Meaning
A small, no-frills eatery serving hot cooked Jamaican food — the local spot where you buy a box of rice and peas with stew chicken, oxtail, or fry fish, cooked fresh on the premises. Cheaper and plainer than a restaurant, the cook-shop is where working people and passers-by grab a hearty, home-style meal.
Examples
-
Mek wi grab a box food a di cook-shop.
Let's grab a boxed meal at the cook-shop.
-
Di cook-shop pon di corner sell good oxtail.
The cook-shop on the corner sells good oxtail.
-
Lunch time di cook-shop full a worker.
At lunchtime the cook-shop is full of workers.
Origin
From 'cook' + 'shop'; a small prepared-food eatery. Compare the jerk 'pan-chicken' stand. See [[box-food]], [[pan-chicken]].
How it’s used
A small local hot-food eatery; source of the 'box food'. See [[box-food]], [[pan-chicken]], [[shop]].