Sandals Whitehouse's curried bread. - photos by Mark Titus

Mark Titus, Freelance Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Unlike previous years, cooks on show at the seventh staging of the Gleaner-sponsored Westmoreland Curry Festival held at the Manning's School grounds last Sunday, chose to be more conservative with their dishes.

Known over the years for presenting innovative curried meals; patrons were left disappointed with this year's menu.

Audley Ricketts, a businessman who travelled from Lysons in St. Thomas told Food he was disappointed, as he came expecting to sample curried octopus, jackfruit and eggs. "I heard about these curried products that they had last year, and decided to come out of curiosity to sample them. But none of the booths have them this time round," he commented.

Non-traditional dishes such as curried mango, pork, rabbit, and garden eggs were hot buys, while the faint at heart stuck with the traditional dishes such as chicken, goat, conch, crab, shrimp, and an old time favourite, curried saltfish mixed with paroli squash.

CouplesNegril's curried pudding, and Sandals Whitehouse's curried shrimp had patrons scurrying to these booths for repeat servings.

This reporter was unwilling to sample the curried God-A-Me fish, which I was told remains alive for about two minutes after being scaled and gutted. This family event has made the organisers proud, as they strive towards their dream of making it the number one food festival in Jamaica.

Hmmm! Curried rabbit