Disclaimer: Foodie inside- enter at the risk of getting hungry and leaving overweight
It’s Sunday and I turn to my wife who is Japanese and ask “What’s for dinner?” She replies “Nabe.” (Nabe is a Japanese one pot soup with all kinds of meat and vegetables included.)I lost my marbles for moment and thought what the (insert Jamaican fabric here ) is dis woman talking about? Where is the rice and peas? 
Where is the bbq chicken? I thought it was a teachable moment and went to lengths to explain to my wife that Sunday dinner was the biggest and most important meal for all Jamaicans all over the world.
My earliest memories of Sundays are fine ones. As @shani.beer will tell you missja shows up when food is on the table. That is an understatement, I show up when food is in the air. Yes! It permeated the atmosphere on Sundays. The piquant smell of oxtail , curried goat or chicken , fried fish or roast beef was enough to raise the dead (no duppies allowed) . The the simmering sound of pressure pots competed with the playing of gospel music or the preaching of radio preacher star “The Reverend VB.” Anybody who is a somebody grated coconut for the rice and peas and lost some finger skin in the process as a child. ![4CC54E92-4620-4417-93BB-46985E79D776.png]Like This
If it wasn’t coconut it was carrot of June plum for the juice as fresh juice was a hit with the Sunday Dinner. I’d grown accustomed to this and tried to maintain this tradition in Japan many years later as a single man. So you can imagine my shock when I got married and my wife didn’t seem to get the memo 😂
Well I’ve checked it out and apparently this tradition was handed down from the times of slavery. You see many of the enslavers were pious church goers and in keeping the “Sabbath” holy, they gave the slaves the day off. Even the non Christian masters gave in to this custom from the 17th century onward. Hence, the slaves would use this day to till their personal plots of peas or other veggies they may have planted on the worst parts of the land called the “Provision grounds.” 
According to data garnered from the Liverpool-museum.org other foods were given to the slaves on Sundays. For example , salted mackerel and picked herring. In later days food was imported from North America to supplement what was grown on the estate grounds.
Sunday was also a time of communal gathering and bread breaking and so that is where Sunday dinner allegedly started. 
Sure it’s origin was less than ideal but I still look forward to Sunday dinner. As it was in the days of slavery it is still to many a day of family gathering and seeking thanksgiving. As many people work out of house and are usually too busy - it is still a time of refreshing and bond building. The day is not complete without the melodious sounds of the musical greats from either the radio or the nearby sound system. As a child Sunday matinee was icing on the cake when we had only one tv station. If I was lucky I would get to 🏃🏾 after “Creamy” to buy an ice cream cake of which quarter could be mine. I had kfc for dinner today Sunday , Nov. 10. I guess I have learned to live without the traditional rice and peas but I still look forward to a good Jamaican Sunday Dinner
(☝🏿One of the Sundays I decided to cook)
Other pics are courtesy of my friend and Yawd cheffete @datametrics
I read this this morning, had to come back and savour it this evening. I can hardly pick which is my favourite sentence, but this has to come close to first:
Patrick is the big cook in our family. We both cook, but he has the magic. When we met he asked me to come for a meal at his house - fried chicken, rice and peas, steamed vegetables, macaroni cheese pie - I never left :)
😂 food is the way to a woman’s heart too then? 😂 okay- food is the language of love!
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What a fun food article! Next time, if you post a food article (so wonderful as this one) on Fridays, put #fff as one of your first five tags and you'll get entered into the Friday Food Fight challenge that's been a lot of fun. Your post would do very well there.
I found your post thanks to @justclickindiva who featured you in the Pay it Forward Contest. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for your kind words and advice , I will try to jump in the Friday fun.
You tell her man! Sunday may not mean anything to the East Asians but I definitely wouldn't stand by a one-pot meal on a Sunday. Like your picture style and those posts!
Thank you 🙏 I will give her another nudge 😀or just continue cooking it myself for every one when I’m not too tired.
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Everything looks delicious..
Thanks 🙏
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@missaj now you make me feel hungry and really desperate to eat this wonderful food....lol
Okay , will have to bring you a recipe so you can cook it :)
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lol..God knows i love great foods so much,thanks for bringing this wonderful meal up...
@missaj
So my man in
‘The Land of Rising Sun’
Shoutout for Photo.
Right side up.
Not upside down.
Where can I get one
of those hipster aprons.
Too Cool
s-irie
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Shout outs to you too sir- I’ve been trying to right my photos these days. I think I got this apron from Ja. I was looking for one with the words “Don’t mess with the Jamaican chef.” This is quite fine tho 😀
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Yo mi bredda LOL I had KFC Saturday/Sunday too ( was a gatering at my house, nuff KFC left overs)
LOL, JAH know, but you know seh a fi we fault, we nuh tek time fi teach dem. The last time my wife cooked Jamaican food was when the TV crew came....a lie, she made chicken soup the other day. LOL this made me laugh and smile till all eye water drop.
In the early years Jamaican food cook on Sundays but wow we are the fish in the aquarium now. 😂 I used to get patties and banana bread lol 😂 “Mendoksai”
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Thanks for your post. The dishes look scrumptious. Also learned a bit of history about the Jamaican culture and the origin of the "Sunday dinner".
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a bit of encouragement. Peace and love
I'm doing a curation of a post I think is good. I'd like to know if it is OK if I use your dinner picture for a curation that includes your blog?
Go ahead.
Thanks so much.
I hope you enjoyed my curation of your post. It was a wonderful topic because I love food.
Thank you - I did. Foodies must come together 😀
Your post was featured in an entry into @pifc's Curation Contest:Week 84. Posts are selected because the entrant felt you are producing great content and deserve more attention (& rewards) on your post. As such your post has been upvoted and will be visited by other members of the PIFC Community.
We are always looking for new people to join our curation efforts. This is a great way to meet new people and become part of a community that focuses on helping one another.
Want to promote a post for free and have a chance to find some other great content? Check out this week's Pimp Your Post.
The Pay It Forward community also has a Discord Channel if you are interested in learning more about us.
Thank you 🙏 will pay it forward.