Stew Peas　ステュー・ピーズ

Stew Peas with White Rice

This is the second installment in our “Food I fondly remember” interview series which is aimed at introducing Japanese to soul foods of Jamaica which many Japanese have never experienced but are really worth trying.

Clive Myrie is a true Jamaican with an indomitable will to innovate and boldly explore things never before explored. As a true entrepreneur, Clive was once Jamaica’s only commercial grower of passion fruits on his farm in Moores, Clarendon – located about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Chapelton. As a visionary, Clive went into farming knowing that he needed to focus on value-added if his agro-business was to be viable. He processed his passion fruit into packaged products, one of which was his very popular passion fruit syrup.

To guard his efforts from much of it being eaten on the farm, Clive had to devise a buzz in Moores claiming that over consumption of passion fruit could impair men’s virility. This worked for a little while before his business suffered a massive fall in demand out of fear of becoming impotent. But maybe – just maybe – it had worked too well. One of the biggest fears of Jamaicans – men and women alike. He had to declare to the nation that he had crafted the rumour to protect his fruits. To help meet the demands, he soon provided thousands of seedlings to farmers in the surrounding communities of Peckham, Frankfield, Crooked River and Chapelton. This proved to be immensely successful – until cheap imports forced him to retreat from passion fruit farming.

Undaunted, Clive has always had an eye out for creating his own opportunities in waiting. It was while dining with his family at a North Coast hotel (tourist area) restaurant on a Jamaica night (by law hotels must allow Jamaica nationals paid access to their facilities at least one day each week) that Clive’s creative mind went into overdrive. He observed the struggles of one of the chefs preparing the jerk meat and had a flash of brilliance – an epiphany.

On his drive back home that night to Clarendon, he figured out the product that would lead to the chef’s answer. After a long period of R&D and testing, he finally came up with Jamaica’s very own authentic jerk briquettes which he named Pimora. This product was so amazing he was able to get a major corporate sponsor to come on board. The product also won the best product award in its first year on the market. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Clive spent his formative years in the middle income community named Duhaney Park. Duhaney Park is in west St. Andrew close to St. Catherine. As a little boy growing up, Clive enjoyed his mommy’s food immensely. In our interview, Clive reminisced on several of his childhood favourite dishes. This included his second favourite dish – Curried Goat. Clive took me down memory lane and through the mores of the sacred Jamaican food traditions.

Sunday was as special as family meals could be. Rice and Peas was the main staple combined with a meat dish or two – be it steak, pork or chicken. Saturday was Soup day and Thursday was Stew Peas day (also affectionately called Ben Johnson Day) was very special. Needless to say, this was the day which made Clive’s “heart dance.”

Clive was, and still, is a Stew Peas with white rice man.

Stew Peas is a pot full of wholesome goodness. The pot consists of a rich mix of pig tail, corned beef, corned pork and sometimes some fresh beef, red kidney beans and some freshly juiced coconut milk. And the pot is seasoned with escallion, thyme, onion, pimento and pepper.

Clive recalls how all this combination of protein in one flavourful pot was too much to resist. Of course, the finished pot had plenty of spinners (sinkers) dumplings which just took it over the moon.
The true magic, the thing for Clive which took his taste buds outside the Milky Way Galaxy was way back in the days when the Stew Peas was cooked on a charcoal fire. The fumes of the charcoal enveloped the Stew Peas in the pot. That smoky flavour was like none other. Now this like no other dish – truly made his “heart dance” then as it still does now.

Like Bishop Mac in the previous interview, Clive and his friends often ran boats in the hills behind his community. Those boats were typically a mega pot filled with dumplings and chicken or canned mackerel was the main meat source. This was amazingly fun. That said, he recalls that they never ran Stew Peas boats. Stew Peas, was exclusively a meal that had to be cooked by mommy. Mommy’s Stew Peas rules. His mommy’s Stew Peas is the best. It seems like Clive is trying to stir up ants nest.

Clive wholeheartedly believes that like him, Stew Peas with white rice is a favourite of many if not most Jamaican. He strongly believes that until you have had Stew Peas (especially a very good home cooked pot), you have not yet had the real Jamaican food experience. So when you visit Jamaica, ask for Stew Peas, please.

Interviewed and Written by Radcliffe Lennox
Translated by Shiho Owada

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