Dasheen - Also known a coco, taro, and tannia, dasheen is a starchy tuber that is usually served boiled or cut up and used as a thickener in hearty soups.
Potatoes are native to the Andes Mountains of South America. We call them Irish potatoes because the potato was first brought back to Europe in the 1500's and developed as a crop there.
Irish potato is one of the main staples in the Jamaican diet and continues to be a priority crop for the agricultural and gastronomy sectors. Irish potatoes are a good source of several vitamins and minerals, particularly potassium and vitamin C.
Boniato, however, is widely used in Caribbean cooking. In terms of introducing it into your kitchen, think of it this way: It is a potato without borders. Cook with it as you would any white or sweet potato. Boniato is often paired with pork along with a variety of vegetables, including eggplant and arugula.
Fufu is a starchy African food with a doughy, mashed potato-like consistency, usually eaten as an accompaniment to soups or stews.
The Eustace is one of many varieties of sweet potato grown in Jamaica.
Jamaicans don't call all beans peas, only red kidney beans. The reason for this and its origin is unknown, but Jamaicans continue to call red kidney beans peas and will for many generations to come. The plus side is you can differentiate between an authentic Jamaican rice and peas recipe and one that isn't.
Susumber, or 'Susumba' as we know it in Jamaica, or the Turkey Berry, is scientifically known as Solanum Torvum. The berry is also known as Gully Bean, Plate Brush, Devils Fig, Pea Eggplant, Bhankatiya, Pea Aubergine, Wild Eggplant and many other names.
Ackee and Saltfish: Jamaica's national dish is a must-try dish on any visit to the island. Ackee, Jamaica's national fruit, is sautéed with salt fish (cod) fish, onions, tomato, sweet pepper, and other seasonings after being boiled.
By that time potato cultivation had spread from Manchester on to areas in northern Clarendon, St Ann, the Guy's Hill district of St Mary, and the higher lands of St Elizabeth and Westmoreland. The Devon-Christiana area is still pre-eminent, but the Irish potato is now grown in virtually every parish of Jamaica.
Māori potatoes or taewa are varieties of potato (Solanum tuberosum subsp. tuberosum and andigena) cultivated by Māori people, especially those grown before New Zealand was colonised by the British.
The production of Irish potatoes in Jamaica dates back to 1897.
Irish people in Jamaica or Irish Jamaicans, are Jamaican citizens whose ancestors originated from Ireland. Irish people are the second-largest reported ethnic group in Jamaica, after Jamaicans of African ancestry. Most Jamaicans with Irish ancestry also have African ancestry.
As much as a quarter of Jamaicans claim Irish ancestry, including Bob Marley, Marcus Garvey, and Claude McKay, and there are even traces of Irish influence in the Jamaican accent itself, because the Irish lived with the slaves, newly-arrived from Africa.
The extent of Irish emigration to the Caribbean and Jamaica was so prolific that a staggering 25 per cent of Jamaican citizens claim Irish ancestry, the second-largest reported ethnic group in Jamaica after African ancestry.
In Jamaica, avocados are called pears and are sliced and often eaten on the side of a meal like sliced tomatoes.
Guineps. The guinep is a small, sweet fruit which is very popular in Jamaica. The fruit is very similar to a lychee (in fact, Jamaicans sometimes call lychees "Chinese Guineps").
The above names refer to one and the same fruit in Jamaica. It has been commonly called "Pear," but "Avocado Pear" is coming to be more generally used by the educated classes. The name "Aligator Pear" here refers to a particular variety which has a very long neck which is crooked like some of the gourds.
Why do Jamaicans call beans 'peas'?
Hard food is ground provisions such as yam, green banana, plantain, potato, pumpkin, dasheen root, cassava, breadfruit, cho cho and boiled dumpling. In Jamaican culinary hard food is boiled in salted water and eaten as a side dish or cooked in soup.
Pigeon peas or kidney beans– In Jamaica, dried beans are known as peas, which is why some people call this dish rice and peas and others know it as beans and rice. Most people make the dish with either pigeon peas (known as gungo peas in Jamaica) or dried kidney beans.
Jamaican pumpkin also known as Caribbean pumpkin or Calabaza is a variety of pumpkin that grows in the tropics; it is a traditional staple in parts of Africa and all over the Caribbean.
Jamaican yam, is a vegetable that is cultivated and consumed for it tasty and nutritious root tuber. Many refer to it as Jamaican yams, but in truth, yams are not unique to Jamaica, as according to Wikipedia, it is found in many other temperate and sub tropical regions of the world.
They are tubers, like potatoes, and are mostly cultivated in tropical parts of the world. A number of different yam species are grown for food, and the large tubers range in color from white to yellow, pink, or purple! The skin is typically brown and rough, like tree bark.