this section for me was Chef Simon Levy’s trio open-faced sandwich. It was the truest celebration of pork. Smoked ham, pork pastrami, buckboard bacon and ‘nduja aioli, all on a single slice of supple bread, felt like a real pork palooza.”

Also making the cut was Chef Kerry Lyn’s chicharrón with Cuban rice pilaf with avocado crema and citrus grilled pork with bammy wafer, sweet pickle relish and a Scotchie aioli drizzle. Chef Johnoi Reid went with the spicy jackfruit Bourbon barbecue, crispy pigtails with three cheese mac and cheese topped with candied bacon. Chef Theo Smith brought guava to jerk pork belly bites, serving his main with coconut polenta and roasted plantain salsa.

Then, when it came to Crisp, Chung confessed to being too full, “But I had to finish strong for the sake of completing what felt like the JFDF Olympics,” she said with a laugh. She made special mention of Chef Damion Stewart’s beer-battered crab and shrimp cake. “And I know his oxtail and feta cheese arancini was a crowd favourite because everyone kept telling me I can’t leave without trying it. Best advice I got all night! It was so good!”

Chef Haleem Card of Charela Inn came up with the Annatto pepper shrimp cake with Scotch bonnet sauce vierge and charred escallion crema. Fromage Bistro made the highlight reel with the crispy fried chicken with spicy Scotchie soy glaze, bang bang aioli drizzle [and] roasted escallion cucumber sauce. And at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel booth, Chef Mark Cole delivered a crispy Doritos and sweet potato firecracker corvina, topped with parsley pepper shrimp and burnt onion glaze.”

International chef Jose Mendin of Pubbelly had taste buds in a frenzy with his chicken yakitori with miso ginger. For Visa, Chef Brian Lumley went from curried goat wonton at Kuyah to a Decade of honey jerk jumbo shrimp, flambé, bell peppers and red onion pickle, with roasted sweet potato, as well as a whole jerk pimento smoked lamb served with a mint jelly sauce, jerk pepper sauce and sweet corn lollipops. Just when you thought the night could not get any better, the wontons made a tasty comeback.

Chung’s last bite of the night went to the cinnamon sugar churros and chocolate topping from the Gold Seal booth, “They were perfectly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside with the right amount of sugar.”

Now, what’s JFDF without drinks? Those raising their cups to the grand occasion had a plethora of bars to choose from: Select Brands, CPJ, Heineken, Appleton and Pepsi. All in all, with so much to devour and sip and so little time to do it, Decade exceeded expectations.

krysta.anderson@gleanerjm.com