Where can one find authentic local food on the streets of Jamaica? A 21-year-old college student had this in mind when he created Yaad Bites, a mobile app designed to make it easy to source Jamaican foods on the island’s roadsides, from jerk chicken sizzling on a grill to fresh fruit sold at a corner stall.

Somesh Sharma, a third-year student at the University of the West Indies (UWI) pursuing a degree in medical physics, harnessed his passion for innovation to develop the app that connects local and tourists with the tastes of the island.

“I’m from Ocho Rios, and I meet so many people in Ochi—food stall owners and street vendors—and I realised that it’s very hard for people, both Jamaicans and tourists, to find real Jamaican street food. Vendors don’t have much of an online presence, so I wanted to create something simple that connects people to them and gives them some publicity, while also allowing tourists and locals to find real local food,” he told Observer Online.

Somesh Sharma

According to Sharma, he conducted an island-wide survey of local vendors which revealed that the number one complaint among them was lack of sales.

“So from there, I realised it’s definitely a problem—because if vendors aren’t making enough money, and people themselves don’t know where to get good food, then it’s a buyer-and-seller problem. That was the motivation overall: to help vendors get more business through publicity and help buyers find what they want,” he added.

According to Sharma, the feedback from local vendors has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Vendors are very thankful to have something like this for the first time. It’s the first thing they said that gives them a chance of online publicity. They’re happy because people used to struggle to find these places—and now they don’t,” he said.

Yaad Bites was officially launched in September, and Sharma shared that he is now focused on adding more local stalls to the platform to broaden the offerings available to customers.

“The main aim right now is to get more stores onto the application. It’s being updated daily. Anyone can send a request to add a new place — whether it’s the vendors themselves or someone who’s passed by a food stall. That’s the main goal right now: trying to get more food trucks and food stalls across the country on the app,” he said.

He said he’s currently not earning off the app, but hinted at plans to monetize it in the future.

“Right now it’s just aimed for them to get customers … in the future I may plan to add packages, so a basic package shows everyone and higher packages put you on front pages,” Sharma said.

When asked about the connection between medical physics and his interest in app development, Sharma explained that he simply has a passion for innovation and solving real problems in Jamaica.

“Since I joined UWI, I’ve worked on many innovation projects. That’s my thing — I love innovation. I want to make my country better in every way. Any small gap I see, I want to repair it,” he said.

“One of the first things I did was with Huawei. They had a ‘Seeds for the Future’ programme, and a few other students from UWI and UTech [University of Technology], along with myself, were invited to present a project as a Jamaican team — not representing a university, but the country. That was a renewable energy project,” he continued. “Then I did another one for farmers in Jamaica, to help them get more publicity. So for me, every innovation project is based on real needs — when people complain about something, I try to solve it.”

The student said he hopes Yaad Bites will also have a positive impact on both tourists and locals alike.

“I’m hoping locals and tourists can find places based on what they’re looking for. I worked in a few stores in Ocho Rios, and I met a lot of tourists. When I interacted with them, they would say, ‘We can’t find real Jamaican jerk chicken anywhere!’ And that’s a problem — because only the big jerk centres are well known,” Sharma said. “So now, whether you’re from Kingston heading to Ochi or to Trelawny, I hope anyone looking for real food—jerk chicken, fried chicken, pasta, breakfast items, anything—can use Yaad Bites to find it.”