This Easter, relive your childhood memories with Jamaican Buns and Cheese.
I was born and raised in the sunshine, the wind, and the air of Jamaica. I always reminisce about my beloved childhood hometown, especially when Easter is around the corner. And, for me, Jamaican Easter isn’t complete without the special treat of bun and cheese. Slightly spiced Jamaican bread, soft, tender, studded with raisins and fruits, served with nice slices of cheese, is dear to the childhood memories of not only me but many Jamaicans. Jamaican buns and cheese are descendants of British cross buns when they colonized Jamaica. Over time, we made this English cross bun our own by using the delicacy of Caribbean Island ingredients. Missing home is compounded by living so far from home and with the cold winters of Kitchener Waterloo Ontario Canada.
During the Lenten season, Jamaicans would have Easter buns and cheese in their hands and bellies. When Easter was approaching, my mother would be busy with flour, molasses, raisins, stout, and locally famous cheese to stock up on buns and cheese for Good Friday. Mom would use two big bowls, one for dry ingredients: mixed flour, nutmeg, salt, cinnamon, allspice; and one for the mixture of butter, stout, guava jam, mixed essence, browning, and egg. Then she slowly added the dry mix to the wet mixture. Until they were well blended, she would pour the batter into the loaf pan and start baking. Mom’s buns always came out of the oven soft, sweet, moist, and flavorful.
Like many other home cooks, my mom was always proud of her own recipe and told me that there was no better thing than her Easter bun. We would only eat bread and water until sunset during the Lenten Season, especially on Fridays. Therefore, my siblings and I were always eager for Good Friday, when buns and cheese were served. On Good Friday, we would go to a church for the whole day. Dinner would be served after 3 p.m. The menu would include fried fish, ginger beer, and our delightful Easter Bun and cheese.
How to have authentic bun and cheese this Easter season. Nowadays, settling down in Kitchener makes me miss Jamaican Easter badly. I can buy buns and cheese in the supermarket, but its not the Jamaican Bun and Cheese its Cheddar. I always try to make buns on my own with my mom’s recipe every Easter season to taste the real flavor of this treat and live my dear childhood once again. I then go to J&K Cuisine to get the True Tastee Jamaican Cheese at the best price in town
This year, amid so many deadlines at work, I am not sure that I can bake, but one thing for sure is that I can still taste ingenious Easter Jamaican bun and cheese by driving from London to Kitchener Waterloo to drop by J&K cuisine. If you are around Kitchener Waterloo or are in London, Stratford, Cambridge or Guelph and are willing to take a drive, J&K Cuisine is a must-try restaurant for any Jamaican. I still remember the first time I found J & K and tasted the traditional Jamaican food of the talented Jamaican chef there. It felt like no time had passed and loads of time had passed. It felt like my hometown was very close to me.
I’d like to include this link: jkcuisine.ca in case you, like me, are a nostalgic person.
Happy Easter!