Jamaican Me Crazy!

The crew went to Porky Pete's house last week for a night of Jamaican food. Coming from Jamaican lineage, I was eager to see what our boy could do. I was not disappointed, Bob Marley himself would have been proud!

Jamaican Beef Patties:
There's a severe lack of good patties here in NYC (well in Manhattan anyway, I'm too lazy to go to the outer boroughs), I stock up on them every time I go to Florida & store them in the freezer (not quite the best), so I was excited to having some homemade patties. They were spicy, but not enough to kill you & the crust was really delicious.

Conch Fritters:
Now you're talking, I was really looking forward to this dish as I absolutely love conch. Pete fried these perfectly & the batter was great. They were very delicate and the conch was tender & flavorful. Most importantly of all, they weren't greasy at all.

Fiery Jamaican Jerk Chicken:
I'm such a wuss when it comes to hot food, but these were not bad at all. The jerk seasoning was delicious. I was hoping to bring some Dragon Stout which would have gone great with the entire meal, but Red Stripe served us fine.

Curried Goat & Rice and Peas:
Hell yeah. This is the one dish that totally sums up Jamaica (in my mind). The goat was beautifully colored, fragrant, slightly spicy & above all, fucking delish! Just the smell of the curry is enough to get me salivating (Pavlov's Dogs style!)

Saturated Rum Cake:
oh Lordy! There was so much rum in this dish that I couldn't taste the cake! I took a few bites & was well & truly wasted!

Guiness, revisited

I had a chance to try the 250th Anniversary Guiness Stout a few weeks before it is officially released. I'm not a big fan of Guiness, but I'll admit that I really enjoyed this stout. It's more carbonated & about .8% higher alcohol content than the normal brew. Look for it on April 24th!

Food Inc.

Apple.com has the exclusive trailer for Food Inc. a documentary about the food industry coming out this summer. If you've read Fast Food Nation, Omnivore's Dilemma, etc. you might want to check this out.

Paradiso (105 Avenue B btwn 6th & 7th)

You can imagine my excitement when I found out that a new daytime eatery/coffee shop/bakery was opening up in the spot that used to be Bang-On (seriously, sunglasses & overpriced t-shirts? No thanks!) Since opening, Paradiso has become the new go to spot to get myself out of the house.

There are about ten different sandwiches there, either served on an Italian bread, or pressed in a ciabatta from Balthazar Bakery. I've only tried the asiago & prosciutto one, but I've heard great things about the rest of the offerings.

They also have different flavored shakes of which I've had the strawberry & the chocolate. Both good. The coffee is nice & strong & I think is a much better value for money here than at 9th St. Espresso or other coffee shops in the area.




There's free Wi-Fi (although not that many seats, but I've never seen the place fully packed) & the owner is super nice. So if you want some baked goods (cookies, muffins, croissants, etc), good coffee & excellent sandwiches, check out Paradiso!

Other goodies:

A close-up of my prosciutto & asiago sandwich: