Asian in a Strange Land

Taste of the Island Caribbean Take-Out

I’m blessed to be able to split work time between the office and home–3 days a week in the office and 2 days at home.  Still, going to the office can be a drag, and on office days a good lunch can just make the whole day.  Today I walked a block away to Taste of the Island Caribbean Take-Out for my lunch.  This is actually the 2nd day in a row that I’ve been there.  Yesterday was my 1st time ever.

Taste of the Island is a Caribbean cuisine restaurant on the corner of Capitol and President in downtown Jackson.  You can see from the outside that they took over what used to be a diner-style restaurant that closed a while back.  I had seen the temporary banner they put up a while back while renovating the place and had been excitedly waiting for them to open.

Simple diner-style storefront

It’s always encouraging to see new businesses open up downtown as the area is in need of revitalization.  Even better when it’s an eatery, and even better yet when it’s “ethnic” (yes, terrible term, but it gets the point across).  And even better than that when they stay open past just lunch, which a lot of small eateries downtown do not.

Richard and Jay are the faces of Taste of the Island.  Well, at least the 2 times I’ve been in.  Richard serves the food and Jay works the register.  I don’t know if either of them cooks or is the owner–haven’t gotten to know them that well just yet–but you can probably count on seeing them there along with at least a couple other workers.  They’re super-nice, and even gave me free bottled water both times I came to the restaurant, although today I bought a drink from there, which I’ll get to later.

Richard (far right) and Jay (middle)

As you can see from the pic, although they call themselves a take-out place they also have seating.  And cops eat there so it’s gotta be good right?  Aren’t they supposed to know all the best food joints in town or something like that?

Their menu is short but sweet.  You pick a meat/main dish from among 3 chicken dishes (jerk, brown stew, and curry), oxtails, jerk salad, red snapper (call 10-15 minutes ahead of time so they can cook it, and you can choose how you want it cooked), Jerk Salad, and Jamaican beef patties.  Then you add either white rice or red beans and rice, and a vegetable (carrots & cabbage, bok choy, or fried plantains).  As any good local restaurant should, they also have off-menu items too.  I think today they had shrimp and every Friday they have goat.  Chicken dishes are $7.00, oxtails $7.69, red snapper $9.00, etc.  Very reasonable prices, and they give you a heaping helping of rice, which is a plus since I love my rice (how stereotypical is that!).

Yesterday I had brown stew chicken, which is first pan-fried then steamed in a brown sauce.  It tasted very much like a Chinese dish my mom makes.  The chicken was great, the red beans and rice good enough, but the carrots and cabbage were underwhelming.  Today I got some jerk chicken and switched out the carrots and cabbage for fried plantains.  With jerk chicken comes jerk sauce, from which you can choose mild or hot (I chose hot like a real man).  I also bought a Jamaican soda called “Kola Champagne”, which is a cream soda type of beverage.

The full meal

So that’s what the meal looked like at my office desk.  I’m also blessed to have an office all to myself, not because I’m some kind of bigwig but because we have enough office space for everybody to have one.  I reckon you’ll be seeing this desk and the things on it quite a bit if I keep documenting my lunches.

Jerk chicken

Mmm… delicious, crispy, caramelized chicken skin.  The ubiquitous “they” say that you reduce a large portion of fat intake if you don’t eat chicken skin, but really if you do so why bother eating chicken at all?  It’s the best part when done right!

Fried plantains

Fried plantains taste like fried bananas, if you’ve ever had that.  If not, then you need to.  Or you can at least try fried plantains.

Kola Champagne

Kola Champagne might be imported from Jamaica, but it tastes just like cream soda.  I’m not a big cream soda fan–I like it ok–but wanted to try it anyway.  It was good, and I’m sure those who are fans of cream soda will enjoy this drink.

All in all a very satisfying meal, and I’ll definitely be going back for the red snapper, oxtails, and goat.  Be aware that there’s a Friday goat rush that starts at 11 a.m. when they open, and the goat is gone in the blink of an eye, so plan ahead if you’re jonesing for some goat.

Thanks, guys, for opening a Caribbean restaurant in Jackson.  The main big city attraction I wish we had here is more varied restaurants, so this is a great addition to the ever-diversifying cuisine landscape in Mississippi.

Taste of the Island Caribbean Take-Out
436 E. Capitol St. (Corner of Capitol St. and President St.)
Jackson, MS 39201
(601) 360-5900

Open Monday-Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

N.B. July 15, 2009: Thanks to Richard and Chandra from Taste of the Island for informing me of the address in the comments section below.  I’ve updated the post accordingly.