Easter & Escovitch

Jamaica is an overwhelmingly Christian country (we have the most churches per capita in the world! Although neither of us observe the religion most of our food traditions revolve around the Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter being the main ones. 

Each Easter there is a mad rush to get the bun and cheese, fry the fish (usually snapper or King fish), get the hardo bread, and you bet your ass you’ll be eating fish for the whole weekend cause no one is doing anymore cooking. 

Easter weekend reminds me of scratchy, itchy lace white socks, an Easter outfit for church, and maybe pressed hair. Being forced to sit in church for hours and hours on end but it was all worth it when we got home and got to enjoy the vinegary, spicy crunchy Escovitch sauce on top of the crispiest fish with a thick slice of hardo bread. 

We’d tear strip after strip off of the fish and fight over the crunchiest pieces. If the fish was fried good, you wouldn’t even mind chewing the bones. The brittle snap giving way to more flavour.  

Everyone knows someone who met the danger ends of a fish bone, coughing and choking but from a young age I learned how to skillfully maneuver away from the danger. My trick is too balance the bites of fish you take with an equally sized portion of the starch you’re eating with either festival, bammy, or hardo bread. That starch becomes a pillow or cushion against the sharp tiny bones. And ALWAYS have a drink on hand. 

These days I get all the fun without the torture of hours longs sermons in Church. My fish, my bammy, my bread and a nice movie on Netflix.