My people love food really bad. I often wonder if our culture has an obsession with food. Almost everything in our culture is defined by food. There is some type of food to cure almost everything from impotence to arthritis. Babies must be fat and chubby or they look sick. Is true…memba when you see a skinny baby people claim the baby must have worms? Caretakers of the baby and their parents will go to great lengths to make sure a baby is fat and “healthy”. They fatten them up with porridge, egg and anything that is perceived as good food to make a baby fat.

We love to “run a boat”. This is where a few men gather any type of food items they can get their hands on & cook on an outdoor coal stove. It is probably the only way to assure you can get a group of grown responsible men to work on a project.

Jamaican men love women with a little meat on them. A woman must have a “big bumper”. A woman must look “fat and healthy”. The sign of a real Jamaican man is one with a potbelly.

Jamaican functions are defined by how good the food was. Wedding food is especially important as some may feel the need to take back their gift if it is not tasty.

Food is more important than the dead. Yes, people are known to leave a nine night or wake if no food will be served. Finger food is unacceptable. It has to be a meal like curry goat or chicken. Some people are rumored to charter buses to go to funerals to eat.