Ground Provisions: Robin Lim Lumsden On Jamaican Cooking

Words by Natalie Weiner, Photos by Martei Korley

The staples of Jamaican cuisine are familiar to anyone who’s ever visited the island, or Central Brooklyn–or even just listened to one of the many reggae songs about them. But there’s a whole world of Jamaican dishes outside of jerk chicken and curry goat that reflect the island’s many diverse cultures, and that’s where The Belcour Cookbook comes in.

Robin Lim Lumsden, granddaughter of Red Stripe co-founder Peter Desnoes, is the author of the latest addition to the small handful of cookbooks spotlighting Jamaican cuisine, showcasing the breadth of local cooking, with a focus on the island’s lush bounty of fruits, vegetables and spices. (FYI: We’re giving away a copy. Enter here to win.) Lumsden has been using uniquely Jamaican ingredients for the last decade to create a line of specialty hot sauces and jellies through her company Belcour Preserves, sourcing most of the ingredients from her family’s Belcour farm in the Blue Mountains, where she produces her own local honey. She recently gave LargeUp photographer Martei Korley a tour of her home and the apiary, and met with us for an interview at Manhattan’s Summer Fancy Food Show.

Read the Q+A.

LargeUp: What, in your opinion, makes Jamaican food exceptional?

Robin Lim Lumsden: The quality of the ingredients. Our Chinese food in Kingston is amazing because of the ingredients. I’ve been to China, and I’ve spoken to people that own restaurants there who ask, “Why does Jamaican Chinese food taste so good?” Our fruit is out of this world—right now it’s mango season, and there are star apples…I have two acres of ortaniques, which are a tangerine orange derivative, I have like 10 different types of mangoes, I have avocados—all in my own garden. What makes our food different is just the variety of tropical stuff…and the taste.

I don’t know what it is about the Blue Mountains. I mean we grow great marijuana, but people don’t understand the quality of the other products—the thyme from St. Elizabeth, there’s no thyme like that in the world. The ginger that we grow, there’s no ginger like that in the world. Up in the mountains I get herbs, like parsley and rosemary. When we come down with bunches of rosemary, my whole house smells like [gestures inhaling]. I know there are other more famous places like France, and Peru—but Jamaica’s a small little volcanic island that has all these hills, and rainfall and mist. The coffee is sensational… the scallion in St. Elizabeth, i just can’t even describe it to you. Our scotch bonnet peppers.

I like our tough corn. I don’t need to eat soft corn from Iowa. The boiled corn on the side of the road is just perfect for me. I love street food.

LU: Where are your favorite places to eat in Kingston?

RL: My all-time favorite is Miss Gloria’s in Port Royal, where the cars nearly drive you over because you’re in the middle of the road, and the man with the jukebox made out of plastic bottles comes to sing. Then, there’s Hellshire Beach on a Saturday morning, if you can get there before 9. The steamed fish with pumpkin is literally to die for—if I had to pick a last meal, that might be it. Just simple rice and peas cooked in an Ital way—and you smell the thyme and the coconut milk and you’re using fresh beans, not even dried beans…that’s a meal in itself. Of course the jerk pork—I go to Scotchie’s a lot, I love Boston Jerk, I love Patty’s. But really the best food in Jamaica is in the homes, has always been. My friends that cook, when they invite you over—you’ve been given a gift.

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LU: How do you see Jamaican cuisine evolving?

RL: We have some artisanal people coming up—we [at Belcour] make mead (honey wine), people make their cheeses and things like that. [I] don’t think Jamaica takes its food culture seriously enough. We’re not as proud of it as a part of our cultural heritage. We do have a burgeoning group of young chefs, though, who are being creative with Jamaican ingredients. Brian Lumley, Dennis McIntosh… Of course there was Norma [Shirley], who was kind of the diva of Jamaican cooking. She was the one who said, “Look, if you’re making stew peas, it’s actually gourmet, ok?” You just have to maybe not put pig’s tail in it, because that might turn a few people off. We need to send more young people to study abroad—but a food culture is building.

Even with the Rastafarian movement, vegan food is just beginning to arrive. We have two million [Jamaicans] living in America, same as in Jamaica. People travel, and [the food] is becoming more sophisticated. We have wine bars now, cafes. People are paying for health, they’re paying for diversity. There have been two cookbooks published, miniscule compared to America…there are more and more festivals every year, shrimp festivals, fish festivals, jerk festivals. There’s Epicurean Escape. We have a Restaurant Week now—it’s great for everybody.

I hope culinary tourism begins to build in Jamaica. People come to eat. When you have Jamaicans cooking for you, they think, “Oh no, nobody’s going to want mackerel rundown, they don’t want callaloo and saltfish.” No. When my son steps off the plane from New York, he’s like, “Can I have callaloo and saltfish, or cabbage and saltfish, or yam and dumplings for breakfast…” Dishes like boiled banana or plantain porridge. We don’t have a meal without plantain.

One of my favorite things is coco fritters [see the recipe below], I put it in the book. It’s a little more refined, than [at] a shop. It’s taking the food to the next level, that we need to do. To have pride in it. You have the street patty, which is cheap as dirt, and everybody eats it—we had it as kids after school—but then you could have the gourmet patty. Susan Taves, who did the food editing [for The Belcour Cookbook], she’s a good friend who is a chef in Chicago. I met her because she used to cook for reggae bands, and she comes to Jamaica all the time. When she comes down, she’s like, “Oh my god, you have naseberry, and you should be doing x, y, and z with naseberry…” She is creative with the ingredients.

LU: What do you think is the biggest misconception about Jamaican food?

RL: That it’s all just jerk. Certainly when I was growing up, we had the man with the jerk chicken pan across the road, and we’d go to Boston Beach. But there’s a lot of seafood, we always have fresh fish. We eat a lot of fresh vegetables. We eat a lot less processed foods. Coconut milk is a staple, we cook a lot of stuff in the rundown sauce, which is basically just a stew made with coconut. I use a lot of fresh herbs, I might be unusual that way. My food is very much fusion food. I use all the typical Caribbean spices like scallion and pimento and ginger—but also I go Asian because my dad was Chinese, and I go French-European too.

We’re only independent for 50 years, and before that we were very dominated by English culture. We have patties that were [based on English] pasties. We have hard dough bread that was mantou bread. You have the curry, from India, and then you have the African stuff, the oildown. We have seen the Kentucky and things coming into our culture, and it’s important because old-time people in Jamaica… I make coconut milk the old fashioned way. I chop up a coconut and stick it in my blender. If I’m in a big hurry I’ll open up a can, but that’s not real coconut milk to me, although it does taste quite good. I think that’s the difference. I don’t have preservatives in one thing [in the Belcour line], and yet they last. We’re trying to get into Whole Foods right now, and I think we will be either the only Jamaican company, or one of two, because of our processes. We think our products will appeal to an American market.

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LU: What do you see for the future of Jamaican agriculture?

RL: Politically we went through two to three decades of terrible government—and basically, they killed agriculture. They started bringing in milk powder, nearly killed our dairy industry. Why? Because it’s cheap food.  So we killed off our dairy, and we import fish from the Asian countries and Belize. And then people get poorer so they fish smaller and smaller fish…so it’s harder and harder to get sea fish. Even for the bee industry—they’re still bringing in neonicotinoids, which Europe has banned. There’s a lack of support for agriculture—so I’m linking a lot into agriculture with a line of salad dressings, only for local markets. We do a honey and papaya one, and a creamy cilantro and yogurt one. Think of the environmental impact of bringing creamy cilantro dressing from the UK—it doesn’t make sense. To an island! When we can make yogurt, and we can make cilantro—it’s not that difficult.

Agriculture feeds us, it can be environmentally friendly, it employs people. It’s not rocket science. Why are we buying Kentucky Fried Chicken? Promote our local industries. We import all the grain. Let’s have some organic chicken eggs—it’s coming. Right now the economy’s so bad, it’s going to have a bit of a problem taking off. Though there’s this 1 percent that’s buying French wines and brie and whatnot.

Jamaica is very complex—it’s full of contradictions, and in a way it’s the microcosm of the world. The world is becoming much more diverse and interracial, people are traveling more and developing new tastes—but we do have these third-world issues, which makes it difficult for us as manufacturers and food purveyors to make it, when it should be easier. Food is complicated. Once you start to write a book you realize, and I’m grateful to be able to fulfill the dream of writing a book, but I had initially thought, food is light and uncontroversial. Well, quite the contrary. Food is controversial, and it is complex—it made me undress, who am I? I’m this white Jamaican that makes Chinese food and French food and loves stew peas as much as she loves Chinese chicken and cashew nuts. Where the hell does that comes from? And why does this remind me of Aunt Millie and this remind me of [my] Gamma, and they came from different planets, really? There’s a depth to food, and I’m very interested in it.

Coco Fritters

2 cups peeled and grated coco (taro root)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

2 scallions, finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon Scotch Bonnet pepper, finely diced

Oil for frying (olive or canola)

Mix everything together in a bowl. Pour 2 inches of oil in a saucepan and heat to 350 degrees. Drop teaspoonfuls into the hot oil. They are done when they float to the top and are brown. Place on paper towels to drain. Serve with your favorite hot sauce.