Kingston’s Beat Is the Heartand Soul of Jamaica

Today’s Kingston is the outcome of three centuries of sprawling growth. Traffic runs from intense to unbearable, reggae music blasts from shop fronts, and higglers (hawkers) proffer their wares at every turn. Chaos is the norm.

Kingston is active enough that one resident remarked, “It’s the heart and soul of Jamaica.” The city makes the island tick. Art galleries, museums, theater and a vibrant social life go on year-round.

Getting here: Fly Air Jamaica from Los Angeles to Kingston by way of Montego Bay for $567 till Friday, when the price goes up to $622. From April 11 through June 26, the fare drops back to $567. American offers discounted round-trip service from LAX to Kingston, with stops in New York and Montego Bay, for $409 to $685 round trip, with restrictions.

How long/how much? Give the city two days. Include trips to Port Royal, Ft. Charles and Spanish Town, Jamaica’s first capital. Lodging costs run the gamut, while dining is most affordable.

A few fast facts: The Jamaican dollar recently traded at 6.4 to ours. Weather is balmy all year. You’ll be safe anywhere in the city during daylight hours, but it’s best to ask your hotel desk which areas to shun after dark, just as you would in major cities such as New York, Bangkok or Barcelona.

Getting settled in: Hotel Four Seasons (18 Ruthven Road; $50 U.S. double) is an old home in a tropical setting with 39 rooms. It’s owned and run by Helga Stockert and her sister, both Berliners whose reputations have kept the place nearly full for 20 years.

The Four Seasons’ kitchen is popular with locals, serving fine Jamaican and continental food, and the dining room is a favorite lunch and dinner place for non-guests. Also, there’s dining on the veranda, where fresh roses are on each table.

The Courtleigh (31 Trafalgar Road; $55-$65 double) is another old home converted into a hotel. The lobby is light and airy, bedrooms are comfortable and there’s a full restaurant, bar, pool and garden.

Hotel Pegasus (81 Knutsford Blvd.; $130 double) is considered Kingston’s very best. It’s a large and modern hotel around which revolves much of the city’s social life. Bedrooms are spacious, many with views of the bay and Port Royal, and the pool and terrace are gigantic. There are also tennis courts, a pub and dining rooms.

Regional food and drink: While Jamaican food picks up overtones from Indian, Chinese and European dishes, it’s the many ingredients and cooking techniques brought from Africa that has given cooking its real zest. Callaloo, a spinach-like vegetable, is probably the most important African import. It may be served at any meal, including breakfast, and it’s delicious in hot or cold soups.

Breadfruit is a staple, as are yellow and white yams, cho-cho (a squash-like vine vegetable) and cassava, a root vegetable ground into flour for cakes and patties.

The best imports are the delectable jerk pork and jerk chicken, both made by layering the scored meat with scallion paste and spicy herbs, then slow barbecuing over allspice (pimento) wood for flavor. One nibble and you’re hooked for life.

Although conch has been scarce recently, other seafoods are here in abundance and often prepared with fresh fruit sauces or in Creole style.

Jamaican rums and their flavorful fruit coolers need no introduction. Red Stripe is the beer of choice, and Ting, a grapefruit soda, is very good.

Good dining: Devonshire (26 Hope Road) is on the grounds of the 1871 Devon House, a stately example of Jamaican “great house” architecture that once held the National Gallery. The Devonshire is a cool place, open to the breezes, where you can have lunch or dinner of duck with fresh strawberries and ginger sauce, or curried conch with mango chutney.

In the former stables of Devon House is the Grog Shop, a reproduction of a Port Royal saloon, complete with original nautical prints and old cannons. It’s another favored spot with locals.

The Coffee Terrace at Devon House also is popular for light lunches. And The Hot Pot (Altamount Crescent) has just about zero ambience but some of the best Jamaican food in town.

Going first-class: Few restaurants in Jamaica are in a class with the Blue Mountain Inn (a few miles above the city on Gordon Town Road), the main house of a coffee plantation built in 1754.

The rain-forest setting beside a stream and waterfall is wonderful for romantics. Innkeepers Fiona and Mario Machado have turned the inn’s rustic interior of old beams, fireplaces and period furnishings into an elegant place to dine. Callaloo stalks with hollandaise, red pea soup with coconut milk and a stuffed lobster brought Jamaican food to lofty heights.

On your own: Jamaica’s National Gallery featuring primitive or “intuitive” paintings and sculpture makes a sudden and strong impression with its vibrant use of color and native themes. The superb sculpture of Edna Manley, late mother of Prime Minister Michael Manley, is a national treasure.

Devon House is a convenient one-stop outing for anyone interested in Jamaican arts, crafts and foods displayed in an arcade of shops. Tours of the house also are given.

The late reggae musician Bob Marley, who brought worldwide prominence to the music and Kingston in the late 1960s, is still a national hero. Two good places to hear the latest versions of reggae are the Jonkaoo Lounge in Hotel Wyndham (New Kingston) and The Club on Knutsford Boulevard nearby.

For more information: Call the Jamaican Tourist Board at (213) 384-1123, or write (3440 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1207, Los Angeles 90010) for a map of the island and a brochure on Jamaica, including Kingston. Ask for the Kingston package.