Food tourism puts Falmouth, Jamaica on map

THE EDITOR, Sir: GASTROTOURISM IS gaining momentum in Jamaica, as is evidenced by a glowing report in the LA Times about the Falmouth Culinary Tour. The Falmouth Culinary Tour has been awarded the Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence for three years in a row and is an outstanding feature of Jamaican gastrotourism.

The Falmouth Culinary Tour, Our Falmouth Food Tour is run in collaboration with Falmouth Heritage Walks and offers up a delicious blend of Jamaican food and history. In a two-and-ahalf-hour guided walking tour of the historic town of Falmouth, guests sample nuggets of the local cuisine, which has been seasoned, marinated and steeped in centuries of history. They discover what plantation life was like when sugar was King, and how the life and rhythm of the sugar plantation shaped what our peoples ate and how it was prepared.

Guests savour the flavours of contemporary cuisine and experience through various food tastings how Jamaicans have used creative cooking methods and a fusion of culinary practices from different cultures to develop dishes that sustained our people through slavery, colonialism, wartime and Independence. In-between tastings, guests view the Georgian architecture adopted from England by many plantation owners and preserved on several of the town’s buildings today and learn how the town of Falmouth became a thriving seaport in its heyday, and guests enjoy the local fare and interaction with local vendors against the intriguing backdrop of the rich, historic features characterising this town. Kudos to the creators of the Falmouth Food Tour for putting into action the current thrust of the Ministry of Tourism and bringing one of the pillars of food as a hallmark of Jamaican tourism, and in doing so putting Jamaica and Falmouth on the global culinary map. PHILLIPA LAWRENCE phillipa.lawrence@gmail.com