Best of Jamaica, Food!

The yielding aroma of Jamaica’s finest cuisines coupled with the seductive sweetness of delicious pastries during the Best of Jamaica Grand Market Extravaganza over the weekend, created a culinary squall in the absence of Tropical Storm Tomas.

Now in its 8^th staging, Best of Jamaica held at the recently rebranded Breezes Rio Bueno Resort and Spa in Trelawny, succeeded in its bid to showcase one of the most important ingredients in Brand Jamaica, its food.

With a touch of elegance married with the idea of a Jamaican Coronation Market, Best of Jamaica’s Grand Market Extravaganza fused culinary cuisines from around the world with Jamaican flavours which excited the contingent of local and international visitors who attended the event.

If the shrimp cocktails and marinated mussels were not enough to awake the taste buds then the balsamic marinated lamb and salmon and swordfish veloute were enough to whet the appetites of anxious food lovers.

The Grand Market Extravaganza made it difficult for guest not to experience a sweet climax through pastries with an array of chocolate opera cake, tropical fruit tart and crème de mint torte that threatened to retire of the popular cheese and black forest cake that many cannot get enough of.

On the other hand, marketing officer for Irie Isle Charlene Archie toppled trained chefs to become Best of Jamaica Amateur Cook-Off chef for 2010.

With her Irie grilled chicken served with wild rice and papaya mixed vegetables a relatively short Archie stirred a huge taste with her bursting flavours

“It’s the first time I am winning a cooking competition and against trained chefs, it’s exiting!” an enthused Archie revealed.

 “I must admit that it was intimidating at first, but I took my time and did in the name of fun, not knowing that my grilled chicken seasoned with Irie Isle products would stir such responses from the judges and secure such a huge victory” she confessed.

Best of Jamaica is an annual six-day celebration of Jamaican food and culture held at the resort formerly known as Grand Lido Braco in the yam producing parish of Trelawny.

Best of Jamaica

Although Tropical Storm Tomas did not leave a trail of destruction in Jamaica like Nicole, the widely publicized storm created a marketing nightmare for Breezes Rio Bueno’s signature Best of Jamaica festival in Trelawny.

“We had several international and local cancellations days leading up to the start of the event and despite us reassuring them that the impact for this side would not be significant, persons were still hesitant, and as such they cancelled” director of sales for Jamaica and the Caribbean at Superclubs Resorts Burchell Henry revealed.

The organizers of the premier food and cultural festival held from November 2-7 had to get creative in ensuring the at least some of the planned festivities were still took place.

“Thirty percent of our rooms that were booked and paid for received cancellation due to Tropical Storm Tomas which is huge chunk of our occupancy as it represents up to 90 rooms” Henry revealed.

He further added days such as Thursday and Friday during the passage of the tropical storm, severely impacted on the scheduled activities as many participants out of Kingston reported cancellation as a result of the inclement weather.

Now in its 8^th year, “the show had to go on!” Henry charged. “Best of Jamaica is the best event of its type in Jamaica.  There’s no other hotel that has not only done this type of event, but has done it for the length of time that we have been doing it for” he affirmed.

The recently rebranded Superclubs Resort experienced a significant decline in occupancy levels that were not normal during the staging of the resort’s calendar event.

With a pool of dedicated staff who worked around the clock, the event was saved when they hosted the Best of Jamaica Grand Market Extravaganza. The marriage of Jamaican cuisines along with reggae and dancehall music allowed both local and international guest to experience an authentic Jamaica Coronation-like setting that was second to none.

Henry used the opportunity to encourage more locals to participate in the celebration of Jamaica’s heritage and learn about the various aspects our culture that is now Brand Jamaica.

“We want our Jamaicans to embrace the concept of Best of Jamaica as we celebrate our food and culture and all the other countries who have contributed to our rich heritage”, he noted.

Among the list of sponsors of Best of Jamaica includes telecommunications company Claro, Jamaica Public Service Company, Best Dressed Chicken, Pepsi, Irie Isle and Jablum.

Assistance for Deportees

Help has arrived for deported migrants sent back to Jamaica through the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA), which seeks to assist in reintegration and helping them become productive members of the society.

“It is very difficult for these persons who are deported and are also drug abusers who have lived in a First World country for the greater portion of their lives to adjust to our lifestyle in Jamaica, they need to be re-socialized”, Sislyn Malcolm, national director of field services at NCDA revealed.

In a bid to rescue them from the grip of feeling lost and marginalize, she revealed that the NCDA initiated the Jamaica Reducing Re-offending Programme (JRRAP) in collaboration with the Ministry of National Security. The goal of this intervention Malcolm explained, “is not only to help deported migrants with a history of drug abuse but also ordinary deported individuals who do not have any relative or are not able to make contact with relatives.”

“We also assist in the reintegration and rehabilitation of substance abusers within this population, provide life coping skills to those who are deemed to be habitual drug users and abusers” she further added.  “It is hoped that this initiative will enable these individuals to successfully reintegrate into society and become responsible citizens”.

The programme is funded by UK-government and will come to an end in March 2011 after nine months since it was implemented. However, the national director of field services at NCDA is deeply concerned about the short run of this programme and hopes other countries will set in and play a role.

“While most of our deportees come from the UK, they also come from Canada and the US and if we are able to receive some assistance from these countries with regards to this programme we would be grateful,” Malcolm appealed.

Persons who wish to contact the National Council on Drug Abuse they can call a toll free number 1-888-991-4244 or text the word HELP to 564-3784.

Experiencing a piece of Paradise

Hundreds of international travel agents will converge in Jamaica each week for the next two months as apart of the tourism ministry’s campaign to reposition Jamaica as the ideal and safe destination to come for vacation.

“This is the start of a major programme to reposition Jamaica in the minds of our travel partners and travel agents.  2,000 travel agents coming on island over the next six to eight weeks. We are going to be bringing some 400 radio remotes that will be beaming from Jamaica to the various markets in the world” the tourism minister Edmund Bartlett revealed at the welcome party in Montego Bay at Sandals Cay over the weekend.

In light of the State of Emergency and the violent showdown between the police and criminals in West Kingston in May, which saw a decline in tourist arrivals for the months of May and June, Bartlett explained this thrust is a continuation of the ministry’s marketing campaign to rebrand Jamaica through visiting Europe and North America (where most of the tourist originate from).

This he argued is done in a bid to bring the overseas partners to Jamaica so they can have firsthand experience that the destination remains as strong and vibrant as before.

“The activities of May and June have all but evaporated and Jamaica is now a stronger and better destination because we were proactive in dealing with criminal activities and that we have made Jamaica safer and so they now can see the new developments in infrastructure that we have made that they never saw last year” Bartlett affirmed.

Already the tourism minister has charged that the rebranding efforts have reaped fruits as “we were able to totally erase the negative trends of May and June to have our July becoming the most strongest ever in history in terms of our arrivals. We also had the strongest August we’ve ever had with a growth of four percent and we have began September on a positive note”.