As the excitement is building to be back in JA again I'm thinking of everything I can't wait for... and a lot of that is the specific meals I can't wait to have again. So... I got to thinking. If I could open my own restaurant in Negril, what would I want on the menu. Lobster pizza for sure. A stuffed chicken like Kuyaba's Paradise Chicken or LTU's Chicken Lola is a definite. Blackened Mahi Mahi with a mango salsa that I had once at Idle Awhile has been in my memory for years. Can't wait for those grilled veggies at Canoe. So much goodness...

If you could open YOUR restaurant, what would be on the menu?

I love and fresh fish, especially red snapper. My favorite restaurant is the Hungry Lion, I also love pumpkin soup.

When I actually lived long term in Jamaica, there really weren't too many restaurants there at all, just the Wharf Club (great conch soup), Yacht Club which we called the Clot Club, too expensive for us, Tee-Water (great french fries on a soon come basis), like two hours later... also Erica's, the first Jamaican restaurant started in Negril.

At my house, we mostly cooked ourselves, and none of us had any cooking experience either. We didn't even know how to cook rice. One of our dinners consisted of a whole chicken, we stuffed it with rice and almonds, from our almond tree (having to crack open each and every almond with a hammer). Another of our dinners was stuffed cabbage, again stuffed with rice, almonds, and bits of tomato. Also, spaghetti -- we would go to Sav where they had canned tomato sauce, which we cooked with onions, garlic and about four sliced up real tomato's.

Lunch was usually tuna sandwiches or grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, breakfast an omlette, guava jelly on our toast and fresh squeezed OJ. We also had quite a bit a limeade because we had a lot of lime trees in our yard.

Banana-bread french toast!!!!!!!!!

Oh yea, how could I forget pumpkin soup. And, of course, banana bread french toast! If you could pick one pasta dish on the menu, what would it be? Here in LA there is a restaurant that has a freakin incredible butternut squash ravioli. Every bite just melts in your mouth. I wonder if something similar could be made with JA pumpkin.

Mine would be a small seasonal menu and a few regular items and it would be a Caribbean rather than a Jamaican restauraunt - i would not have burgers, pizza or pasta. . - i would do lots of research of food from other islands in the Caribbean for ideas - I can still remember some breadfruit soup i had in Barbados that was to die for. In St croix, it was the conch patties that I can't forget.

I love coconut shrimp with mango salsa - I would have to grow the cilantro and can the salsa during mango season.

Since this is pure fantasy - I guess it would require visiting lots of islands first -just to try the food.

I imagine we could come up with one heck of a menu if we all put our heads together.

Some great ideas here. Roots, I love the idea of a Caribbean inspired restaurant playing off favorites for different islands.