Restaurant Review: Carribbean Flavors on Atlantic
After reading Peter Meehan’s review of Jamaican eatery Stir It Up, we’re ready to run over to Atlantic Avenue for lunch. Goat Roti, anyone? There wasn’t a single dish I tried on any visit that was a clunker. Not that Ms. Gordon’s cooking is some unbridled expression of culinary brilliance; better, perhaps, is that it…
After reading Peter Meehan’s review of Jamaican eatery Stir It Up, we’re ready to run over to Atlantic Avenue for lunch. Goat Roti, anyone?
There wasn’t a single dish I tried on any visit that was a clunker. Not that Ms. Gordon’s cooking is some unbridled expression of culinary brilliance; better, perhaps, is that it is the carefully considered product of a diligent home cook who happens to be cooking in a restaurant…She buys perishable ingredients in small quantities every day, so if there’s a run on coconut curry shrimp ($14) at lunch, there may not be any left for dinner. And the tender, aromatic goat that she tops legume-stuffed rotis with marinates for days in a slurry of fresh thyme, scallions, garlic, peppers and more, so when the day’s allotment is gone, it’s gone.
Fine-Tuned Flavors of the Carribbean [NY Times] GMAP
If you like this spot, you’ll love “Melanie’s” on Fulton and Nostrand. They also have a great juice bar. I eat there all the time.
If you all want cheap, good, Atlantic Avenue eats, try The Soul Spot. It’s a little hole in the wall down near Smith Street (on the South side of Atlantic between Smith and Hoyt…closer to Smith). Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
The way I read the “brilliance” line, it meant that she isn’t inventing dishes and trying to showily develop groundbreaking techniques (like, say Wyliie Dufresne or someone), but rather, like a home cook does, recreating established dishes very well. Whether that’s accurate or not, I don’t know, not having eaten there.
I would not have been surprised to see the same line in a review of, say, a Polish restaurant with great pierogis and bigos–or a French or Italian or American comfort-food joint–nor would I consider it condescending. But that’s just me.
Maybe I haven’t had enough caffine yet today, but I found the reviewer’s comment,”not that Ms. Gordon’s cooking is some unbridled expression of culinary brilliance; better, perhaps, is that it is the carefully considered product of a diligent home cook who happens to be cooking in a restaurant..” to be rather condescending, albeit favorable. She can’t be genuinely brilliant, because she probably didn’t go to L’ecole de Haute Cuisine somewhere? Or is it because it’s only an ethnic home cookin’? I hope it’s only just the usual foodie snobbery.
The food is great, I’m with him there.
The takeout place near the corner of Grand and Putnam is actually pretty good, and the prices are jaw-droppingly low. I was a bit disappointed that they were out of curry goat the other day, but the stewed chicken, the only dish left at 8PM, was excellent. The people there are really friendly. $6.50 gets a glutton-sized portion of most things. They have ackee, which I’ve never tried.
I have been to a few Islands on vacation including St. Lucia, Martinique, Grenada and St. Vincent. I love Island food and enjoy the culinary influences of Africa, Spain France, India and China.
In many instances, the locals themselves refer to their pace as “Island Time”. Here in New York City, (including Brooklyn) where everything is expected to move along apace, what we think of as slow service is relative. Why not imagine yourself on an Island vacation and relax into “Island Time”?
Brawta is still number one on my dinner table.
agreed on the “slow” service but thats bc most everything is prepared fresh and its very much a one woman operation. i try to order 30 min. ahead to avoid frustration.
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