YAAD FOOD AN’ BICKLE NEWSLETTER: 

FALL 2018 ISSUE

STARTERS

GUESS WHICH TOUR COPPED THE MOST AUTHENTIC JAMAICAN ATTRACTION!!

We’re still glowing about copping the Award for the Most Authentic Jamaican Attraction at the 2017 Hospitality Jamaica Awards. The prestigious awards show hosted annually by the Jamaica Gleaner, recognizes excellence in tourism and honours leaders as well as attractions and other entities across the tourism industry.

Jamaica Culinary Tours was thrilled to have its Falmouth Food Tour come out on top of several other attractions via a voting system which saw some 12,000 votes polled from the public across 17 categories.

The Award validates the company’s vision to present to our guests, an authentic insight into the taste and history of Jamaican cuisine. Cultural tourism is trending, becoming one of the largest and fastest-growing global tourism markets, and our Company is proud to be a pioneer in this sector, exposing hundreds of visitors each year to what we call “de real Jamaica” through the island’s cuisine and culinary traditions.

Inside this issue, we share our story, and give you an insight as to why visitors are eagerly signing up for this authentic Jamaican attraction that allows them to feel, experience, and of course TASTE a bit of authentic Jamaica!

In the words of one of our most loyal ‘three-peat’ clients…..

“Skip the beach and experience the real Jamaica!”

                                     MAIN COURSE

In 2013 sisters Anne and Janet Crick  conceptualized Jamaica Culinary Tours as a way of bringing together and packaging their  talents and experiences into a unique tourist offering.  We will always be proud that we were ahead of the curve, because three years later Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism realized the potential in food tourism and started to focus on gastronomy tourism.

So what have we been up to since 2013….

Well for starters we’ve introduced well over five thousand guests to the unique tastes and flavours of Jamaican cuisine.  The Jamaican Motto is “Out of Many, One People, so we like to tell our guests that we’re “Out of Many, One Pot” – representing our  African, British, Spanish and Taino Indian heritage just to mention a few!  Our guests get to taste the unique combinations and creations that make our food one of the world’s most beloved cuisines. Who knows – maybe we were the original fusion cooks?

We’ve introduced our guests to parts of Jamaica that they might not encounter on a regular tour.   We’re proud that both of our food tours take our guests into the town of Falmouth which has the best preserved Georgian architecture in our region.  We visit Water Square which had running water before New York City, we gaze at the spot where a few hundred years ago the enslaved organized a thriving market, and we introduce them to the sights, sounds and tastes of a busy Jamaican town.

We’ve shared the story behind our food.  Of course everyone knows about jerk, but where did the tradition come from?   We’ve shared about the versatile coconut that does everything from cleaning floors to spicing up our Sunday Rice and Peas, and we’ve introduced our guests to a taste of heaven in a delightful sweet potato pudding baked on hot coals on the streetside!

We’ve poured into our local community.   We seek out small, local vendors as our partners. So when our guests buy from us, they’re supporting families in the local community.  We’re part of the Falmouth community and our guests repeatedly tell us that they leave our tours feeling that they’re one of us!

Here’s a sampling of what our guests say about us on Trip Advisor:-

“Every year we return to the beautiful island and every year we hook up with our friends from Jamaica Culinary Tours again. We still learn new things each time we do, but mostly we love being with this group…..Everyone always makes us so welcome.”

“One of the most amazing experiences in all my world travels. It’s not just the food (which is amazing), but it’s getting to experience first hand the wonderful people of the country. I can’t even remember how many people we just stopped and met along the way around Falmouth but everyone was beyond friendly and welcoming.”

“What a fantastic tour! I liked that we were able to see places we would not have normally explored. The food was amazing and authentic. Not only did we get to try a lot, we learned about the history of the various food items. I had no idea of the unique history for “jerk” food. At every corner she (our Guide) knew somebody and many of them thanked us for visiting.”

“The ladies leading our tour were knowledgeable and fun and very thorough. The food places that we visited on this tour were extremely authentic and they were places we would have never found and local delicacies that we would have never tasted if it wasn’t for this tour.”

“Hoped for Great Experience: Expectations Exceeded: If seeking an authentic look into the local culture and history – and of course some tasty bites – we highly recommend this to anyone with good walking shoes and an appetite.”

For more info on what our guests are saying about us visit our Trip Advisor Page at: http://bit.ly/2QU4AQ8

Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence Recipient every year since 2014!

DESSERTS – ALL THAT SWEET STUFF

We owe much of our success and the fantastic 5 star reviews we get to the awesome job that our tour guides do, ensuring that are guests are not only “fed-up”, but are engaged, informed, safe and well taken care of. They pour their energy, passion and knowledge into each tour, often laced with humour and a touch of drama, and our guests always come away no longer feeling like visitors, but like a part of the family!

Meet our Senior Tour Guides Sherille, Sanya and Steve who have been with us almost from the outset and who take pride in sharing about their island and its diverse culture on each tour.

Sherille

Enjoys gardening, teaching  children and reading.

Sanya

 An actress and a poet who loves adventure!!

Steve
Loves sports, fast cars, watching movies and reading

And one more thing they all have in common….. a love of food!

A GREAT JAMAICAN CLASSIC

Food Tours are only as successful as the various components that comprise them, and we couldn’t do what we do without a range of talented persons who willingly draw alongside us to deliver a unique and awesome product to our guests. The late Joe James was one such person – an exceptional and gifted artist and sculptor who welcomed many of our Food Tour Guests into his renowned Gallery in the small town of Rio Bueno.

While his wife Joy sated the palates of our guests as they dined in her famous Lobster Bowl Restaurant, Joe often sat with our guests, engaging and regaling them with anecdotes of his passions, his life’s work, his extensive travels, and not least of all – his homeland and its rich history and heritage.

His intellect was balanced with his soft-spoken, mild-mannered gentility, and our guests never tired of sitting with him, often transfixed as they probed his learned mind for more information and more stories – causing us to joke that this was the most difficult part of our tour – tearing our guests away from him! Many of our guests left the Joe James Gallery in awe, humbled to have met this accomplished but yet so very unassuming gentleman, and  often reflecting “It’s like sitting and talking with my father/grandfather….”

Sadly, this gentle father figure left this world in June of this year, but the legacy of his very accomplished life lives on. Joe’s work was recognized both at the national and international levels, and he will long be remembered as a true son of the soil. Thank you Joe for so willingly welcoming our guests into your world. May you Rest in Peace.

To Joy and the other family members we extend our sincere condolences. We grieve his loss, but celebrate his great memory!

TIDBITS

Did you know that people from the Parish of Trelawny are convinced that their Parish grows the best yam? Well the fastest man in the world, the legendary Olympian Usain Bolt was born in Trelawny, so hmmm……what do you think?

The last quarter of the year promises to be a tasty one with lots of culinary events coming up. Among the highlights is Restaurant Week, an annual week-long, family-oriented event which encourages food lovers to patronize their favourite restaurants or try new ones in restaurants across the island. The  wide range of cuisine and creative menus never fail to excite the palate.
Restaurant week runs from November 9 to 17 this year.

And to get you warmed up, the Food and Drink Festival coming up in October is a foodie’s delight, offering 9 days of indulgence in a wide array of culinary events in different locations. The culinary energy of Kingston comes alive during this multi-day fest with culinary-themed events curated by the island’s most talented chefs concocting mouthwatering fusions of local and international cuisine to delight their patrons. Save the dates October 20 – 28, and look out for tickets on sale in September.

the meantime, regional competitions have been underway since August for the coveted title of PAN Champion 2018. Pan Chicken Chefs all across the island are pulling out all the stops along with their best pan chicken recipes, hoping to advance to the grand finals on October 28.  May the best pan win!

We hope you enjoyed this issue of Yaad Food and Bickle.  Stay tuned for more appetizing bytes in our next issue!

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