I Had the Best Baklava Ever...In Jamaica

I'm in Jamaica this week. It's for a funeral so it's been a bit of a weird experience for me. I honestly don't even feel like I'm in Jamaica. The two hour and 30 minute plane ride could have taken me anywhere. But even though I'm not here for pleasure, of course I have to eat.

Here's what I've been eating and thinking about this week:

1. When we landed in Kingston, everyone clapped. I haven't experienced that in a while. It was one of my favorite things about flying back when I was younger.

2. On my first morning, I ended up at Sonia's Homestyle Kitchen. The fried dumplings reminded me of my grandmother's. When I visited the website before my walk over I read her about page (am I the only one that reads about pages?) and it said she started with “two pudding and a sky juice cart on Camperdown Road.” Something about this warmed me.

3. I planned to get some coffee from the coffee shop at Devon House but the woman there was so ughhh. It was at that moment I realized that I can accept bad or mediocre service around food. But I can't around beverages and definitely not Blue Mountain coffee. Hard pass.

4. I'm staying at a cute little Airbnb. The other thing that I always read are reviews because people will dock a star or point for the most random thing. For this Airbnb, someone gave a bad review because the wine that the host gifted didn't go with her meal. Ma'am.

5. I went to a restaurant that yesterday that has a Greek menu and a Jamaican menu. The Greek owner was trying to pitch me the Greek items, but when in Jamaica I really just want Jamaican food. Anyway, I spied baklava on the menu and had to order it. I'll order baklava just about anywhere. And I'm glad I did because it was AMAZING. Easily the best I've ever had. (I wrote about my search for the best baklava about a year ago.) If you're going to go somewhere and do something different, this is how you do it. Don't go to Jamaica and bring trash baklava. Now I'm regretting not trying one of the Greek entrees.

6. I had "Jamaica chocolate milk" in my notes and I couldn't remember why I wrote this because I've had no chocolate milk here nor have I ever (Milo please). After a few minutes I remembered that there was an article recently about chocolate milk being created in Jamaica.

7. I haven't been eating the best for the past month…well few months. I completely fell off while I was working on Continent. In July, I'm looking forward to lots of healthy food and green tea.

Hope you're all well!

Shannon