Viviene Buckley Ball, the owner of Jamaica Cuisine Café, hopes to ease patrons into the culinary traditions of her culture.

Born in Jamaica, but living in Farmville for more than a year now, Ball’s restaurant, located at 900 Hull Road in Snow Hill, has been serving up traditional Jamaican dishes for the past several weeks.

Ball hopes the years she has spent perfecting her cooking will have an impact in the community.

“From the time I was 9 years old, I’ve been cooking with my mom in Jamaica,” Ball said. “She always said to me, ‘Come into the kitchen and watch what I’m doing.’ That’s how it all started.”

Ball first began selling Jamaican food as part of a catering business. After a while, she decided to try her hand at a brick-and-mortar establishment.

“I decided to venture out more and see what America has to offer,” Ball said. “I started selling things from the house in Farmville. I saw people really enjoy my Jamaican cuisine.”

After purchasing the Snow Hill restaurant, Ball set to work getting it ready, a project that took around a year to complete.

“We had to put a lot of work in it. It’s not where you want to be, it’s where God puts you,” Ball said.

Since opening, Jamaica Cuisine Café has been serving up island cuisine.

“The food that is most popular here is the ox tail,” Ball said. “There is also the curry goat, jerk chicken, brown (chicken stew). Every now and then I will have the vegetable rice. There is the rice and peas — that’s like the traditional Sunday meal in Jamaica. It is a must on the table.”

The entirety of the menu, except for the restaurant’s beef patties, are made from scratch. This includes the various stews and juices offered on the menu.

What separates Jamaica Cuisine Café from other Jamaican restaurants is Ball’s willingness to offer dishes many will not find in stateside Jamaican restaurants.

Jamaica Cuisine Café’s more adventurous dishes, mannish water or ackee and salt fish, can be made to order upon request.

“Every now and then, I will have someone come in and ask for ackee and salt fish. A lot of people aren’t use to it, so you don’t want to put it on your menu or it just goes to waste,” Ball said. “I’d do snapper fish … mackerel fish. I’ll do shrimp, but all of that is made to order, because a lot of people aren’t tolerant to shellfish.”

Ball also puts a Jamaican spin on dishes Americans might be used to.

“We have a sweet potato salad,” Ball said. “It’s not the American sweet potato. It’s the Jamaican sweet potato. This is Jamaican food and there is so much more to introduce to the public.”

Jamaica Cuisine Café has served porridge, Jamaica’s Easter meal of bun-and-cheese and its Christmas rum cake.

To determine what her customers’ palettes like, Ball hosts samplings to gauge reactions before putting the item on the menu. A recent sampling featured fried dumplings and fried fritters

source: http://www.reflector.com/News/2017/09/11/New-restaurateur-hopes-to-ease-community-into-Jamaican-cuisine.html