Meaning
Rice cooked with beans — usually red kidney beans or gungo (pigeon) peas — in coconut milk, with scallion, thyme, garlic, and a whole scotch bonnet, giving it a rich, faintly sweet flavour and a pinkish tint. Rice and peas is the centrepiece of the traditional Sunday dinner and a Jamaican staple, so beloved it is nicknamed the 'coat of arms'. In Jamaica 'peas' means beans, not the green English pea.
Examples
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Sunday dinner nuh complete widout rice an peas.
Sunday dinner isn't complete without rice and peas.
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Cook di rice an peas inna coconut milk.
Cook the rice and peas in coconut milk.
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Gimme rice an peas wid di stew chicken.
Give me rice and peas with the stewed chicken.
Origin
From 'rice' + 'peas' (Jamaican 'peas' = beans); the Sunday-dinner staple, nicknamed 'coat of arms'. See [[gungo-peas]], [[stew-chicken]].
How it’s used
Rice cooked with beans in coconut milk; the Sunday-dinner staple. 'Peas' = beans. See [[gungo-peas]], [[stew-chicken]].