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| - Other Yelpers' reviews encouraged me to try the Caribbean Grill tonight. I'd heard good things about the food truck, but hadn't tried that either. I went tonight because it's Friday, and the Friday special is oxtails.
Traditionally, Jamaican oxtails are stewed (that is, slow cooked Grandma style) bone-in until the meat is fork tender and sticky. Fat is not much trimmed; this is not diet food. Oxtails are cooked with broad beans in a braise flavored with allspice, garlic, thyme, scotch bonnet pepper, and onions. That is exactly what I was served up -- and it was good.
The stew was served on top of rice n peas (traditionally, this dish is made with long grain rice, kidney beans, garlic, onions, scotch bonnet pepper, bay leaves, thyme, paprika, chicken broth, and coconut milk). Personally, I'd choose to have this side dish served separately, since its texture and flavor were drowned by the oxtails.
A side of fried plantains was also included in the price of the special. These were two bias-cut slices of island heaven -- creamy on the inside and slightly sweet with a delicate, nutty fry on the outside.
For my optional side, I chose the cabbage. The cabbage is simple: cooked down in broth with tender sliced carrots -- just like Grandma's. It made a nice complement to the spicier flavor of the oxtails and helped to balance their richness.
I got my order to go. It was served in a pressed paper clamshell with plastic flatware served in a napkin. I asked for a Diet Coke, and this came in a can. I wouldn't have minded eating in, though. The restaurant is small, but well air conditioned, clean, and modern, with corrugated steel wainscotting (to remind us of the food shacks on the islands) and some tasteful, enlarged images of island foods and ingredients (such as peppercorns). Island music was playing in the background.
My order was $13.99 (for the Friday special with a side) plus drink. That seemed a reasonable price for the quality of food I received and the amount. Portions are neither enormous nor tiny -- but somewhere in the middle (just right).
My partner had tried the Caribbean Grill a few weeks before for lunch during the workday and forgot to mention it to me (how could he!?). He did not have as positive an experience as I did. The person at the counter who took his order seemed unwelcoming (he wondered whether she was having a bad day). Contrast to the guy who took my order; he was friendly and glad to talk about the restaurant. On my partner's visit, the fish was too intensely seasoned -- the flavors overwhelmed the fish. However, I did not find that to be the case with the oxtails. My partner gave them a try tonight and agreed with me that they were perfectly seasoned.
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