Tag: caribbean

Categories
street

ALP (A Liming Place) Bushwick Caribbean Food

Last week’s Bushwick Collective’s Block Party was pretty fun. Fat Joe performed and I ate this Bake & Shark (fried shark nuggets in a fried dough) from ALP (A Liming Place). They are a pop-up restaurant in AP Cafe in Jefftown.

It was pretty good once you put the Trini sauces on it (Garlic Aioli, the Green sauce and the Red pepper sauce). Although, I’m pretty ashamed of myself. One of the shark bites fell onto the floor and I ate it anyway, even though I know how much dog shit there is all over the neighborhood. I wasn’t even drunk.

ALP (A Liming Place) @ AP Cafe – 420 Troutman St (between Wycoff and St Nicholas Ave) Brooklyn, NY 11237

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
fast food

Golden Krust Rape Whistle

This week, I’ll be posting things I’ve found in my bedroom while cleaning up…

One of the things I found was this keychain whistle from Golden Krust. I think it’s rape whistle. I do think it’s odd that a restaurant chain would want to make put their name on something associated to rape …but maybe it’s responsible?

I know I’ve been thinking everyday about that rape incident I encountered on New Year’s Eve.  I think about it everyday. It haunts me. Even though I know I did what I could do in that moment, short of being Bruce Willis …I keep thinking, “shit. I ended up walking away from it.”

And just this past weekend, it happened again. Walking home late at night on the same street. This time I see a guy and a girl on a stoop. Looks like they are kissing, but I hear the girl shout out, “Stop! You’re hurting me.” I don’t know if it was a moment of redemption for me. I don’t know …But I crossed the street and asked them if everything was okay. It took them about five seconds to respond. Then the guy said it was cool. I wanted to wait this time for the girl to say something, but then a different girl on the sidewalk asked me for directions. Shit. It was the most jarring distraction with my mindset being set on confronting this couple. But after a minute of telling the girl how to get to the train, the couple was just standing there. So I walked away.

I felt like shit when I got home. Did I just fucking walk away for the second time? The first time ended in crime tape around a garage. I went back outside after I took a piss, but didn’t see them. I was freaking out and didn’t have anyone to talk to. So I went on Facebook to freak the fuck out. Whether that is the appropriate forum or not, my friends were there. It was helpful.

This whole past month I’ve been feeling like shit, thinking what I could have done differently. Even though the first guy reportedly had a gun, I still feel like I should have done something more if I knew or not. It was in a loop in my head. It didn’t even occur to me that what I felt was guilt. Dang, I don’t ever remember feeling guilty my whole life. I kept seeing that word in my facebook comments. I guess it was guilt. I looked up some articles on how to deal with guilt and it was so helpful. At least trying to understand what I was feeling –“unhealthy guilt.”

I know in both incidents, I didn’t know exactly what was happening at the moment. I did what I thought was right, but I do still feel the guilt. I know it’s not my fault and I’m working on it. I hope that sharing this can help other people …at least with the links and knowing that it happens. People can feel this way. And I know we can get through it.

I was showing my friends this “rape whistle” during our Super Bowl party. Someone mentioned maybe it’s a party whistle for the West Indian Parade. I guess that makes sense. It lights up too.

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.