Scotchies VS Boston Jerk in Jamaica

Since I recently had to (or I should say, was privileged to) spend a few days in Port Antonio this week I made it a point to get to Jamaica’s Boston beach to try some of the famous Boston jerk.  You can’t go to that side of the island and not try it, I’ve been told.  I’d been to Port Antonio many, many years ago but I have no recollection of eating the jerk.

The reason I decided to do a Boston VS Scotchies post is because after trying the Boston jerk, which was to friggin die for, I had a steep craving for more jerk the next day.  Only I’d left Port Antonio and gone back to the Montego Bay side of the island.  The only jerk place people seem to rave about outside of Boston is Scotchies so I figured I’d stop in and feed the craving.  I should mention I’ve eaten at Scotchies before as well, but it must not have been memorable or I would have returned over and over again.

So anyway, within 24 hours of each other I did Boston jerk pork and Scotchies jerk pork, all because Boston dropped one big bag of craving on me for more of that phenomenal, fiery flavor.  Their pork was super well cooked, even crunchy on the outside.  I seemed to have gotten a lot of outside pieces in my serving and that’s where all the flavor and spices are concentrated.  Needless to say, it burned my lips off and completely satiated my jerk desire.

My visit to Scotchies was beyond sadly disappointing.  So much so, that I only ate the festival and fed the pork to some dogs lol.  I hate to trash talk, especially about a place that is so highly promoted as a tourist attraction but it was awful.  The pork was chewy, under cooked and my serving contained about 60% fat, not meat.  I didn’t even taste enough of it to rate the spice and it looked terribly unappetizing.  It’s a mystery to me that I wrote so highly about Scotchies back in 2009 in this post, because I sure can’t say the same about it now.

In price comparison, both locations charged me the same for a quarter pound of pork and two festival.  Neither of the festival was outstanding but HANDS DOWN, Boston jerk pork WINS by a landslide.  It’s a crying shame that Portland is so far away from the mainstream because I’d go back every day if it was closer.

If you’ve tried both Boston and Scotchies, please leave your comparison comments below!