Ackee

Next to the mango tree, another backyard staple is the Ackee tree. Ackee, the national fruit of Jamaica is a beloved favorite on the island. At its best, it’s served as a weekend breakfast, but also as lunch or dinner and the accompanying ground provision determines the meal. I find that the choice of meal for which it is served depends on where we are in the season and its scarcity. If it’s mid-season and widely available you’ll be eating ackee all the time. Otherwise it is reserved for when the preparer has more time and/or is the first meal of a holiday. The option as a breakfast meal comes with the most accompaniments — fried dumpling, fry, steam/roasted breadfruit or ground vegetables* or bread. When served at lunch or dinner it’s accompanied with ground vegetables with boiled dumpling or bammy (cassava bread) or rice. I love ackee any time of the day, preferably with fried dumpling or roasted breadfruit. It’s one of the few home-cooked meals I am still able to enjoy, especially now given that my diet is wholly plant-based.

Ackee is a fruit that must be cooked before consuming. Like almost everything in life and in Jamaica, Ackee is special and it’s a process from farm to plate. Once it opens naturally, it’s pegged, peeled and cleaned before placed in boiling salted water. The fruit contains a poison called hypoglycin, and when the fruit is properly boiled, the poison dissipates. If the preparation isn’t handled with care and patience one risks the chance of developing, what is called Jamaican Vomiting Sickness, which can lead to seizures, a coma and even death. I will tell you, Ackee is wildly popular in Jamaica and I have not known anyone to die from improper consumption, but I’ve known others who became ill. As the saying goes, “what don’t kill, fatten.” In my opinion, it’s a meal worthy of the risk. 

However one chooses to enjoy ackee, don’t forget the saltfish. To forget it is considered blasphemous. No, seriously don’t do it, it will not end well. I’ve cheated a couple of times and each time I had to eat the entire pot by myself as no one else would touch it. Ackee and saltfish, it’s all or nothing. This is befitting of our national fruit because we as a culture are all or nothing. 

National Geographic recently ranked Ackee and Saltfish as the second best National Dish, after the hamburger. However, not without mentioning its “unhappy origins” of being “slave food.” It’s interesting how we can easily identify the legacy and traits of slavery when it suits the narrative. As we celebrate this Independence Day, this 58th year of Independence let us marvel at how far we’ve come, yet not forget how much further we ought to go. In spite of our unhappy origins, we’re top two!  And lets be real, hamburgers belong to almost every nation. 

Note: Ground vegetables are yam, green banana, potato, cassava etc.