Mangia876!!

The best experiences in my life have had food at their center. From curry chicken lymes at University in Barbados to fried fish and festival beach outings to Hellshire good food is synonymous with family, friends and a good time.

Jamaican food is what I know and it has always been my first love. I love the earthy, basic goodness of Jamaican cooking. I like that we cook everything on the bone and even though I don't eat meat anymore I will cook animals for friends. I like our style of cooking, where we soak our meats in their seasonings overnight even, none of that fresh out the packet onto the grill stuff for us. I even like the way that we eat, sometimes straight from the pot or everything in a bowl.

I love that we have taken other cultures and cuisines and made them our own. Jamaican Chinese food is like no Chinese you have had from any Chinese province. Our world reknowned curried anything is the direct inheritance of the Indo-Jamaican legacy. A full Jamaican Sunday dinner represents our motto "Out of Many One People" in every bite.

While away at school in Belgium in 2004-2005 I made my first trip to Italy and I fell in love with that country, its people and its food. Like us there is a way they have about food that is welcoming, they are quick to invite you to share a taste of what's cooking or to have a meal with other friends and family. I love that.  Their manner of cooking is also similar to ours, very flavourful, freshly seasoned, cooking on the bone that makes you lick your lips at the scent of it and your fingers at the end of it. And there is room for vegetarianism too.

My idea is that kind calls to kind. And so this space and others are where I propose my marriage of Italian and Jamaican cooking. Mangia is Italian for eat, 876 is Jamaica's area code and I am ready to cook up a JamItalian storm. Would you like a taste?