How to Party like a Jamaican in Montreal

The beauty of having spent the last 6 years traveling is the friends I’ve made throughout my journeys abroad- and HOME! My crowd of friends has drastically changed since High School or College. My closest friends go from Italian descendent to Vietnamese to Lebanese to Argentinian to Jamaican. All open minded, we spend our time together discovering new cuisines or activities.

This being said, it was my Jamaican friend’s dad’s 60th Birthday last Saturday and of course, her closest friends were invited. The evening began with some Jamaican patties as appetizers.  Obviously, when the invitation said cocktail at 6:30pm, it translates to 7:30pm for Jamaicans! So we arrived on-time according to Jamaican time- 7:45pm! 15 minutes before the dad’s entrance. Then, the meal started. One word to describe the food… YUM! The menu included curry goat, fried chicken, jerk chicken, fish and beans. It was the first time I ate some real tasty Jamaican food and enjoyed every bite of it! And then…. and then came dessert. Anything from cheese cake, to spicy cake to rum cake was on the sweet table. It was delicious! So after eating such tasty food, it was time to get the P-A-R-T-Y started on the dance floor. Spent a few hours dancing to reggae which was a change.

All this to say that all of us non-Jamaicans enjoyed our time at the party. And 6 years ago, going to a Jamaican party would have probably not interested me but I’m glad that all changed! We had a much more interesting night than if we would have danced in a club or hanging out at a lounge. Change is good.