Rice an peas

Meaning

A staple Sunday-dinner dish of rice cooked with kidney beans (or pigeon peas) in coconut milk, seasoned with scallion, thyme, garlic and Scotch bonnet. Despite the name, the 'peas' are almost always beans, and the coconut milk is what distinguishes it from plain rice with beans found elsewhere.

Examples

• “Mumma a cook rice an peas fi Sunday dinna.”

  Mummy is cooking rice and peas for Sunday dinner.

  'a' here marks the continuous; Sunday dinner is the traditional context for the dish.

• “No rice an peas widout coconut milk, yuh hear mi?”

  There's no rice and peas without coconut milk, you hear me?

  Emphasises that coconut milk is essential to authentic preparation.

• “Gimme a likkl more a di rice an peas deh.”

  Give me a little more of that rice and peas there.

  'deh' functions as a locative pointing to something present.

Origin

English 'rice and peas', though the 'peas' reflects Caribbean usage where kidney beans and pigeon peas are both called peas; the coconut-milk method has West African and wider Caribbean roots.

How it's used

Everyday food term used across all classes. Called 'peas and rice' in the Bahamas, but in Jamaica the word order is fixed as 'rice an peas'. It is the customary accompaniment to Sunday dinner rather than an everyday weekday meal.