Kayana Robinson, first-year child and youth care Jamaican student (left), shares the benefits of Lasco food drink with Eunice Ejiro Ekairia, first-year LPN student on Feb. 26 in the LPSA office at Lethbridge Polytechnic. Photo by Jody-Ann Smikle.

Visualize your favourite meal, the one so unforgettable it makes you re-consider selling a limb or distant family member to taste it. Now, close your eyes and remember its smell, so good your stomach growls at the thought of it being plated. Many Jamaicans won’t picture a single meal, but instead imagine a specific day of the week – Sunday.

Sundays hold significant memories in Jamaican culture. It’s a day of rest and relaxation, but also a day for indulging in a hearty breakfast and even heartier dinner. These are the types of foods that trigger nostalgia and bring families together.

They’d be awakened by the aroma of sauteed ackee and saltfish, seasoned to perfection served with yams, bananas and boiled or fried dumplings. By midday, the smell of French-fried chicken with rice and peas would permeate the air. These traditional meals are staples in many Jamaican households. However, they are like distant memories for several Jamaicans living in Canada. The pursuit of finding specific foods or even their ingredients is like a wild goose chase with no end.

Now, let’s go back to the beginning where you pictured your favourite meal. What if someone messed up its taste or ingredients?  What if you thought you found it, just to discover that it doesn’t taste the same? Imagine that longing and hunger for something that awakens every single taste bud in your body.

If you pack your bags, say goodbye and board a plane to another country, you won’t just leave loved ones behind. You’d leave food that is ingrained into your culture like a part of your identity. That’s the reality for Kayana Robinson, a Jamaican-born first-year child and youth care student at Lethbridge Polytechnic. She arrived in Lethbridge in 2024 and still struggles to find food that appeases her palette.

Jamaicans and their food go together like Bonnie and Clyde, they’re partners in crime. Kayana misses ackee and saltfish, Jamaica’s national dish the most. It’s almost impossible to find fresh ackee in Lethbridge, but she laments it’s a struggle to find canned ackee or real, salted codfish also known as saltfish.

“It’s one of my frustrations because it’s a dish that I’ve wanted to have since I got here,” says Robinson.

Robinson finds it hard to source even the spices to add flavour to her dishes. Food plays a vital role in her life, especially being so far away from home. Other Jamaican dishes like curried goat, escovitch fish, oxtail and jerked chicken are comfort foods, reminiscent of times spent socializing with friends and family.

According to an article titled It All Comes Back to the Plate: Food’s Role in Understanding Culture published in Insightful by Jason Brasier on Feb. 18, 2025, “As foods represent our cultures, they come to become core parts of our identities. Recipes are passed down through generations, the tastes, smells and sights of meals connect us with our ancestral heritage. As humans travel, emigrate and live far from their homeland, this sentiment becomes particularly pertinent.” Robinson’s plight doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The issue spans generations. It is experienced by another Jamaican immigrant living in Lethbridge.

Markham Johnson is a service specialist II in testing services at Lethbridge Polytechnic.  He came to Canada over six years ago and still struggles to find authentic Jamaican food. Whether it’s in the supermarket or at a “Jamaican” restaurant in Calgary, he says the food here is a far cry from home and the spices are “watered down.”

“The only time I’ve had a Jamaican meal here in Lethbridge that tasted like home is about two years ago when my mother-in-law cooked oxtail with rice and peas,” says Johnson. “It tasted good because she brought spices from home (Jamaica).” 

For Johnson, Jamaican food takes him back to childhood days. He recalls fond memories of him and his brother enjoying their grandmother’s cooking. He proudly declares the one meal he would eat daily is her delicious fried chicken, rice and peas with “nuff” (plenty) gravy.

“She cooked many different meals like pork, beef and chicken,” he says. “But the only thing I always looked forward to on a Sunday, guaranteed, is when she cooked fried chicken.”

While the newcomer Robinson, is still navigating the superstore aisles for a glimpse of Jamaican foods; she will eventually learn to adapt to the water down substitutes. Although there are numerous international food aisles in various stores, finding the right Jamaican foods are like hit or miss. You learn to acquire the taste of something for a season, until its taste is no longer satisfying and you move on the next thing. And if you’re lucky, you may score some Jamaican favourites like Lasco food drink, banana chips, spice buns, tiggaz, duplex biscuits and patties from a Jamaican who has received a care package.