Chunks & Beans

Chunks & Beans

Everyone loves a Jamaican food post so here’s a new one for you! Can you believe it took me 14 trips to Jamaica to even know what “chunks & beans” was? I found it at Fishermans Beach in Ochi and I think I overdosed on it in a two-week period of time.

Unless a place has fried chicken on the menu I always ask what are their vegetarian options because I don’t like meat. It’s really easy to find vegetarian food in Jamaica because lots of Jamaicans are vegetarian. So one day when I went to my usual spot at the beach for breakfast and Andrew gave me the rundown of what was on the menu that day he mentioned “chunks & beans” in his list of items. I asked what it was and he told me it’s vegetarian so I decided I’d try it.

When he handed me the carton of food I saw brown meat-like chunks in it and said “that doesn’t look vegetarian to me!” He told me those were the chunks and they’re soy chunks, not meat. When I sat down and took my first mouthful of this food it was one of the best things I ever tasted! Just like meat stew….without the meat! I admit that even though I don’t eat meat I miss dishes that contain meat, like stew. I love stew but don’t eat beef. This alternative was a godsend! I ate this probably 8 out of 14 days for breakfast, always with boiled banana.

Later in that week I was shopping for food at the supermarket and saw that they sell the chunks in freeze-dried version and you can just buy a bag of it and throw it in your stews or soups. Excellent! And after searching Google for soy chunks I found you can buy them in lots of different places in lots of varieties.