Category: caribbean

Categories
caribbean

Ali’s Trinidad Roti Shop

I took the bus down to Bed-Stuy looking for some Caribbean food. I went to Ali’s Trinidad Roti Shop and got a Doubles (fried flat bread filled with curried chickpeas $1.25), Salmon Pie ($1.50) and Irish Sea Moss drink ($4).

06 Doubles and Salmon Pie - Ali's Trinidad Roti Shop

The Doubles was good, but not as good as De Hot Pot, where they put some other sauces on it (I think).

The Salmon Pie was interesting. I don’t know what I was expecting. But it was like fried dough with a pocket of salmon filling.

The Irish Sea Moss drink was really good, although I didn’t expect it to taste like a vanilla milkshake. It’s supposedly good for sexual virility and for making babies. Then I realized, why am I drinking this? I don’t want to make babies right now.

I was thinking of walking around and getting a roti somewhere else, but I was already full. That’s the problem with going on a food adventure by yourself. You buy like an empanada and then you’re full. I think I need a girlfriend …to help me eat food and to make babies with.

Ali’s Trinidad Roti Shop – 1267 Fulton St (btwn Arlington Pl & Nostrand Ave) Brooklyn, NY 11216

Categories
caribbean

Royal Cuisine’s BBQ Jerk Ribs @ Winter Smorgasburg

I checked out the indoor Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg Winter Market. I walked around and it looked like a lot of good food. I felt bad for the Royal Cuisine booth though. The guy working it looked so lonely. I decided to get three BBQ Jerk Ribs for $5. You can get one for $2.

The guy told me about the hot sauces they had in squirt bottles. One was sweet and the other spicy. I think they were made from scotch bonnet peppers. They were really good. The spicy one was awesome, but really frickin spicy.

The ribs were a little tough, but good flavor. I probably should have gotten one rib, so I had more room to try other stuff.

http://www.smorgasburg.com/

01 Royal Cuisine - Winter Smorgasburg02 Royal Cuisine BBQ Jerk Ribs - Winter Smorgasburg

Categories
bar/drinking caribbean

Battery Harris

We went out to hang out at Battery Harris. I forget the occasion. Anyway, this place used to be the Williamsburg Loreley. They kept the same cool outdoor patio.

Instead of German fare, they had Caribbean food. Interesting for the location. Got some Jerked Chicken, Coconut Cornbread, Braised Kale, Burgers, Catfish Sandwich, Rum Raisin Pudding.

It was fun. Not sure I think of it as a Caribbean restaurant though. It’s a cool outdoor bar.

Battery Harris – 64 Frost St (@ Meeker Ave) Williamsburg, NY 11211

Categories
caribbean

Carb Full Roti

I decided it would be the day of the week I would eat starchy carbs. Then walked around for an hour because I couldn’t decide what to eat. So then I decided not to eat carbs and get a quarter Jerk Chicken and Steamed Broccoli from 2 Brothers Pizza Plus. That line was too damn long. So I went to Terry’s Gourmet Deli to get a Goat Roti (big flour wrap stuffed with potatoes). There’s the carbs!

I’m not sure how it was almost $10 this time. It was $6 last time a year ago. How did it go up almost $4? I need to get back on my slow-carb diet anyway. I literally can’t afford to eat more carbs.

Terry’s Gourmet Deli – 575 6th Ave (@ W 16th St) New York, NY 10011

Categories
caribbean street

Jamaican Dutchy’s Cow Foot Stew

The Jamaican Dutchy food truck has been parking in the Flatiron district lately (21st St and Broadway). I ordered the Cow Foot stew (special on Thursdays). The young server didn’t even know what I was talking about. He had to ask the boss man what I was talking about. I guess not too many people order it.

The small ($9) was huge in the big container. If that’s the small, what’s the large ($11)? I thought I was going to get it in the tiny box, but I guess that’s for the mini meals.

To be fair, the cow feet was a lot of bone. Everything else is mostly gelatinous gloopy gloppy tendon and skin. Barely a trace of meat if there was any. It was good. Flavorful and melted in my mouth.

The piece of fried plantain is some of the best I’ve had in a long time. And the hot sauce I asked for had a nice scotch bonnet flavor. I’d do this meal again.

http://thejamaicandutchy.net

Listen to how it sounds before I put this foot in my mouth.

Categories
caribbean

Manna’s Soul Food (Bushwick Brooklyn)

I’ve heard of the plate yourself, soul food by the pound buffet Manna’s in Harlem. But I never made the connection that the place in Bushwick was the same restaurant. They actually have seven locations. This one is huge. It’s probably as big as a Duane Reade.

$4.99 a pound. My plate came out to $9. I didn’t realize I loaded it on.

Most everything was pretty good –the oxtail, smothered pork chops, curry goat and sides. The pigs feet was rubbery and didn’t do anything for me. I found a curly hair in the meatloaf, but it was probably the best thing. So I ate around it.

Manna’s Restaurant - 829 Broadway (2 blocks from Woodhull Hospital) Brooklyn, NY 11206
…their website is soulfood.com. That’s a pretty good catch.

Categories
caribbean product

Golden Krust’s New Bottled Sauces

I love sauce. Sauce makes dry food wet and bad food taste good. When I was a kid, I used to put a little A1 sauce on a plate, add a little water, then eat the sauce with a fork. Sauce is good.

Golden Krust kicked off their new line of bottled sauces with a party at the Jamaican Consulate in New York. That sounded weird to me. But they have a strong relationship with the Jamaican/West Indian community and are one of the biggest Jamaican businesses in the U.S.

There were steel drum musicians playing what I thought was the Publix supermarket theme song (that I used to hear on their commercials). Someone corrected me as it was a Bob Marley song.

The new line of sauces consist of Jerk Sauce, Honey Barbecue Jerk, Island Flavored Ketchup and Hot Pepper Sauce. All a little on the sweet side of Caribbean flavors. My favorite was the Hot Pepper Sauce made with scotch bonnet peppers. The bright red color kinda freaks me out, but the flavor is mad tasty. Not super hot like this other scotch bonnet sauce I recently got, but a good medium tolerable heat. (Correction: Just tried some more now and it is pretty spicy –good heat)

The sauces will be sold at local Golden Krust bakeries and in supermarkets in the near future.

goldenkrustbakery.com

Categories
caribbean

How Not to Load a Buffet Plate

Matt Gill and I revisited B&B African restaurant. I love this place. Great flavors. Although I wish it was all you can eat. It’s $6/lb. I want to try everything and I’m the worst at loading my plate. I put the sauces & curries on my plate first, then I decided to put the rice and couscous on top. What an idiot. I don’t even know what I’m eating by now. Matt did better, but I bet he’s paying for that chicken bone.

Pay by the pound buffets are always a game changer. If it was $10 for all you can eat, I’d probably still eat about 1 pound of food and end up eating a lot more of the cheaper curries, vegetables and rice (stuff I rather eat). Pay by the pound wants me to load the plate full of meat and get my money’s worth. So at $10 All-You-Can-Eat, I’d be eating cheaper food and paying $4 more than I would a $6/lb plate. I could just load the pay per pound plate with food I want to eat and it’ll still be $6, but I still rather go for the value. Funny how the decision making works. Reminds me of this Trolley Killing Moral Dillemna that Todd told me about last night.

B&B African-American Restaurant – 165 W 26th St (btwn 6th & 7th Ave) New York, NY 10001

When I was waiting for Matt outside, I had to do a double take at the restaurant across the street. Dang.