Asham

Meaning

A traditional Jamaican snack of dried corn that has been parched (roasted), then ground fine and sweetened with sugar. Eaten by the spoonful or the handful — dry, sweet, and powdery — asham is an old-time treat with deep roots in country life and West African cookery. Cheap, keeping well, and made from the corn of the provision ground, it belongs to the same world of homemade sweets and snacks as wangla and parched corn, remembered fondly as a taste of a simpler, harder time.

Examples

• Granny mek a bag a asham fi wi.

  Grandma made a bag of asham for us.

• Nuh laugh wid asham inna yuh mout.

  Don't laugh with asham in your mouth.

  The dry powder can make you cough — a well-known warning.

• Asham sweet but it dry.

  Asham is sweet but it's dry.

Origin

From the Twi word 'o-siam', a parched-corn food brought to Jamaica from West Africa and kept in the island's country kitchens.

How it’s used

An old-time or 'country' treat, less common now but fondly remembered. The dryness is part of its character.