37338 Fri Jun 24 16:51:24 -0700 2005 30 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 173805 I live in San Francisco. Where can I eat Jamaican food....SF or somewhere in the bay area that is accessible by public transportation. Thanks! ps. Hi Thi, if you are reading this! Fri Jun 24 16:51:24 -0700 2005 0 Angela 1 173811 Jamaican Soul in Berkeley on San Pablo near Addison. Take Bart to Downtown Berkeley. Take the 51 or 52L down University to San Pablo. I've never eaten here but they claim to do authentic Jamaican. I couldn't find a single post on Chowhound, probably because they opened so recently. If you do go, let us know what you think. Fri Jun 24 17:13:22 -0700 2005 173805 0 Morton the Mousse 2 173929 Here's a little info from when Jamaican Soul opened a year ago. Any updates? There was one in the Emeryville marketplace, still there? Any good? Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/30972#134580 Sat Jun 25 02:26:17 -0700 2005 173811 0 Melanie Wong 3 173936 Huh! Been by it a million times and for some reason I thought it has mediocre posts. Guess I was mixing it up with someplace else. Anyway, sounds interestiong and CHEAP !!! where's that guy that wanted inexpensive eats on the board. This may be the place. Link to Bay Gurdian review (though it does go on, it is a review. It gets to the food eventually). Positive note on SFGATE which mentions "homemade ginger beer, sorrel and cucumber-pineapple drinks" Seams like it is steam table buffet style, but CHEAP. Here's a review from San Fran Magazine (scroll down)In it it says "$5 for a half serving of anything with rice ‘n' peas, plantains, and a fried dumpling spiked with allspice to $10 for a little bit of everything they've got." http://www.sanfran.com/archives/view_story/555/ Here's the Bay Guarudian review. All review mention the goat curry anc jerk ckicken favorably. The BG says small meals are four bucks and large means are seven bucks. If you want a side like fish head soup, add a dollar. Supposedly there are hot homemade salsas on the table like mango and tamarind. Link: http://www.sfbg.com/39/16/x_cheap_eats.html Sat Jun 25 04:04:14 -0700 2005 173929 0 rworange 4 173977 There's been at least one other post from ericf on Jamaica Soul, I think, but I can't find it and it doesn't turn up on google. Not a rave, but as a place to get a cheap and fast lunch. The spot in Emeryville is Jamaica Place. I've linked Boyk's post below. Mango Cafe in Palo Alto has some Jamaican food, but it's not great either. Then, here's the listing from the Jamaica Association of Northern Calif. Don't know how many are restaurants - any chow intelligence on these? Food & Dining Back A Yard Catering - A Caribbean & Continental Caterer Phone: (650) 701-1305. Email: info@backayard.net www.backayard.net African Caribbean Food Market Emeka (510) 444-2841 Art's Jamaican Market Arthur (510) 652-2168 Caribbean D'lyte Catering (408) 927-5144 Caribbean Vibes Wayne Forbes (707) 452-9003 Franklin's Jamaican Style Franklin or Joyce (925) 689-5130 Happy Day Takeout Kitchen Samuel Ola (510) 444-7684 Island Boy Co Tony Fraser (707) 923-1272 Island Market Suren Sellamuttu (408) 287-0557 Jamaican Soul (510) 704-4083 Jamaica Place Denise Thomas (510) 654-0199 Mama Jamaica's Cafe (209) 576-0110 Oriental Lucky Mart (510) 452-1556 Pops Caribbean Catering Fritz - Andrea (925) 706-7409 Ribbit International George Moore (510) 536-0167 Sweet Fingers Restaurant Chef Clive (916) 492-9336 The Caribbean Cove Judith Oloughlin (510) 531-2303 West Indian Food Flavors Donna Goodson (510) 885-0344 Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/22845#85462 Image: http://www.janc.org/commondesign/janclogo.gif Sat Jun 25 18:29:36 -0700 2005 173936 0 Melanie Wong 5 174013 I’ll confess, I upscaled and went for the deluxe $7 plate with a $1 side. Then I splurged for a $2 house made Jamaican ginger beer and a $2 dessert. The total with tax and tip was $12. It’s those extras that will get you every time The menu says “Jamaican Food with a touch of soul & we’re veggie friendly. Real Jamaican Food at a good price”. It is served cafeteria style. You take a tray and tell them which of the items you’d like on the plate. It is a good value, healthy, different and tasty for steam table food. There are three house-made Jamaican drinks and samples of each are available. All three are non carbonated and similar to aqua frescas, but with zing. The ginger-beer was hot and spicy. Sorrel is the same as Jamaica, or hibiscus, with ginger and allspice. The cool salty pineapple cucumber is the best choice to compliment some of the spicy dishes. I didn’t know at the time, but for $10 you can get a plate with a taste of all the dozen items available. All plates come with - rice and peas or brown rice and pinto beans - plantains - dumpling or fritter For $5 you get a ½ serving, for example, one piece of jerk chicken instead of two. For $7 you can split what items you like. I chose jerk salmon and the Saturday special, ackee and salt fish. The salmon was nice with a spicy coating and moist. Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica. It looks like scrambled eggs, but I thought it had more of a delicate flavor like a buttery tofu. For thrill seekers, like Japan’s blowfish, if not harvested correctly, it can be poisonous. THIS I find out after dinner. It is related to African fufo. The salt fish (not too salty), ackee, tomato, onion and pepper was a nice stewed dish. The one problem was that most of it was luke-warm. One review mentions to watch for fresh dishes being cooked in big pots on the stove behind the steam table. Brown rice and beans were nice. The plantains were ok, but not even warm. Today there was a fish fritter which reminded me of those conch fritters in Key West, Fl. It was nice but luke-warm. The side of sweet potatoes and cassava was chunks of the fresh vegetables that were pleasantly buttery. There are about ½ dozen condiments on the tables for added flavor enhancement. There are three house made salsas. The mango and red onion have the consistency of a fruit butter. The bright pink red onion tastes sweet at first with a spicy after burn. The vinegary papaya has a mild spice up front. The tomato-tamarind reminded me of steak sauce. It is similar to the bottle of Jamaican Pickapeppa sauce, also on the table along with a few bottles of hot sauce like Red Rooster. Dessert was a chewy coconut drop cookies which was just that, a mound of chopped coconut cooked in brown sugar and honey and dropped on a paper plate. The coconut had a nut-like taste. Other desserts are banana cake, grater cake and sweet potato pudding, There are daily specials Curry chicken – Monday & Wednesday Curry Goat – Tuesday and Thursday Brown Chicken Stew - Friday Salt fish and Ackee – Saturday Everyday there is jerk chicken, veggie bean stew, curried prawns, a fish dish, and an organic tofu dish. Sides include: spinach, sweet potatoes, cabbage mix, corn, bok choy and, as the menu says “others we haven’t thought of yet. Sides with a meal are $1, without meal $2. I’d say the décor is Jamaican hippy. There were some nice photos on a faux brick wall. Tables and chairs were unmatching and eclectic. Even the floor was fitted together different woods. We are talking the type of wood donated from a piece of furniture. There are some colorful Jamaican rugs on one wall. There a chess game on the bar that runs along the brick wall and some small board games on the table. Decent Caribbean music plays at a decent volume. It’s not touristy junk. There’s a wall with a couple of shelves of spices used in the cooking. They were in the middle of putting up the photos and on Monday night they are having an event with the artist. With all the decorating going on, I asked if they were the original owners or new people redoing the place. The guy at the counter said they were the one and only owners and in his words “the place was a dump”. They are doing a nice job of upgrading. It does attract an artsy clientele, more of the starving artist types than the gallery type. There are students and couples and children and seniors knowing a good bargain. Many were regulars known by name. On a Saturday afternoon, it was full. The food was filling and I felt good and healthy after eating it. It is one of the few places where you can get a reasonable meal that isn’t deep fried or loaded with heavy sauces or coconut milk. The creative use of spices gives the flavor. There is always McDonald’s where for the same five bucks you can get a greasy burger and fries. Tax is included in the price. It is buffet style and you bus your own trays. There was no tip jar I could see. Obviously this is the first time I’ve eaten Jamaican food so I have no comparison to say how it stacks up with other places. Jamaican Soul 2057 San Pablo Ave. (at addison st.) Berkeley (510) 704-4083 Hours Closed Sunday 11:30 am – 9 pm – Monday – Saturday All about Ackee http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/fruits/exotic/ackee.htm Jamaican Sorrel - same as Hibiscus? http://www.chowhound.com/boards/general/messages/144998.html Link: http://www.jamaicans.com/tourist/overview/eating-2.shtml Sun Jun 26 11:51:50 -0700 2005 173977 0 rworange 6 174277 How could I resist trying Jamaica Place after the charming and endearing recommendation by Mr. Heart? It is also time for me to explore cuisines and foods that don’t begin with the letter P … Peruvian, Polish, Portuguese, pupusas, pierogi, pickles …. So in honor of June and July it is now Jamaican and … jerk. I just may complete my Junket report (Jerman… uh … German). While the food itself was warmer, I do not hold the same regard for Jamaica Place as Mr. Heart. While the lunch was highly indigestible, it was valuable in evaluating in the future what defines good Jamaican food and what defines bad Jamaican food. With its complex spicing, healthy ingredients, interesting condiments, Berkeley’s Jamaican Soul is what I will look for in terms of good Jamaican food. Emeryville’s Jamaica Place, for me, defines what a bad Jamaican meal is all about. The Jamaica Place food was greasy, heavy, more expensive, the portions less generous and the flavor one dimensional. I chose the salt fish and ackee which came with three leaden, greasy dumplings. The price was $7.75 and there was no rice or plantains. Unlike Berkeley’s Jamaican Soul with each table laden with home made condiments, there wasn’t so much as a bottle of hot sauce at this restaurant. The dish was mushy in texture and mainly had salt cod and onions with only dots of yellow ackee. The only flavor was of the strong, fishy, salty cod. The delicate buttery flavor of the ackee that I found at the other restaurant was completely lost at Jamaica Place. The fried, almost baseball sized, dumpling had a donut like interior that was bready and slightly sweet, but was ruined by the greasy exterior. I ate one and threw the other two away. This was not food risking coronary artery disease for. The house made ginger beer tasted like a burning bubble gum flavored drink. It was almost an uncarbonateed version of the detestable, to me, cola champagne with a strong, strong after burn and no character. I threw this away after a few sips. Before lunch I considered buying a few different items to take home for dinner. After lunch, I didn’t want any more of this food. To me, it was neither calories nor money well spent. For those of you inspired to try this restaurant, here’s what is on the menu. Jerk chicken seems to be their specialty (see previous Chowhound post below). Like most dinners it comes with plantains and rice and peas. The chicken, plantains and most of the fried items and turnovers are kept warm under heat lamps in a glass display case. There are daily specials that come with a small drink. Monday – curry chicken Tuesday – braised oxtail Wednesday – fricassee chicken Thursday – curry goat Friday - beef ‘peas’ stew These dishes are available every day at dinner time. Dinner also has two more dishes – steamed fish and escoviche fish. On Saturday there is “traditional soup served in every household”. On Sunday, for $15, you can get three items from the dinner menu with plantains and rice and peas. Let me remind you that for $10 at the other restaurant you can get a taste of a dozen items every day for $10. Sides included rice and peas, plantains, island slaw, festival, roti. Dessert seemed to be fruit cakes or fried coconut bread. They have bottled Jamaican D&G sodas in the following flavors: ginger beer, cola, ting, pineapple, and cola champagne. Seasonal fresh drinks include sorrel, watermelon, carrot juice, ginger beer and lemonade Jamaican style. There were no free samples. They were more expensive than those in the other restaurant (ok fifteen cents more, but smaller). They also had Jamaican turnovers with beef, chicken or vegetable filling. It is located across from the Emeryville ball room in the Market Place food mall. A father yelled when his son nailed my shoulder with a bright orange plastic ball “keep your balls in the room”. I removed myself to the alcove around the corner. The kid did have a good arm. Actually the plastic ball was about the same size as one of the leaden dumplings. Had he been throwing one of those dumplings instead of a light plastic ball, I would not have lived to write this. There are also children’s rides in this area like a bucking horse, and a vibrating Dino the dinosaur and Elmo’s race car. IMO, you would get a better, cheaper, more interesting and flavorful meal if you spent your money at McDonalds. If this had been my first taste of Jamaican food, I would not be eager to try it again. I apologize to Jamaica Place. I don’t usually do negative posts about little restaurants. However, with the comparison on the board to, IMO, a vastly superior restaurant, I felt it necessary to post my experience. I have found in the past, the more negative my post, the more it seems to inspire people to try the place. Who knows, this might even throw more business at this restaurant. I just hope you will try the other Berkeley restaurant for comparison. Now this really is what a sad review is all about. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/22845#85462 Tue Jun 28 00:18:12 -0700 2005 174013 0 rworange 7 174311 jamaica place's "greasy leaden" dumplings are everything that is wrong with traditional johnny cakes. Judith at The Caribbean Cove makes her johnny cakes differently - they are puffed up with air like a mini pita bread, and are not greasy and heavy. try the cove cakes with her ackee and saltfish on saturdays. Link: http://www.thecaribbeancove.com/ Tue Jun 28 13:00:51 -0700 2005 174277 0 david 7 174393 Real Bad Confession Dept: sometimes I get a half chicken NO SAUCE and don't wrap it, just drop in a paper bag so it doesn't steam the skin soft. Eat the leg & wing & tail strip off the skin & eat that and just toss the rest in the Perennial Stew. I don't like that sauce. Tue Jun 28 18:41:46 -0700 2005 174277 0 Shep 8 174448 No confession. Good to hear there is something good about the place and a good tip that it is better without the sauce. Sorry if I came on like gangbusters. It wasn't about the restaurant itself. I mean, I'm unlikely to go back, but it had more to do with saying a place sucks or is good and then not backing it up with a why. Tue Jun 28 23:31:20 -0700 2005 174393 0 rworange 9 174564 No harm, no foul. If you couldn't say it here, where could you say it? Hate to think of you, embittered, babbling to strangers at bus stops ;^D Wed Jun 29 15:50:14 -0700 2005 174448 0 Shep 10 174571 So that was YOU next to me at The Patio. Wed Jun 29 16:00:05 -0700 2005 174564 0 rwourange 6 174675 I've eaten at JS a few times, but it was in my bleary postpartum too-tired-to-post period. I've always gotten the $10 menu and the cucumber-pineapple drink. It in no way resembles the Jamaican food I used to eat in New York, but it is plenty enjoyable. It's mostly a cavalcade of tasty vegetables. They pile so much of so many different things on the plate that it is very hard to detect or remember which have the particularly delicious flavors. None of it is very highly seasoned (hence the array of condiments) but all of it is clean and good. It's your basic Californized Jamaican healthy cafeteria cuisine... (whoever would have thunk it) The chef-lady is a sweetheart, her brother-in-law's a bit dour. I'm just so excited about the new place on Telegraph! (And that the linked posts make a circle.) Thu Jun 30 01:35:40 -0700 2005 174013 0 heidipie 2 174086 Actually its not very good The one in the Emeryville food court is better (and that sad review probably says it all) PS What is the point of suggesting a place you haven't actually tried??? Mon Jun 27 08:40:54 -0700 2005 173811 0 yellow heart 3 174129 The OP wanted Jamaican food, there were zero responses, so I suggested a place and asked if anyone had tried it. If no one else replied with a suggestion (and no one else did), the OP would at least have one Jamaican restaurant to try. I also mentioned this place hoping that somebody would try it out. I searched the database and couldn't find it mentioned (I don't know how Melanie finds archives so well). Lo and behold, rworange was inspired by the post. Now we have a report. Really, Yellow Heart, this is a friendly board. You don't need to be so hostile. Mon Jun 27 14:50:33 -0700 2005 174086 0 Morton the Mousse 1 174187 although this isn't a Jamaican restau per se, it seems a good choice for fans of Jamaican-style rice & peas and plantains, anyone been there recently? Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/21952#80306 Mon Jun 27 17:51:37 -0700 2005 173805 0 syl 2 174253 Thanks for bringing up that old post and jogging the memory banks. Recently there was a post about a newly opened location in Berkeley. I can't remember if it was a report on the food or just a mention of an opening. I can't locate the entry now, but maybe we'll get some new input. Ital Calabash 3031 Adeline St. (next to BART) Berkeley, CA USA 94703 Mon Jun 27 21:46:55 -0700 2005 174187 0 Melanie Wong 3 174474 Not only did I learn about Jamaican food this week, I learned about Ital food which isn’t short for Italian. From the link below about Jamaican food, Ital is described as “This is the food of the Rastafarians, a vegetarian cuisine that does not make use of salt. Look for the red, green and gold Rasta colors on dining establishments as a clue to locating Ital eateries, which are often quite small.” Exactly true of Ital Calabash, about two blocks from Berkeley Bowl on Adeline. It is worth a stop to mellow out before a hectic Bowl shopping trip. There is another Ital Calabash in Oakland, the first. The Berkeley location, starting next week, will have a more extensive menu. There will be items like sweet potato fries. Currently there are about 20 varieties of creative smoothies, and limited wraps, salads, sandwiches and a soup. I had the Jamaican breakfast porridge with oats, corn coco milk and spices. It had the texture of cream of wheat and was tasty. With it I had a smoothie called “Pure Niceness” with banana, dates, cinnamon, vanilla essence, peanut or almond butter, soy or rice milk and maple syrup. It was, in fact, very nice. I had a sorrel drink for take out, but it wasn’t my favorite because of the cloves. The taste was mild, but I detest cloves, and it was enough to keep me from ordering it again. This was the best décor of the four Jamaican restaurants I tried. I know nothing about Rastafarians, but they must be very mellow people because I was relaxed for most the day. The restaurant is just an inviting place to take a break. Decorated in red, green and gold, the tiny restaurant has four high bar stool tables and a bar with additional seats along the windows. The windows were all open and it was light and airy. They did have the coolest music of all the Jamaican restaurants. BTW, there what looks like two long wigs hanging from the sky-lighted ceiling. They are horses tails. They signify strength. I asked where the Soul Food truck next to the restaurant sold. They said no where yet. The restaurant is open seven days a week 11 am – 9 pm. It has tons, TONS of parking. Starting next week they will have their full menu. Prices run from three to nine dollars with most items at five dollars. For the most part, here it is: Ital Soup – spicy veggie Island salad – Mixed greens, carrots, radish ackee with a miso tahini dressing, SIDE ORDERS Fries: regular, garlic and sweet potato Fritters Authentic Jamaican fried dumplings Som Moressa (no clue) Sweet fried plantains RICE Pumpkin rice Rice and peas (beans) Wild spinach with green peas Seasoned jalley rice STEWS WITH RICE Red and black bean Black eyed pea Broad bean soy Osho Chili The Ital stew MAIN DISHES Dairyless Quiche Ital pizza Rasta pizza Vegetable tofu lasagna Ackee and tofu Jerk Soy Fish Escovitch soy fish Ital’s Special sautéed tofu RAW FOOD WRAPS Sea Sprout – pate of soaked and sprouted almonds, hazelnuts, carrots, celery, tahini, wheat-free tamari, with fenugreek, sprouts, avocado, and pickled ginger wrapped in nori Original wrap – soaked and sprouted sunflower pumpkin seed paste neatly packed into a sheet of nori with sundried tomato tapenade, slices of cucumber, avocado and mounds of lettuce and sprouts. Curry Cilantro – A salad in a wrap – mounds of arugula, carrots, lettuce, avocado with cilantro-curry dressing in a live ‘tortilla” BURGERS (TOFU PATTIES) Osho’s Bliss Burger: tofu patty, whole wheat bun, dairyless spread, original Cajun sauce (not spicy) Buddha’s Queen Burger: Bliss burger BBQ Bliss burger: with BBQ sauce Soy Cheese Bliss burger Avocado Bliss burger Negril Jerk Burger: Tofu burger marinated in special Jamaican jerk sauce (mildly spicy). SPECIALS No-Meat Treat: High protein meatless substance served with race and pea. Served with fresh green salad. ITAL SMOOTHIES (some of them anyway) Jamaica Soon Come: Passion fruit, mango, banana, guava Ethiopian Eve: Strawberries, pineapple, lemon juice apple juice, passion fruit Pina Caladabas: pineapple, coconut cream, passion fruit, banana Jamaica in a glass: banana, papaya, pineapple, coconut apple juice, protein powder Smoothie Reggae: pineapple, banana, coconut, soy or rice milk, maple syrup Paradise Punch: mango, strawberries, peaches, pineapple, apple juice Calabashment: pineapple, mango, banana, orange juice Peanut punch peanut butter, banana, soy or rice milk, nutmeg, vanilla essence, protein powder, maple syrup JUICES Sorrel – Spring water, sorrel petals (hibiscus), ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, maple syrup Ginger beer – spring water, fresh ginger, cinnamon, allspice, lemon juice, maple syrup Irish Moss (no clue) Calabash lemonade The front of the menu says (which should be obvious by now) No animal products – All Natural Low cholesterol – High protein Link: http://www.jamaicans.com/tourist/overview/eating-2.shtml Wed Jun 29 02:20:55 -0700 2005 174253 0 rworange 4 174478 Mellow? Smoka da ganja . . . Does this location of Ital Calabash use a bit of salt in the food? Wed Jun 29 02:40:16 -0700 2005 174474 0 Melanie Wong 5 174480 Don't know. I had a smoothie and Jamaican maypo. Neither calls for salt. I was too taken with the horses tails to ask. Speaking of ganja, the room was lightly scented with incense. Link: http://chowhound.safeshopper.com/23/cat23.htm?131 Wed Jun 29 02:49:33 -0700 2005 174478 0 rworange 1 174290 Was looking for more info about Ital Calibash when I stumbled across this restaurant that opened in May of this year. The menu is Jamaican (I'm an expert now). They have 'hand-crafted' sorrel drinks. And it looks really, really nice. Picture in link below. Anyone tried it? Link: http://www.thecaribbeancove.com/restaurant.html Tue Jun 28 02:37:07 -0700 2005 173805 0 rworange 2 174292 Uh, sorry for another post, but this link to the catering menu has nice pictures of all the dishes. The Escovich Fish. marinated, pan-fried snapper served in a vinaigrette sauce with onion and bell pepper, really looks good. Pictures of Johnny Cakes, jerk chicken, chicken curry, stewed oxtails, fried plaintains and rice and peas. And there is a lovely picture of yellow ackee. There are descriptions of the other dishes like Jamaican patties which are those turnovers that are Jamaican street food. Actually the catering sounds fun. She can provide live music like a steel band and a limbo dance troupe. Seems she will go almost in any city in the the Bay Area and beyond - as far south as Monterry, north as Santa Rosa / Calistoga and east as Sacramento. Link: http://www.thecaribbeancove.com/catering.html Tue Jun 28 02:57:05 -0700 2005 174290 0 rworange 3 174308 I've eaten there several times, and it is fantastic. the chef (judith) makes her own sorrel and her own ginger beer, and she does a different twist on johnny cakes - she calls them cove cakes, and instead of a big ball of dough, they are puffed up with air. And on saturday's, she does ackee and saltfish. Link: http://www.thecaribbeancove.com/ Tue Jun 28 12:55:12 -0700 2005 174292 0 david 4 174462 The food is great, but what makes this place worth a special trip is the exquisite sorrel drink. The flavor is as deep and rich as the ruby hibiscus color. It is a little pulpy and almost, in a very good way, chewy. It is just so mind blowing wonderful. I spent about 10 minutes trying to talk them into selling it at the Berkeley Bowl or one of the farmers markets because I need an easily accessible supply. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of University and Blake, I highly recommend stopping by for a glass. What is wonderful is that it is mellower than most sorrel drinks that just rely on burning heat. The ginger complements rather than overwhelms the hibiscus. Judith, the owner, says they age it two days on the counter before stopping the ripening by refrigerating. She says in the Caribbean it is served with rum, like Captain Morgan. Speaking of rum, another outstanding item is the rum cake. It is traditional Christmas cake that is served during the holidays. A dark fruit cake with raisins and so much rum it is almost like eating a fudge cake. It goes very nice with the lovely Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee that was so mellow I drank it black. I had the combo plate with two choices from the dinner menu. The “Es-cove-ish” was pan fried fish with an outer crust golden from spices. It was topped with vinegary sautéed onions and peppers. My favorite was the spicy-hot jerk chicken with bones that was hacked into pieces. It wasn’t just burn either, distinct spices could be tasted. The fried, flat, cd-sized round cove bread was nice to tone down the spice. It was lovely sweet bread. Mildly spicy rice and peas (beans) were good. With the oil it was almost like fried rice. The plantains were wonderful, cut the length of the banana they were hot and had a sweet banana taste rather than a starchy taste. The dinner comes with a rather ordinary green salad with cherry tomatoes and what tasted like bottled Italian dressing. I wanted to try a Jamaican patty, a meat or vegetable turnover, so I bought one to have for lunch tomorrow. I did take a tiny bite while it was still hot. It was heavenly with a light crust and filled with spicy ground beef. I can see why this is a popular street food in the Caribbean. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was the ginger beer which had that bubble gum taste to it. I’m beginning to understand the popularity of the soft drink called cola champagne. It has that same taste, but without the ginger heat. I’ll go back. I do want to try the saltfish and ackee served on Saturdays. I also want to try the brown stewfish which takes 20 – 30 minutes to prepare. I can try the fish fritters while waiting. While not as upscale looking as the pictures on the web, it is a cheery, nicely decorated, restaurant. It is the only Jamaican restaurant I have tried that had real plates, silverware and glasses rather than paper plates and plastic utensils. It is, however, extremely handicapped inaccessible. It is on the second floor with no elevator and the railings up the steps are covered with arty grill work and Christmas lights, so getting a hand grip is difficult. Here’s a link to another positive post today about Caribbean Cove. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/37431#174444 Wed Jun 29 00:55:29 -0700 2005 174308 0 rworange 2 174850 I was really looking forward to the Cove, but I was seriously disappointed when I went today. I was the only customer, which doesn't mean anything, and I just ordered the chicken curry without looking at the menu, since I'd seen it on their online menu. I wasn't going to get anything to drink, but then the waitress pointed out that they have homemade ginger beer, so I ordered that. I'd read rworange's injunction against doing so, but I'd forgotten, and plus, I love ginger beer. It was definitely heavily bubble-gummy, which really turned me off, although I appreciated the kick in the aftertaste. My lunch special curry plate came, preceded by a generic iceberg lettuce salad that I ignored, after taking a bite to verify that the dressing was boring. You get a fairly good-sized plate, half curry and half red beans and rice, plus two plantain strips. I tried the rice by itself for scientific purposes, and was unexcited, so I mixed all the rice and curry together, like I usually do. The chicken was in big chunks, which I broke up and stirred up, removing the bones, which didn't bother me too much. The chicken was all dry, though, and had that teeth-smacky texture that overdone chicken has. The sauce was, again, fine - slightly spicy and vaguely flavored, but not really distinctive at all. Plantains are one of my favorite foods, maybe even number one, but these were thin, plain, unsweetened and without much flavor. I might be tricked into going back to try the sorrel and maybe some jerk chicken or something, but if there are virtues at this place, they were somehow missing from every single thing I happened to eat. I was really sad to discover that, because I love Jamaican food. I'd much rather go to Tropical Paradise on University, which is Caribbean but not specifically Jamaican, for their delicious plantains if for nothing else. Fri Jul 01 04:20:25 -0700 2005 174290 0 David Boyk 3 174893 Thanks for the report back. Sorry your experience wasn't good. That green salad they could really skip and save some money. Sorry you didn't try the sorrel though. Don't know if I lucked out with the plantains. I noticed the other poster mentioned they were starchy. Mine were sweet like bananas and very well done. Maybe a minor investment like the patty with a sorrel drink if you decide to return. What do you recommend at Troplical Paradise? How does Carribean food differ from Jamaican? Link: http://chowhound.safeshopper.com/23/cat23.htm?933 Sat Jul 02 00:09:35 -0700 2005 174850 0 rworange 4 174900 I'm no expert on Caribbean food. I grew up eating Jamaican and Cuban (and when I say I grew up eating them, I mean I went to Jamaican and Cuban restaurants sometimes with my parents; it's not like I was born into the cuisines or anything), but I don't know anything about Haitian, coastal Colombian, or any of the other ones. It's just that Tropical Paradise has food that's clearly Caribbean, along with their Ghanaian food; I can't identify which island the Caribbean food is from, although I think of jerk chicken, of which they make a very good example, as specifically Jamaican. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/37251#173216 Sat Jul 02 03:29:32 -0700 2005 174893 0 David Boyk 5 174904 Yeah, I know zilcho about the cuisine other than what I ate the other day. I did ask Judith at Carribean Cove about the difference from the island she grew up on and Jamaican. It didn't seem that much different except in terms of the national dish and slight variations in some dishes. Oddly her islands are probably the farthest away form Jamaican in the Carribiean (she pulled out a book with a map to show me where they were). It is odd that this island didn't pick up the influence of some of the other islands, like Cuba. I looked at the menu for Tropical Paradise which was totally different from any of the other restaurants I visited this week. They have fufo on the menu which I've alwayw wanted to try. They say it tastes like ackee. I added the menu link and the review by Kauffman of the East Bay Express to your post. I learned there are actually two kinds of fufo (who knew). There are two types used at Tropical Paradies but they come from a mix because African yams are difficult to find. And, oddly enough, I know where you can buy them fresh, of all the ridiculous things. You can buy them in the meat market in downtown oakland. It's the same street the Friday farmers market is on. I did't see jerk chicken on the menu unless that is the same as Chicken Chichinga, but it doesn't seem the same preparation. There are some really interesting dishes on the menu. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to that recent thread asking about Ghanian restaurants. Link: http://www.shopinberkeley.com/menus/tropical-paradise.html Sat Jul 02 12:54:30 -0700 2005 174900 0 rworange 1 174482 Well my vacation to the outlying Jamaican Islands of Berkeley and Emeryville is at an end. Thanks to the OP for asking the question. It started my crawl of Jamaican Restaurants near my home. I’m not Jamaican. I’ve never been to Jamaica, so given that, I really liked the Jamaican food I tried. Of the four restaurants, I will go back to three of them. I really can’t rank them as they were all so different and each had strengths. Jamaican Soul If I was forced to pick a favorite, this would be it. The prices ($5 meal) can’t be beat. The use of spices was the most intelligent and complex and the variety the greatest. It was the only restaurant with condiments, a good portion fresh made. The best ginger beer of all the restaurants. It was also almost grease free. The rice and peas (beans) was the best because there was little, if any, oil and it was the lightest. The down side is that it is steam table food and sometimes is luke warm. Caribbean Cove Very nice décor. The sorrel is worth a special trip and is stratospheres above the rest. The Jerk chicken and the plantains were my favorite. Excellent rum cake. Ital Calabash Vegetarian. I really like this little restaurant. Great smoothies and very healthy food. Best overall décor. Easiest parking. The Emeryville Place I’ve picked on it enough. There is a review of it and all the other restaurants in this thread. Here’s a link to a report about an Oakland Caribbean restaurant. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/37428#174424 Wed Jun 29 02:53:57 -0700 2005 173805 0 rworange 1 175013 This goes back a few years but, in San Francisco, on Fullton by USF there was a great Jamaican eatery named Prince Nevel's. You could get just about any kind of jerk there as well as akee and salt fish. Good luck! --d Mon Jan 02 11:36:55 -0800 2006 173805 0 David 1 3808190 Any updates to this post? Particularly, the EB places??? Tue Jun 24 06:48:30 -0700 2008 173805 25012 chemchef