Ultimate Jamaican Jerk Tour Slideshow

Started as a farmers' market near Kingston's historic Devon House and embassy area, Jo Jo's Jerk Pit & More eventually grew into a jerk establishment large enough to compete in U.S. barbecue cook-offs. Big enough certainly that its rotating menu also offers jerk conch and lamb, and decidedly non-Caribbean fare like pasta Alfredo, Philly cheesesteaks, and, should you really crave it, poutine. Wooden barrels turned into tables and chairs and picnic tables fill the tree-shaded patio, while the long bar is covered. Along with karaoke Thursdays, and live music Saturdays, rum and liquor companies sponsor one-off parties that bring out Kingston's young and beautiful, like a recent one that's theme was "A.B.C.—Anything But Clothes." Better come sexy to this jerk joint.

What Memphis, Texas, or Kansas City (take your pick) is to BBQ, Boston Bay is to Jerk. Jerk is said to have originated in the parish of Portland, but it's more likely that large-scale jerk preparation came of age here. Either way, the region has a reputation for serving some of the hottest jerk around, and any serious "jerkologist" needs to pay homage to the Boston Jerk Centre (and watch out that they don't pay a tourist premium as sometimes happens). Not much more than a series of huts and stands erected right off the route that takes you from Kingston around the island's sparse east tip, the jerk center isn't much to look at, either. But it does make for a great "to-go" stop along the rugged northeast coast neat Port Antonio, where some of Jamaica's original banana boat era resorts still operate. To accompany piping-hot chicken and breadfruit roasted in fire for your road trip, grab some bananas and coconuts from the roadside fruit stands as well. Jerk aficionados will want to come back in summer for the ever-grander Portland Jerk Festival , which in Jamaica means a ton of live music to boot.

Owner Tony Rerrie started out cooking jerk as a hobby for private parties. Now, with an original outlet in Montego Bay, a new outpost in Kingston, and one about to open in Belize, his Scotchies is the closest thing Jamaica has to a jerk empire. And 7-year-old Scotchies Too, just west of Ocho on the north coast route, is hardly an afterthought. Visitors start licking their chops as soon as they walk from the parking lot down a long trellised corridor, which sets the chilled mood to come in the inner garden's tin-roofed dining gazebo. "The key to our jerk," said manager Kim Cooper, "is smoke, steam, and grill." After either a dry or wet rub and overnight marinating, about 100 to 150 chickens and about 10 deboned pigs get smoked, steamed, and grilled daily over sweetwood and pimento sticks. The sticks are cut every morning and when they dry out are used as charcoal as per the norm in jerking. Guests can get right up to the kitchen when ordering and watch the whole process, how moisture oozes out of the sticks as cooks turn them, how meat steams under the "zinc" or corrugated metal sheets. Best of all is to watch how fast the crew cleaves whole chickens and chops them into juicy morsels with the flourish of a stage show.

Considering that it's located on Montego Bay's so-called Hip Strip along Gloucester Avenue, The Pork Pit is a quite modest affair — OK, slightly bedraggled at first glance. Taxis and tour operators regularly deliver out-of-towners, but don't worry, you can't miss the yellow stone and brick building on your own anyway, especially with the logo next to the weathered outside stairs that shows an upside down pig unceremoniously roasting on a pit. The best place to eat is out back by the open-air jerk pit that looks like a boxing ring with two roasters facing off. You can order steamed fish, but really, at a place called the pork pit? When you're ready to work it all off, just head up the road for a swim and snorkel at the historic Doctor's Cave beach. But first, pay for your souvenir T-shirt.

Negril's main tourism drag is Norman Manley Boulevard. Ossie's is located on the other, non-beach side of the Great Morass, a large nature reserve. With a slightly off-center hand-painted sign outside and folksy signs painted right on the walls inside, Ossie's mood is also the opposite of Bourbon Beach's energetic vibe. It's the type of place where locals play dominos and you can imagine a movie being made there with a homespun theme. Yet for all the restaurant's modesty, Ossie himself has plenty of fans who come from far and wide to dine, especially on his famous jerk pork. You'll likely leave with some of his homemade hot sauce in your checked baggage.