Jerking with a twist

Organisers of this year's staging of the Portland Jerk Festival plan to take patron's palates to higher heights of gastronomic ecstasy.

This year's festival will include a gourmet element, and last Wednesday the first of two tastings gave foodies a taste of what they can expect from some of Jamaica's finest chefs-Lorraine Fung, Suzanne Couch and Gary Ferguson.

Foodies came out in droves to sample the palatable pandemonium that was taking place at Barbican beach on Barbican Road.

Fung prepared a fusion jerked chicken with a Chinese oriental plum sauce, that had a mouth-watering sweet and spicy flavour that everyone loved and appreciated. Guests had a choice of fried rice, spicy noodles or Singapore noodles, which was made with rice water as a gluten-free option to 'Jahnese chicken' as Fung coined it.

Chef Gary Ferguson had delicious mucko chicken skewers with pimento leaves. The chicken was tender and melted in your mouth, and sent satisfied chills down your spine.

Suzanne Couch switched it up a bit with her pasta with tomato sauce and Hamilton jerk sausage. This was served with garlic bread crisps. The spicy pasta was a delectable treat of spices with a tangy flavour. It had your tongue salivating with anticipation for more, which could be the reason why persons kept coming back.

Why a tasting?

Ewan Simpson one of the directors of the jerk festival from KRB Events Limited who organises the event, admits that it was necessary to have these tastings to promote the festival.

"The traditional jerked chicken and pork is something that you can get anywhere nowadays - its' hard to tell people to come to Portland for just jerked chicken. So when we have this tasting and they see that they are getting a lot more than the traditional jerk, they are more inclined to come," he noted.

He noted that come July 5, there is more to come, and persons should not hesitate to come and have their stomachs filled and palates satisfied.