Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

Author Janeen McNish (left) signs a copy of her book 'Carry Mi Ackee Go A Linstead Market' for a visitor to the festival. - photos by Nathaniel Stewart/Freelance Photographer

Spanish Town, St. Catherine:

JanEEn McNish and ackeeare no strangers to each other. And, she cemented this fact in, her book titled Carry Mi Ackee Go A Linstead Market Eat Jamaica.

McNish, who won the first Ackee Festival Competition in Linstead two years ago, with her dishes that impressed the judges, said she wants to put her views on ackee in words and this resulted in the compilation of the book.

"I think that ackee is a food of nostalgia and with millions of Jamaicans abroad wanting to keep in touch with the national fruit, the book will do justice to their interest," said McNish.

She said that the book is an authority on the origin of ackee, the economic value of the product, its nutritional value and for those who want to be aware of the fruit's flexibility, there is a whole catalogue of recipes.

Various recipes inside

These include: ackee quiche, ackee stuffed peppers, cream of ackee soup, ackee stuffed chicken leg, ackee pizza, the tasty ackee and saltfish, and the now-popular ackee punch.

The University of Technology lecturer in hospitality and tourism management said while the book is available locally, she intends to go into the overseas market and also the hotel industry so as to spread the word of what ackee can bring.

"I think that to sell these books here means the festival is the only one about which a book has been written, signifying what ackee means to Jamaica."

Ackee

The book is an authority on the origin of ackee, the economic value of the product, its nutritional value and, for those who want to be aware of the fruit's flexibility, there is a whole catalogue of recipes.

An attractive display of the new book 'Carry Mi Ackee Go A Linstead Market' at the Linstead Ackee Festival on August 1.