Ever heard of Roast and Dip? Me neither but guess what? Jamaica Observer Table Talk Food Awards judges for the parish of Clarendon, Kurt and Ezmien Chin, certainly have.

Rocky Point is the most southern part of Clarendon and also Jamaica. It’s a small fishing village with an even smaller population. It hasn’t developed much over the past few years maybe none at all, since the last time I’ve been there. My father was born in Rocky and knows all the stories. It’s called Rocky by everyone in Clarendon, so if you ask someone to direct you to Rocky Point they’ll definitely know you’re from out of town. Rocky is where all the freshly caught fish comes from in Clarendon. Rocky is mostly known for having a good population of different species of tang fishes such as doctor, turbit, constance, etc. Other species are caught as well. So this back story all leads up to what we call roast and dip. If you’re not from Rocky or don’t know anyone from Rocky or have never been to Rocky, then you probably never heard of roast and dip.

Roast and dip was created by the people of Rocky as a way to season their fish after they roasted it. They would get fish from fisherman, roast it on top of a piece of zinc then while it’s still piping hot run to the sea with it and dip it into the ocean to get some of that salt water flavour. From there it evolved into what is now known as roast and dip.

Rocky is quite a trek and is, for most people, just too difficult to get to. So for the majority of us we call the trusty fish roaster from Rocky, Wan. He comes to your house, party of whatever occasion if there is any and does his thing. He provides the fish and everything you need to have a proper fish roasting. However, if you do want to have a full Rocky experience you can find Wan at High View Sea Fish Centre in Rocky. You can buy your own fish and have Wan roast it for you for $100 per pound or you can buy fish already prepared starting at $500. Nowadays roast and dip consists of roasted fish with pickled vegetables. Cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, Scotch bonnet pepper and limes are sliced and placed in a container large enough to hold the fishes. Water is heated with salt and poured over the vegetables to create a pickle. The fish, mostly doctor and turbit, is cooked directly on a flat top then dipped directly into the water for a few moments; just long enough to soak up all the flavour from the pickle. There is a skill to creating roast and dip that only the people from Rocky know how to do. You have to cook the fish just right and leave it in the pickle just long enough to soak up flavour but not so long that the fish gets soggy and starts to fall apart. Rocky is also known for roast fish the traditional way-stuffed and roasted in foil. Another specialty of Wan is his roasted conch. It’s not your typical roasted conch. His is something special. When you open a packet of Wan’s conch you’ll be quite surprised and probably not think to yourself that he gave you the wrong thing because it just looks like a packet of chopped up vegetables. But it’s not. It’s a mixture of seasonings and pounded and chopped up conch. It smells wonderful and that bellow of steam coming from the packet just fogged up your glasses but you don’t care because one bite of this conch was well worth it. It’s tender, spicy and oh so flavourful with a hint of sweetness from the conch. Hopefully you will be just as enthused as I am about roast and dip and this delicious conch. If you head down to Rocky, give Wan a call at 774-9909.

Rocky is quite a trek and is, for most people, just too difficult to get to. So for the majority of us we call the trusty fish roaster from Rocky, Wan. He comes to your house, party of whatever occasion if there is any and does his thing. He provides the fish and everything you need to have a proper fish roasting. However, if you do want to have a full Rocky experience you can find Wan at High View Sea Fish Centre in Rocky. You can buy your own fish and have Wan roast it for you for $100 per pound or you can buy fish already prepared starting at $500. Nowadays roast and dip consists of roasted fish with pickled vegetables. Cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, Scotch bonnet pepper and limes are sliced and placed in a container large enough to hold the fishes. Water is heated with salt and poured over the vegetables to create a pickle. The fish, mostly doctor and turbit, is cooked directly on a flat top then dipped directly into the water for a few moments; just long enough to soak up all the flavour from the pickle. There is a skill to creating roast and dip that only the people from Rocky know how to do. You have to cook the fish just right and leave it in the pickle just long enough to soak up flavour but not so long that the fish gets soggy and starts to fall apart. Rocky is also known for roast fish the traditional way-stuffed and roasted in foil. Another specialty of Wan is his roasted conch. It’s not your typical roasted conch. His is something special. When you open a packet of Wan’s conch you’ll be quite surprised and probably not think to yourself that he gave you the wrong thing because it just looks like a packet of chopped up vegetables. But it’s not. It’s a mixture of seasonings and pounded and chopped up conch. It smells wonderful and that bellow of steam coming from the packet just fogged up your glasses but you don’t care because one bite of this conch was well worth it. It’s tender, spicy and oh so flavourful with a hint of sweetness from the conch. Hopefully you will be just as enthused as I am about roast and dip and this delicious conch. If you head down to Rocky, give Wan a call at 774-9909.