Thursday, May 21, 2015

Vacation: Part 6 --- Trying ackee

One of the reasons that we love all-inclusive resorts is the opportunity to try new things with no downside, especially in restaurants. Since it's all prepaid, if you don't like what you order, you order something else or go somewhere else and eat something different.

In Jamaica, Nate was telling me about something called ackee.

"You mean acai?" I asked.

He insisted that this fruit in Jamaica was called ackee, but I knew he was just mispronouncing it, so I spelled it for him and told him it was pronounced a-si-ee.

Then we passed by a tree on the Sandals resort that grew the national fruit, and a sign in front showed that it was an ackee tree. Yes, ackee.

I had never heard of that fruit before.

We ended up ordering an ackee and smoked marlin calzone at the pizza place one day, and I expected a purplish fruit to be inside. What spilled out was cheese, sauce, pink smoked marlin and what appeared to be scrambled eggs.

The calzone was absolutely delicious, and I continued to poke around to try to find the ackee. I didn't see anything beyond these yellow chunks, and we finally concluded that this was indeed the ackee. It wasn't sweet --- it was kind of savory and even a little salty.

The next day Nate tried ackee and saltfish, the national breakfast in Jamaica. Fish, peppers, onions and ackee don't sound like a great breakfast, but it was in fact quite delicious. Nate's dad had told us to try it, and he was right. It's oddly good.

That's why I love to try new things. Yes, sometimes I don't end up liking them. However, other times I find something that I end up absolutely loving. It's so worth it to expand your palate and your experiences by trying a little bit of everything.

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