Miss Lily's

Seven years ago today, we were off on a WorldEats exploration at Jamaican restaurant Miss Lily's. At the time, we were trying to visit places one country at a time, and this was our last planned stop for Jamaica. We were excited to try some things on the Miss Lily's menu that we hadn't found anywhere else we'd gone that summer, most notably ackee.

It was a gorgeous summer evening on West Houston Street seven years ago, when you could gather on the street or inside a dining room without thinking about social distancing...

We decided to order three appetizers and one entree to split. (Remember, when reading this, that we went seven years ago. The menu is almost entirely different now. Also, if the description of the first dish sounds much more detailed than the rest, that's because we wrote that part in 2013 and everything else is relying on our fading memories and the notes we took at the time which consisted of one line per dish.)

One of the appetizers we had picked out in advance was the jaquitos (Jamaican-style mini tacos), because the fillings listed on the online menu included the national dish of Jamaica - ackee and saltfish - which we really wanted to try. Unfortunately when we got there, the menu didn't match the online menu and there was no ackee and saltfish anywhere on the menu. Since this was supposed to be our last Jamaican spot for WorldEats and we were planning to move on to Haiti after our visit to Miss Lily's, we were sad that we would be concluding our Jamaican exploration without trying their special national dish. But since we've revamped how we approach WorldEats to any time, any place, with no order, we can still try to get ackee and saltfish sometime!

The menu had three types of jaquitos listed - spicy beef, jerk chicken and avocado, and the one we ended up getting, the callaloo and plantain jaquitos, which came with a very hot pepper relish on the side. Eating it in the tacos was fine, but on its own, it really packed a punch. The tacos were fine, although probably the least exciting of the three appetizers. If you're not familiar with callaloo, it's a green leafy vegetable, somewhat similar to spinach, so it made sense that the filling tasted like creamed spinach once the tender callaloo greens mixed with the soft plantains. The biggest issue was that the tacos were super tiny, only one or two bites each.

We also got the fish tacos, which were escovitch fish over jicama with a watercress salad. Unfortunately, seven years down the line, our memory of this dish has evaporated, and the only notes we have say that the fish was served on sturdy pieces of jicama with a salad of arugula and peppers. (But the menu says watercress, so perhaps we just misidentified it in the dark.) Looking at it now, the pieces of jicama don't look big enough to hold an entire piece of fish with salad to be eaten as a taco, but it sounds like we liked the flavoring of the dish since we thought it was better than the jaquitos. To add some sort of value to this paragraph, if you're unfamiliar with escovitch fish, it's a Jamaican-style fried fish with spicy sauce and pickled vegetables, packed with lots of different flavors and so tasty.

The last appetizer we got, kind of hidden by this massive pile of plantain chips, was ackee dip. If we couldn't order ackee and saltfish, at least we could try ackee! Ackee is one of those things that you sometimes find on "world's most dangerous foods" lists, because if you eat it unripe, it can be poisonous and even fatal. Raw ackee is banned from being imported into the US, so you can only get it canned or frozen, which should be safer and more regulated (one would hope). We had never had ackee before, and all we knew about it was that it was a fruit and that you shouldn't eat it unripe, so we were really interested in this dip.

The dip, in addition to ackee, seemed to have scallions and tomatoes, and texturally, it was really creamy, a perfect pairing for the crispy, crunchy plantain chips. It was our favorite appetizer of the three. As for the ackee itself, we couldn't place the flavor, but it was so familiar. We were pretty sure we had never had ackee before, but it tasted like something we had. The familiar taste notes were so hard to describe though, that we could never figure it out by searching. Guess we'll just have to try ackee again sometime!

The entree we shared was the jerk chicken, slow-cooked and grilled, which came with a marinated cucumber salad and rice and peas. (This is the only thing from our entire meal that is on their current menu.) The chicken was delicious, perfectly grilled and incredibly juicy, even the white meat. The sauce tasted similar to the jerk BBQ sauce that was in bottles on the tables, sweet and smoky with a little peppery zing in the aftertaste. It wasn't as spicy or stewed as the one we got from Freda's (which, by the way, we still haven't written about, even after a return visit so that we could write about it when "fresher"), but it was still delicious. 

The cucumber salad was two big pieces of pickled cucumbers with some other pickled relish, and the other side was the rice and peas. Both were tasty, but the star of the entree was definitely the chicken itself. Overall, we had a great meal at Miss Lily's to "end" our Jamaican WorldEats exploration, and now that we've expanded our journey, we would definitely return to try some more, including ackee and saltfish if it stays on the menu this time!

Week 6 - Jamaican

The last time the 52 week cooking challenge came up with the Jamaican theme was back in 2014, the first year I participated. I was so excited for it and made jerk chicken with rice and peas. We still went out for Jamaican food a fair amount at that time, and our conclusion was that, while we were glad we tried to make it ourselves, it was easier and tastier to just continue to go out for professionally-made jerk chicken. Since I didn't want to repeat that experiment or make jerk anything again for this challenge, I decided to try something different and make a black eyed pea curry based on a recipe I found on The Curious Chickpea.

The ingredients for our adapted recipe were:

- 1 yellow onion, chopped ($0.40)
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced ($0.33)
- 1 lb of mini yellow potatoes, peeled and chopped ($3.49)
- 2 cans of black eyed peas, drained and rinsed ($2.78)
- grapeseed oil for sautéing ($0.25)
- a couple tsp of dried thyme ($0.20)
- 2.5 tbsp of mild Jamaican curry powder ($1.70)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste ($0.05)
- 1 can of coconut milk ($1.50)

The recipe called for 1 cup of coconut milk, but I used the entire can, (a) figuring that would dull the heat a little more for B, (b) because I never know what to do with the remaining coconut milk and it always ends up in the trash, and (c) because this current coconut milk we have doesn't mix in the can no matter how much you try to shake it or stir it, so you almost have to use the whole thing. The recipe also included 1/4 cup of lime juice at the end, which I had been expecting to do (it's even in the ingredients photo!), but by the time the food was ready, everyone was so hungry and I was in such a rush that I just forgot. Oops.

Anyway, we made plain brown rice alongside this, as well as some garlic zucchini, so the total for the recipe was $15.70 ($10.70 for the curry, $2 for the rice, and $3 for the zucchini, all approximate amounts). Considering the meal was vegan, I was expecting the final cost to be less than this, instead of more than the rice challenge we did for week 5 that included chicken sausage and cheese. It did make a lot of food though, and we had enough curry left over for other meals, but I still thought it would be far less.


The steps for making the curry were:

- prepare rice so that it's done when curry is finished
- prep (onions, garlic, potatoes)
- add oil to pot over medium heat, and add onion and garlic, cooking until soft
- add thyme, curry powder, salt, and pepper, and stir to coat, cook until fragrant (not long)
- add potatoes and cook for another minute or so (ours got a little dry here so I added a little bit more oil. Even though I don't really like doing that in the middle of the cooking process, I didn't want everything to burn)
- add black eyed peas and 2 cups of water
- partially cover, bring to simmer and cook until potatoes are tender
- remove cover and add coconut milk
- cook with lid off until liquid reduces
- remove from heat and add lime juice and salt to taste (forgot to do this...)


Overall, we thought the curry was okay. The curry powder we got had a decent amount of heat in it considering that cayenne was the last ingredient, but despite all the spices listed, didn't have as much flavor as I was expecting, even before the coconut milk. (Another strange thing was that, even though the curry flavors themselves seemed a little dulled after the coconut milk, the underlying heat still persisted a little bit, which was not what we wanted for B.) The final product, other than that mild underlying heat, turned out a little bit bland, maybe from using the whole can of coconut milk, but even if we had used less, I still don't know how much we would have liked it. It still wouldn't have been as good as any of the curry we've gotten out at restaurants, which may be part of our problem, the fact that we've had excellent Jamaican food over the years and that's our basis for comparison. No matter the recipe, I'm not sure anything coming out of our kitchen is going to compare to some of that deliciousness. We probably wouldn't make this again, but we're going to have to figure out something else to do with that curry powder in the future, since it wasn't cheap!

Week 6 - Jamaican

The theme for week 6 of the challenge was Jamaican. I actually made our Jamaican dinner prior to doing week 5 of the challenge, but it has taken me awhile to finish this post. During planning, I wasn't sure what to do for Jamaican week. We recently wrapped up our Jamaican exploration for WorldEats (although we haven't blogged about any of it) and we had some really great Jamaican food. There was no way that, in my first foray into Jamaican cooking, I could match anything we had. The jerk chicken from Freda's even made it onto my top 10 list for 2013. I was torn. Should I attempt a jerk chicken recipe, knowing it probably wouldn't come close? Should I tackle something I had a better chance of succeeding with on the first try, like a stew or curry?

Not a very attractive plate, but that was the final product

In the end, I decided to go with the iconic Jamaican jerk chicken. I pulled up a bunch of different recipes online, but ultimately I chose to create my own by adapting two recipes - this recipe from Simply Recipes and this Nigella Lawson recipe from the Food Network. The chicken was a combination of the two recipes and the rice and peas was an adaptation of Nigella's. I just couldn't find one recipe that really clicked with me from beginning to end, so I did the best I could.

JERK CHICKEN

I had high hopes for the jerk chicken recipe. I hoped that I would have something new to add to my repertoire if it came out well, even if it didn't come close to Freda's. I would have settled for a tasty, spicy chicken dish.

Ingredients:

The ingredient list for the jerk chicken was rather long, but not full of difficult to find ingredients. We had a lot of the ingredients in the pantry, but just needed to pick up some dark rum, molasses and habanero peppers. None of those are usually on our shopping list (although I suppose we won't have to buy rum or molasses for some time now).

Ingredients for the jerk chicken marinade

- 1/2 cup white vinegar ($0.15)

- 2 tbsp dark rum ($1)

- 2 habanero peppers ($0.16)

- 1 red onion ($0.80)

- 4 green onion tops ($0.32)

- 1 tbsp dried thyme ($0.10)

- 2 tbsp olive oil ($0.10)

- 2 tsp salt ($0.05)

- 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper ($0.05)

- 4 tsp ground allspice ($0.25)

- 4 tsp ground cinnamon ($0.25)

- 4 tsp ground nutmeg ($0.25)

- 4 tsp ground ginger ($0.25)

- 2 tsp molasses ($0.40)

- 2 large chicken breast pieces ($2.50)

- juice of 1 lime ($0.29)

The recipe comes in under $7 for the chicken portion, which is lower than I expected. The bottles of rum and molasses weren't cheap, but the recipe didn't call for that much of either.

Process:

The jerk chicken preparation started the night before, so we had to plan ahead. The recipes do say that you can marinate for less time, but I opted for overnight for maximum flavor. 

All of the steps in the photo above (#1-6 listed below) happen during the marinating process the night before.

1. Prepare vegetables - chop green onion tops, red onion and habanero peppers. [The green onions and red onions shouldn't take that long to chop, since they're just going to get blended anyway and don't have to be chopped to any specific size. But there were issues with our red onions, more specifically a brown interior, that I hadn't planned on. The habanero pepper took awhile since I was extra-cautious about the heat and preventing any burning side effects.]

2. Put all ingredients (other than chicken and lime juice) into a blender.

3. Blend until mostly smooth. [It just looked like brown paste.]

4. Cut chicken breast into pieces of desired size [I didn't want to use two whole pieces and opted for smaller pieces] and place in marinating dish. Coat chicken with lime juice.

5. Pour marinade from blender jar into marinating dish.

6. Make sure all chicken is coated with marinade. [In our case, the chicken was submerged in the marinade-lime juice combination.]

When ready to cook dinner...

7. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place chicken pieces onto the baking sheet.

8. Place any remaining marinade in a saucepan. Bring to boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer for at least ten minutes. [I let it simmer for awhile. It reduced down a lot and the concentrated paste/sauce really had a nice spice.]

9. Bake chicken at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes (or until chicken is done). [The recipes had the chicken going for much longer, but I think since my pieces were so small, they were done much faster than I had planned.] Top with the extra sauce if desired.

The jerk chicken was pretty moist when I first pulled it out, but after I let it warm in the oven while the rice cooked, it dried out quite a bit. That was disappointing, especially since I had tried it when I first pulled it from the oven, and it was so much better then. Time your jerk chicken better than I did!

It was an interesting recipe. It was a little more tart and full of citrus-like flavor than we thought it would be and more than other jerk chicken dishes we've had before. We aren't sure what ingredients they use in "real" jerk chicken (other than using scotch bonnets instead of habaneros, which I couldn't find), but this tasted different from what we remembered. There might be something missing to balance the flavors here. In the end, it wasn't bad (other than the texture from ending up a little overdone), but it wasn't as good as we hoped it would be. It's no replacement for a place like Freda's and their jerk chicken.

RICE AND PEAS

To go with the jerk chicken, I decided to make the standard rice and peas side. I had tried this (a different recipe though) once before but that recipe didn't taste like any rice and peas we'd ever had before. We hoped this one would taste more like what we were expecting.

Ingredients:

- 1 can blackeye peas ($0.70)

- 1 tbsp coconut oil ($0.10)

- 1 yellow onion ($0.50)

- 1 small red chile pepper ($0.16)

- 3 cloves of garlic ($0.05)

- 1 cup basmati rice (free - won the rice at a health fair)

- 14 oz can of coconut milk ($0.99)

- 1.5 cups chicken broth ($0.15)

- 1 tsp dried thyme ($0.05)

- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)

The total for the rice was about $3 since we didn't buy the rice. If we had it would have cost a little more, but not that much more.

Process:

Unfortunately I forgot to take photos for most of the rice cooking process, but here are the steps:

1. Heat coconut oil in saucepan. Fry onion for about 5 minutes, until softened and slightly browned.

2. Add chopped chile and garlic.

3. Stir in rice and make sure it is "slicked with oil."

4. Pour in coconut milk, chicken broth and the drained blackeye peas.

5. Bring to boil, cover, turn the heat to low, and cook for 15 minutes.

6. When all liquid is absorbed into the rice, the dish is done. Sprinkle with dried thyme and salt (if desired).

We really liked the rice. It was full of coconut flavor, a little sweeter than we were expecting, but quite good. We would definitely make this again.

OVERALL REVIEW

I'm glad I took the leap and tried to make jerk chicken. It was challenging - my first time playing with habaneros, my attempt to make the recipes taste similar to what we've had before, trying to find affordable molasses - and it wasn't as good as what you can get in the restaurants. But I'm satisfied that I tried. At least now I know what I can make with the recipes I found and we can make an educated decision on whether we'd rather spend our dollars on groceries to make jerk chicken or at an authentic Jamaican restaurant.

Jerk chicken isn't one of those ridiculously expensive dishes. Usually, for $15 or less at a restaurant, you can get a giant plate of chicken with sides of rice and peas or other sides of your choosing. Of course, the price of our dinner here (about $10) made dinner for two, but it just didn't taste the same and it didn't taste as good. Since I did a significant amount of recipe research, I'm not really sure what else I can do to make it taste as wonderful as the ones we loved in the past. I won't rule out trying another recipe, but for now, I think we'll leave Jamaican food (jerk chicken, at the very least) to the experts. It's worth it for us.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2013

2013 was an interesting year, full of ups and downs. I'm grateful that, even in a tougher year, we can still say that we've had some great adventures. So here are my 10 favorite food memories from the year (in no particular order).

1. Pescado zarandeado from Coni'Seafood (Los Angeles, CA).

While sitting at Coni'Seafood in the Inglewood area of Los Angeles, I posted this photo to Instagram with the caption that this might be one of the best things I've ever eaten. It was one of the obvious choices for this year's favorites list. Pescado zarandeado is a butterflied snook which is grilled perfectly, so fresh and tender and full of amazing flavor. It's topped with raw onions and cucumbers, and also has a side of cooked onions that it frankly doesn't even need. Whatever Sergio (and you have to call in advance to make sure Sergio is there or it's not worth going and getting it) does to this fish is magic. We don't (to my knowledge) have Sinaloan food in the NYC area, but even if we did, I'm not sure it would match the magic of Sergio. I could eat this every week and not get sick of it.

2. Birthday cake ice cream cone from Dave and Andy's (Pittsburgh, PA).

I'm not as much of an ice cream lover as A is, but I do love cookies and cream and birthday cake ice cream. Both made the short list (the cookies and cream was from Brooklyn's Ample Hills during our Game of Cones adventure), but only Dave and Andy's made the top 10. Their birthday cake ice cream mixed in actual yellow cake and sprinkles. I loved it and raved about it for some time after eating it, which for me is rare with ice cream. I also am not a huge cone fan but I loved their crispy but sturdy waffle cone which of course had their traditional m&m on the bottom. And I guessed the color right for my first cone!

3. Bone marrow special from Empellón Cocina (New York, NY).

We had a lot of bone marrow this year (bone marrow with uni from The Marrow, a massive plate of bone marrow at Meat and Potatoes in Pittsburgh, etc) but the one that really made an impression on me was the bone marrow special when we visited Empellón Cocina. We had a lot of good stuff at Empellón (which explains why it was our meal of the year), but the bone marrow was our favorite dish of the night. It was roasted bone marrow with charred spring onions and pickled Fresno chiles with tortillas on the side, so we could make our own bone marrow tacos. I love when I eat things that make me feel in sync with the season, and this was perfect for June.

4. Jerk chicken from Freda's (New York, NY).

We made it through Jamaica in our WorldEats challenge (even if we're still writing about Cuba). But this jerk chicken from Freda's made me want to skip over everything inbetween and just write about Freda's (but I didn't, sadly). I got the jerk chicken with sides of collard greens and curry potatoes with chickpeas. Both sides were delicious but the jerk chicken was one of the best chicken dishes I've ever had, and certainly the best Jamaican food I've ever eaten. It was spicy but it wasn't the type of spicy that was hot without flavor. The spices were so complex and nuanced that I don't even know how to describe the flavors, but it was incredible. Perhaps we need to go again before we write our WorldEats post.

5. Ceviche tostada from La Isla Bonita (Venice, CA).

I wrote our post on La Isla Bonita back in May, but it hasn't been posted yet since we're still back at the beginning of our trip in the recaps. I still dream about this ceviche tostada. It was that good. The tostada was thin and crispy and topped with a layer of ceviche and some fresh avocado slices. The ceviche had mashed up fish and seafood with tomatoes, onions, cilantro and lime. It was a perfect refreshing snack.

6. Pretzel from Miller's Twist (Philadelphia, PA).

I love pretzels. Warm, fresh out of the oven, so buttery, soft and chewy, lightly salted. The pretzel we got from Miller's Twist at the Reading Terminal Market was so good that we immediately wanted to go back to get another one. We also had tasty buttery soft pretzels this fall at Immergut in Intercourse, PA but we only made it there at the end of the day each time, so the pretzels were not as fresh (although still good). For that reason, Miller's Twist makes it to the top 10 but Immergut gets an honorable mention.

7. Vatana bean fried rice from Rangoon (Philadelphia, PA).

I love Burmese food. I wish we had restaurants here like the ones in LA or Rangoon in Philadelphia. We had amazing food at Rangoon and what was really a revelation was this vatana bean fried rice. We had no idea what vatana beans were before that dinner, but they tasted a lot like baby chickpeas. The rice also had this smokiness (in a good way) which made it really unique. I've never had anything like this and want to return to Rangoon sooner rather than later.

8. Fish taco from Ricky's Fish Tacos (Los Angeles, CA).

Ricky's is a legend. We got both shrimp and fish tacos but the fish was really special. Although fried, it was so flaky and juicy. We didn't even add any extra salsas to the tacos, and just ate them with the lettuce and pico de gallo that it came with. Whatever was in the batter was a perfect match for the fish, and the taco was easily the best fish taco I've ever had. We raced back from the desert to get to Ricky's before he closed up for the day and it was so worth it.

9. Lamb burger from Xi'an Famous Foods (New York, NY).

The midtown branch of Xi'an Famous Foods opened this spring with free lamb burgers (which I wrote about here). I've had quite a few since then. They're inexpensive and packed full of spices, especially my beloved cumin, and lots of onions. It may be the best burger I've had all year. 

10. Homecooked favorites.

This is cheating a little bit, since it's not one dish but four. But I wanted to save one spot on this list for home cooking because of how much it was a part of my life this year. I went from trying a new recipe once every other month or so to trying new recipes multiple days a week and loving it. These were four of my favorites.

• Black bean chicken - The first cookbook I spent a lot of time with was Every Grain of Rice, and for the first time, I was making Chinese food that went beyond simple stir-fries and hot plates. I love this black bean chicken recipe with my modifications.
• Kimchi grilled cheese - I love grilled cheese but I don't think I had made a grilled cheese sandwich since I was 10. And certainly not one with kimchi. This rekindled my love for grilled cheese and began a phase of many grilled cheese sandwiches.
• Baked langostino tails with tomatoes and feta - Blogged about here, but it's on this list because it's one of the few things I've made that I really feel like I could have ordered at a restaurant. It felt really authentic.
• Cigrons - I craved these Catalan style chickpeas for over a year after our visit to Pinotxo (still haven't written about Pinotxo but it's on last year's top 10 list) before I started looking all over the internet for tips on making cigrons. This wasn't exactly like Pinotxo but it was close. It was satisfying as a fix for one of my favorite dishes ever.

So that's 2013. I don't know what 2014 will bring, but I hope it's full of great food, good health and happy adventures!

Jamaica Day

Happy Independence Day, Jamaica!

Between the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's independence from Great Britain and Usain Bolt's victory at the Olympics, it was a perfect day for a Jamaican lunch.  There are only a few options for Jamaican lunches near me - patties from Golden Krust, the Jerk Pan truck on Park Avenue (that I tried last year for the 1st time), and the Jamaican Dutchy truck (a cart I frequented on 51st & 7th before they upgraded to a truck and were kicked out of their spot by the cops).  I remember when Usain Bolt visited the Jamaican Dutchy, so I decided to track them down for lunch.

The truck moved around for a bit after having to leave 51st (A visited them last year in Midtown South when they stopped there one day) but seems to have settled on 43rd and 3rd.  (Their twitter wasn't updated so I was taking a chance.)  It was a bit of a trek from the office but I felt like a Jamaican lunch today was just the right thing to do.

I planned to get the stewed chicken (which is what I had always gotten back when they were at 51st and 7th), but they sold out 2 people ahead of me in line.  Second choice: curry chicken!

What's great about the Jamaican Dutchy is that their portions are extremely generous.  That box is their "mini meal" which was only $5.  Really affordable and filling.  The base is a mix of rice and beans, which is topped with steamed cabbage and multiple pieces of chicken.  I love that the stewed and curry chicken dishes at the Jamaican Dutchy are boneless, and that's probably the biggest difference for me between them and Jerk Pan.  Both make good food but bones in a small box of food make for a big mess.  I was so hungry when I got back to the office after my long walk (and had a conference call coming up) so I devoured the mini meal faster than I would have preferred, but I was still able to taste all the great flavors.  I wish the Jamaican Dutchy were still at their old spot at 51st and 7th, so I could go more often, but at least they're still within walking distance!

Jerk Pan

I got lunch today from Jerk Pan, a Jamaican truck on the east side. (I have no idea where my usual go-to Jamaican food, the Dutchy, is right now.) Since the stewed chicken had bones (unlike the Dutchy), I first tried to get the curry chicken. Unfortunately, they were out of that, so I decided to try the stewed chicken.


The stewed chicken was described as "tender fried chicken smothered in a tasty brown sauce of spices and carrot." It also seemed to have peas.

I like the stewed chicken. The sauce had an excellent flavor, and they gave enough of it that it soaked the rice and beans underneath. It came with about 4 pieces of chicken, including a drumstick. The chicken fell off the bone fairly easily, although I didn't clean them as well as A would have. Although Jerk Pan has been around for awhile, this was my first chance to try it and I would definitely go back. A lot of people around me in line ordered the patties. Maybe I'll try that next time!

Jamaican Dutchy

For years I had read and heard stories of the greatness that is the Jamaican Dutchy. I was even fortunate enough to have sampled some of Chef O'Neill's magical creations at the 2009 Vendy Awards, but due to M's and my collective lack of planning, we barely had a forkful each of the food before being completely and utterly stuffed. I knew that I had not done the cart justice, and I vowed to try the food of the islands once more.

My biggest issue with getting the delectable dishes was that, for lunch, the cart was very far away. I kept trying to figure out how I would manage the 15-20 minute walk up to the cart, the 5-10 minute wait for the food (not counting waiting in line), and then fitting in the actual eating after getting back to the office. For a one hour lunch, that would have been a tight fit. Recently, though, the cart was retired in favor of a brand new, shiny truck. Due to parking problems with the NYPD, I was fortunate today that they made a stop at 38th and Broadway. The 5 minute walk was more than okay for my short lunch hour.

Jamaican Dutchy Truck

Off I went with my coworker R, who after some initial distrust of food carts/trucks, has slowly started coming around after much prodding on my part. I opted for the small oxtail meal which came with rice and peas, plantains, and steamed vegetables.

Stewed Oxtail with Rice and Peas

The food was amazing. My first bite was of just the rice and peas, and it was buttery, fluffy, and delicious. Next I tried the steamed vegetables. I'm not sure if they were then kept in some sort of sauce/oil after steaming, but the pool of oil at the bottom of the little section led me to believe that either that was the case or my definition of steamed was different than theirs. The vegetables were overall unflavored, but it it added some healthy aspects to the meal and ended up pairing well with the rest of the meal when everything was combined. The plantain was delicious and just sweet enough. I ended up not eating it with the rest of the meal, but saved it more as a sweet treat. As for the oxtail, that was a revelation. Stewed to the point of being fork tender and basically fall off the bone, it perfectly combined and balanced the fat/meat content as well as the cartilage content to form an amazing bite each time. The sauce also absorbed much of the bone marrow from the cracked oxtails which ended making everything an exceptionally rich experience.

I really hope the Jamaican Dutchy comes back to my work area for lunch so that I can try more of their menu, but if they don't, I'd like to think that I finally got to make things right with their food after my Vendy 2009 disaster.