I love a steaming bowl of spicy laksa on a cold day.

One of my favorite ice cream parlors in the city

The old reliable... the shrimp cake is really good!

Super easy weeknight meal: 5 minutes of prep, 20-ish minutes in the oven, and voila instant dinner.

Another meal pal lunch — this is only half of it; it’s a huge portion

I’ve been eating healthier lately

Healthy snack

I’ve been cooking Jamaican food since I came back from my trip.

Yummy hot & spicy soup was just what I was craving on a cold winter day. Vacation pics coming soon!

Hit the spot after a couple of drinks with friends. Make sure to add a lot of hot sauce! 🌶🌶🌶

This Bloody Mary was like a meal! It came with bacon, a Slim Jim, celery, cucumber, and a toothpick loaded with a pickled onion, gherkin, olive, and pepperoncino.

Not a great pic but these are such an easy meal to make on a weekday when I come home from back-to-back evening workout classes. Takes less than 10 minutes and I have dinner! Yes, I like to eat breakfast (eggs) for dinner.

I love poke bowls. I wish they would go back to oshinko pickles; the shredded carrot is somewhat bland.

My last meal before I left. Best rice and peas of the trip; I think they had just cooked it. It was steaming hot and sweet with the taste of fresh coconut.

I’m sensitive to caffeine and rarely drink coffee but I had to try the famous Blue Mountain coffee before I left Jamaica. It was mellow and beautifully balanced.

The escoveitch fish is derived from Spanish escabeche (there are many culinary influences in Jamaica) and is a deep-fried fish topped with a vinegar-based sauce. There was a proliferation of scorching hot scotch bonnet peppers — they pulled no punches. The fish was a bit on the dry side though. The daiquiri was syrupy sweet; Pushcart in Negril is my pick for best cocktails I had during my trip.

Jerk chicken with Red Stripe. Again. Yup.

Sister restaurant to Rockhouse with a location along the cliffs and a lovely view of the ocean sunset. The shrimp were a bit small but very flavorful. Loved the mixed drinks!

A reasonably priced restaurant on the cliff road. The oxtail was excellent.

Dinner was a street food feast! Ackee & saltfish is the national dish of Jamaica and consists of ackee, a fruit which is creamy and resembles scrambled eggs, with salted fish. The patties (which are like empanadas) came from a Juici’s, a well known fast food place. The steam roast conch is a true local’s dish and is cooked en papillote over a makeshift grill with water crackers soaking up the sweet juices. And I had more jerk chicken of course!

I took my meal to the beach... the beach road restaurants typically aren’t the best (overpriced mediocre food for tourists) but this wasn’t bad.

Dinner at a fancy tourist joint with views of the sunset from the cliffs of Negril. Coconut shrimp was the best part of the meal.

Street food cart in Negril... my first of many jerk chicken meals. So good!