Tag Archives: Caribbean

What a Jerk

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Caribbean Food Truck

The evening for the October Food Truck Friday in Rock Hill was just about as good as you could ask for.  The weather was clear and cool, 64 degrees or 18 for the Celsius crowd.  The attire varied from shorts and t-shirt like myself to people wearing honest to God coats and beanies, not jackets mind you but full on coats.  To each their own but I thought it was great.

As per usual I grabbed a beverage, in this case a NoDa Brewing Premium Roasted Breakfast Coffee stout.  It was smooth and like a lot of breakfast blends a hint of coffee flavor.  I walked the area enjoying the weather and band looking for something that called to me.  I thought about the vegan burrito food truck because this is about trying new things but these folks always get started late so I passed them by without a tear.

After strolling and perusing I chose to go with Marlie Q’s caribbean food truck.  They had some decent looking options and while the stewed ox tail was tempting the jerk chicken with some beans & rice sounded like the way to go.

I’ll say up front the sign clearly said this was spicy and they were not lying.  It had a great jerked spice flavor and it was.  The rice and beans were scalp tingling, nose running, brow sweat producing hot as well.  One thing though was you could taste the pepper flavor and not just the heat so it was well done.  The chicken breast was good sized and cooked tender enough it came off the bone easily.

As this was not a meal that lent itself mobile dining I shared a table with a couple dining on something from another truck.  I didn’t pay much attention until the lady said, “Wow you left me a lot of mac & cheese” and the guy said “that’s because I’m a great boyfriend”.  I chuckled and they both took notice and the guy said, “I have to get points where I can since I’m usually called an a-hole” and the lady straight faced said “It’s true”.  We all laughed and I finished up before they wanted to be friends.

I swung by the beverage tent and since everyone else was doing it I got a Dogfish Head Punkin Ale to enjoy while I listened to the band.  Pumpkin ales I’ve tried in the past have been hit or miss and often cloying with the amount of pumpkin spice.  This one did it well.  There was enough pumpkin and pumpkin spice to make you reminiscent for that last slice of pumpkin pie you had rather than hitting you in the face with the pie.

The band was quite good, Chunky Daddy played a varied set list that included, rock, soul, country and ranged from 70s to more recent stuff like Wagon Wheel.  I also saw a guy who I think was unintentionally cosplaying David Tennant’s Dr Who.  Dude looked just like him from clothes to haircut to glasses.

Overall it was a good second to the last FTF of the year and the fountain was looking great in the evening light.

 

Island Hopping

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Cuba

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After a short hiatus for some vacation time at the beach, to quote a famous Cuban “Lucy, I’m home!”

This week I dusted off the old Culinary Passport and took a trip to Cuba via A Piece of Havana on S. Tryon in Charlotte and wow was that a good choice.

Nice place sitting by itself at one end of a shopping strip.  The interior has some Cuban paraphernalia and a big flag hanging from the ceiling.  The furnishings are dark like a club rather than a breezy tropical place which probably works well since they have live music on the weekend evenings.  It was basically empty when I arrived so I was greeted and seated quickly and the waiter had my tea at the table in a flash.  He also asked if I had any questions about the menu and patiently provided answers to the few I had.  But enough of the set up, let’s talk food.

Because I’m a good blogger and willing to make sacrifices for my readers I started with the small empanada appetizer as seen below.  They were only $2 and a great size for an appetizer.  Inside was a tasty ground meat filling and as you can see it came with pico de gallo and another dipping sauce that was ok but I liked the empanadas just fine plain.  What you don’t see is they were freshly cooked and smoking hot.

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Next up was the crispy beef with rice and beans plus plantains.  I’m going to say this was my favorite meal all week and I had a Trumplet earlier this week (it’s an omelette that’s been politicized).

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Let’s go from left to right.  The rice and black beans I could have made a meal of just by themselves.  They were obviously cooked together and not just beans dumped on rice and stirred together.  They also had a wee bit of fatty salt pork cooked with them which warms any born and bred Southerner’s heart.  I’m not sure what seasonings they had but they were very good.  Now the crispy beef.  As you can see it was topped with grilled onions and a chimichurri sauce.  The marinated meat is cooked until tender then shredded and cooked again until it starts getting crispy.  I don’t know what exactly was in the marinade but the flavors were subtle and quite tasty.  Finally we get to the plantains.  They were my least favorite, not because they were bad but because the other two were just so good.  They were also the sweetest plantains I’ve ever had and I think that threw me as well.  Good but unexpected.

I washed the meal down with jupina, a pineapple soda.  Not too sweet and although it was slightly artificial the pineapple flavor was good and went well with the meal.  For mojito fans they had a list of 10-15 different types of mojitos and some of them looked interesting.  My plan was to finish off with a Cuban coffee but there was just so much meal I didn’t have room.  I’ll have to skip the emanadas and save room for the coffee next time and there will be a next time.

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You can link to the restaurant by clicking the name above and don’t forget to check out the Tell Me More page for a crispy beef recipe and a great video of street musicians in Cuba as well as the usual random fact and Amazon top results for Cuba.

To the Islands Mon

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Jamaica

Today was such a bright and beautiful day it felt like a great day to hit the islands even if the temperature wasn’t quite tropical.  With that in mind Jamaica became the country and Caribbean Hut restaurant the representative for the food.  There are two locations in the Charlotte area and the closest to me is off Woodlawn and I mean off.  Google maps pinned it but couldn’t quite figure out how to get there.  It ran me past the location, indicated I should do a U-turn and then just gave up.  The pin was an island on the screen Google couldn’t navigate to.

Fortunately for me the JROTC training kicked in and I was able to figure out the map and successfully arrive in the parking lot.  The Caribbean Hut shares the lot with some interesting company, including a restaurant named Chubz, and the Gentlemen’s Club that I don’t believe is a habitat for gentlemen but I could be mistaken.  In any case I reached the destination and it looked promising.

I walked in and was greeted by the sounds of Mr. Bob Marley, whose likeness also graced one wall.  The staff and several of the restaurant patrons had accents than pegged them as being from the Caribbean if not from Jamaica.  As I’ve said more than once it’s a good sign to me when people from the culture eat at the restaurant.

The menu wasn’t huge but did have a nice variety of items including some combos that came in small and large.  I went with the small oxtail and curry goat combo that also came with rice and beans, vegetables and plantains.

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I have never had oxtail at all or goat this way, which is of course why I got them.  I liked them both but preferred the curry goat overall.  The goat was cooked in a mild green curry that had a nice flavor and the meat was cooked tender and had a rich taste.  If you are a health nut and you’ve never had oxtail keep it that way.  The oxtail was about fifty percent meat with the other fifty percent being just about equal measures of fat, gristle and bone.  I know some of you are saying “Yum” and meaning it while others probably fought back a gag reflex but let me assure you it was actually quite good.  The meat was very tender and flavorful and the brown gravy was just a bit sweet and tasted like it had some of the same spices used in jerk seasoning in it as well.  The rice and beans had just a few beans in it but did have other seasoning that went well with both the curry and oxtail.  The vegetables consisted mostly of steamed cabbage with a can of veg-all thrown in.  The cabbage was cooked thoroughly and not overdone so it was nice.  The plantains were cooked with a slight glaze on the outside and soft on the inside while staying firm enough you could push food on to your fork with them.

They had a selection of other Jamaican foods and drinks including meat patties, island sodas and Red Stripe beer.  I can definitely see giving the Caribbean Hut another shot to try some of the other menu items.

They don’t have a website but here’s a link to their Facebook page:

Caribbean Hut Facebook

don’t forget to check out Tell Me More