In our search for new food items being produced in Jamaica, Thursday Life has really been impressed with what people are pulling out of their proverbial chef’s hats. Last week we wrote about seafood, Rainforest’s Rainforest Ready burgers, and about entrepreneur Craig Powell, the brain behind Backyard BBQ’s smoked barbecued meats and Jamaica Rabbit Ranch’s whole frozen rabbits. Today we take a look at two new food items, which at the very least are two loves of Jamaicans – bammy and goat!

Neil Yap Sam, who has a keen palate, has been working on the perfect bammy recipe for a while. A couple years ago, Yap Sam thought that “given the way things were here in Jamaica from then, I thought about doing something in Trinidad, where I have relatives.” Knowing that there was a lot of cassava growing in Trinidad, he decided that he would go there and make it. However, upon discovering that it was costing TT$7 (approx US$1.15) per pound at that time, as opposed to J$20 per pound in Jamaica, which was less than a quarter of the price, he decided that it was smarter to produce bammies here.

The next step for Yap Sam was “to find out how to make it,” he told us. “Of course no one wanted to tell me their secret,” he admitted. However, “eventually a lady in Mandeville let me into her factory, and then three more places allowed me in also,” he revealed. “I just watched and saw what they were all doing,” he went on, “and then tried making my own bammies at home, through trial and error for some six months, until I got it right.” Finally, about a year ago, Yap Sam started supplying caterers with his bammies, and four months later Mommy’s Choice Sweet Cassava Bammies were being sold in Loshusan, Lee’s Food Fair and Golden Grocery.

With three round bammies on the market (5 inch by 1/2 inch thick, sold in packs of 2; 3 inch by 1/8 inch thick, sold in packs of 16; and 3 inch by 1/2 inch, sold in packs of 8), Yap Sam also decided to sell bammy sticks. “I actually make a square bammy measuring 5 1/2 inches by 5 inches, and make it 1/2-inch thick, and then cut it into 18 pieces. Most people still make a round bammy and cut that, but the way I do it is a more uniformed way and looks better,” he rightfully boasted.

Yap Sam’s bammies are unique, as “I only use sweet cassava. You see bitter cassava, which other manufacturers use, is poisonous, so you have to put it through a special process. I don’t want to take the chance of messing that up, so I just use sweet cassava,” he related. “Also, when you squeeze the cassava, to get the water out, a lot of the starch comes out also. Starch is needed to bind bammy, so it must be put back into the bammy. Some people use wheat flour as this binding agent, but I have learnt how to gather back the starch from the cassava and put it back into my bammies. It means that my bammies are completely wheat and gluten free,” he informed Thursday Life.

Yap Sam, who sources his cassavas from Clarendon, St Catherine, St Mary and St Ann, recommends that “because of the way I make my bammies, you should only soak them in water or milk for 30 seconds, and then place them in a pan of hot oil, frying on all sides until golden. They will be crisp on the outside and soft on the inside,” he went on. Yap Sam suggested that the cooked sticks should be dipped into a cheese sauce, so I concocted a home-made one with hot heavy cream, a soft Brie-like cheese and a hard Gouda, along with a large slice of Scotch bonnet pepper, and was very impressed with how beautifully it went with Mommy’s Choice Sweet Cassava Bammy Sticks.

Also supporting our local farmers is the St Catherine Farmers’ Association, who are buying goats from Jamaican farmers, slaughtering them, cutting the meat into bite-size cubes, and selling them in one-kilo vacuum packs, under the brand name King’s Jamaican, for about J$875. The chairman of the association is Alexander Archer, whom Thursday Life caught up with last week in a telephone interview. “We have been working on this product for about a year and a half,” Archer informed us, “and we started selling it in PriceSmart last November.” Archer, who rears goats on his farms in Rhymesbury, Clarendon, and in Spanish Town, is among the 15 or more goat farmers from whom King’s Jamaican goat meat is sourced.

“We decided to do this because we wanted to put out a branded local goat product to assure people of the local origin of the meat,” Archer declared, “and we wanted to create a reputable brand. The more we produce as a nation, the less we have to buy. Of course I don’t know how big a dent we’ll make, but it has to be good, right?

The imported goat is older,” he explained. “I have seen the labels myself, and the carcasses often have a year-old label on them. Our product can get to market between three and five days after slaughtering, so it is as fresh as you could ever get,” he proudly told Thursday Life.

There is something special about the flavour of King’s Jamaican goat meat, due to the orange pulp which makes up part of what the goats are fed on. They also eat bush, grass and brewer’s grain. Archer, who swears that a brown stew is the most tasty way to cook goat, believes that “in the past goat has not been respected, because it has been considered poor people food. But the tables have turned now, as the food industry has found cheap, and unhealthy, ways of producing other meats. Goat is produced on a small farm basis where one farmer has only 10 or 20 goats, so it is an expensive venture,” he continued. “The goat is very stubborn as it does not give itself to the cheaper industrial process. If you confine goats to small places, they will get sick. They are very social animals and love freedom, and cannot be kept in a cage like chickens,” he advised. “The goat is one of the few naturally raised meats still around, and the earliest we slaughter them is when they are 10 months old,” he reported. Due to the small production, however, there are times when it is difficult to access goat meat, so there may be moments when King’s Jamaican goat meat, while it is in its beginning stages, will not be available at Pricesmart.

On a final note, Archer stated, “Goat meat is also a healthy alternative to other meats. I feel it is the king of all meats. In fact, there was a study done by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) that revealed the nutrition in 85g of five meats. Goat has the most protein- equally with beef (23g), the most iron (3.2g), and the least fat (2.58g), compared to 16g of fat in beef and lamb, and 24g in pork. It even has less fat than chicken,” bragged Archer.

We continue our search for what’s new in food, so until next week, head to your supermarket and buy Jamaican products.

Editor’s Note. The winner of the Best New Food/ Beverage Item will be announced at The Food Awards which takes place on Thursday, May 30 at Devon House.