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Caribbean Cruise

Carnival Just Made Its First Post-Melissa Cruise Call to Jamaica

carnival cruise line jamaica

Carnival Cruise Line made its first official call to Ocho Rios on Wednesday as Carnival Sunrise arrived in port, marking the resumption of cruise visits to Jamaica following Hurricane Melissa. Local officials and community partners greeted the ship as operations continued to stabilize across the north coast — with cruise guests officially returning to the […]

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Nigel Spence: A Recipe for Roasted Cho Cho

cho cho recipe

With Spring in the air, we tend to lighten up on the heavy winter meals to shed those pounds in anticipation of the great unveiling of the summer fashion and the body that fits in them. I start leaning heavily toward plant-based dishes with a little pop of color to match the incoming season. While […]

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A Recipe for Jamaican Cucumber Salad

cucumber salad recipe jamaican

With the Paleo diet gaining even more momentum moving into the new year, there is a constant search for new and interesting side dishes that are not heavily processed to accompany the main dishes at the table. This recipe looks and tastes exciting and is a refreshing accompaniment to grilled meats and fish. It lightens […]

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Nigel Spence: How to Make Salted Codfish Cookup From Jamaica

jamaica codfish cookup

Salted Codfish is ubiquitous in the Caribbean kitchen, but we rarely find it being consumed fresh. Fresh codfish is  worlds away from salted cod in texture and taste having a very flaky, tender meat and mild flavor. It is the fish of choice for the famed pub dish “fish and chips” for that very reason. […]


A Recipe for Jamaican Cucumber Salad

Sometimes trying to stick with a vegan diet, you can hit a wall trying to come up with new and exciting things to cook. Today was one of those days for me.  It didn’t help that my fridge and cupboards were like Old Mother Hubbard’s, so there wasn’t much to choose from either. A giant […]

Nigel Spence: A Holiday Brussel Sprouts Recipe

With the holidays upon us once again my thoughts always turn to new and improved recipes for the many dinners to be hosted during the season. Lately I have been on a mission to update side dishes that usually don’t get the limelight and is most times an afterthought for holiday menus. Since side dishes […]

How to Make Paella, Caribbean Style

So much of the seafood we eat today is farm raised on crappy diets with all kinds of additives, hormones antibiotics etc. that when I saw some wild shrimp from the ocean along with some octopus from Spain available, I grabbed them up and decided to make a ginormous pot of Caribbean rice.  I guess […]

A Great Caribbean Mushroom Recipe

By Nigel Spence Mushrooms are generally not high on the list of foods that Caribbean folks hold in high regard. That may be because we are not and have never been a mushroom growing or consuming society. What I was taught when growing up was that mushrooms were poisonous and should be avoided at all […]

A Caribbean Harissa Recipe

By Nigel Spence CJ Contributor Shifting toward a whole food plant-based diet requires quite a bit of changes in the way one eats and presents quite a challenge in keeping the dishes interesting. Bold flavors along with great eye appeal go a long way to help the final touchdown on the palate just in time […]

A Recipe for Caribbean Stuffed Plantain Boats — And the Memory of a Chef

By Nigel Spence CJ Contributor Many years ago, back in Culinary school, I can never forget this particularly hardcore instructor who trained me in fish fabrication and cooking. Every day upon arrival at 6am for class, he would add just a little bit more to the prep schedule, but require the tasks to be completed […]

How to Make a Beachy Caribbean Salad

By Nigel Spence CJ Contributor Finally, a breath of fresh air coupled with new beginnings, signifying another season of Spring. With renewed energy and vigor, we start to clear out the old and refresh with the new – usually reserved for closets and chest of drawers, but some adopt that in their personal relationships too […]

Nigel Spence: The Perfect Caribbean Summer Cocktail

By Nigel Spence CJ Contributor It’s funny how suddenly we New Yorkers have to be paying attention to the fact that the hurricane season began June 1st. It’s as if we became tropical overnight and no-one bothered to update us. Now every time a new disturbance fires off the coast of Africa, a grey hair […]