Ox Tail

Ox Tail

Rice is a very crucial part to my families cultural meals. We eat rice with almost every meal. Even more important to a Jamaicans meal is what seasonings we use. My mother is a wizard of spices. She can conjure up amazing concoctions with her main three spices; pimento(also known as Allspice), thyme, and scotch bonnet pepper. I related to the authors' feelings about his father's pulao dish. The aromas risen from my mom's ox tails is like no other. Unlike most West Indian families my mother makes her ox tails with fresh tomato, a spoon full of cane sugar, coarsely chopped scallion, sauteed peppers, onions and her secret ingredients I can not divulge with out the possibility of face death. I became intoxicated by the smells coming from the kitchen as a young child. Our main family quality time revolved around dinners and cooking. It is a time to communicate with each other, share some laughs together, and stuff our faces. Although my mother has never formally been awarded for her dishes; she is an amazing chef. Friends of our family from South America as well as other West Indian Countries always comment my mother on her Ox Tails and many other dishes. I recall many times hearing them compare my mothers cooking that that of their grandmothers or mothers; stating my mom's dishes were even better than the ones they remember as children.

I hope to gain my mothers special gift of cooking. To her food is the soul of a family. Good food equals health, happiness and unity in my family. My youngest sister Giovanna has been given the gift of natural cooking skills. Since she was a small child; I always recall her at my mother feet asking to help mom cooking. "Mommy can I mix that, Mommy can I cut the onions, Mommy can I, can I, can I"and over time my mother would let her do more and more. Now, she can prep almost all of my mothers dishes and she is learning the skills of fire and pots. In Jamaica my mother prefers to cook outside on a wood fire instead of inside where we have a huge kitchen with the latest appliances. She feels the out doors and wood fire give the food more flavour or character as she would say. I doubt I will ever be able to start a wood fire and manage cooking with out a controlled gaged nob of a stove guiding me from low heat to high. However, this is what makes Island cooking so unique in flavour, texture and complexity. One very unique aspect to our Island living and cooking is during Hurricane season; when the island experiences long times with out current (electricity); this is the times that my mother skills to use wood fire for cooking come into great usage. These are the moments I think I will remember for life. The culinary originality of the Islands.

My hope and dream is to continue my families traditional cooking style for my children and for their children. So much of our culture and history is compiled in our cooking. The history of

...