Sometimes the best tingz are found in the weirdest places. Jamaica Vibes Food Hut makes a magnificent curry goat ($19.99). At lunch time you can pick up a small plate of it with rice and beans and salad for twelve bucks. It’s full of turmeric, thyme, scotch bonnet chillies, onions, shallots, potato, peas and carrot, and stewed in a giant pot on the bone. Don’t be worrying yourself about getting your hands dirty: the tender goat meat falls off clean bones when touched with a fork. The downside is where you have to go to find it: the back corner of a third floor food court in Castle Hill’s monstrous Castle Towers shopping mall.
If you need some extra persuading, ‘stamp and go’ ($10) codfish fritters dipped in sweet chilli sauce are rubbery and fun to devour. They’re spiked with habanero so quite the party in your mouth against the sweet chilli sauce topper. If it gets too much, Jamaican Sorrel ($8) is your friend. It’s a wild mix of hibiscus, ginger and spices including, most dominantly, cloves. Trust me, it’s actually a delicious drink. Maybe even better with rum...
While you’re here, the lunch-size jerk chicken ($10) is also worth sampling. The juicy bird is cooked long and slow over allspice wood and served dripping in their signature jerk sauce. It comes with rice and salad. We threw in some green plantain fritters ($10) but they were surplus to need and a little floury and bland for my liking. I suspect I’d prefer the ripe plantain version. I liked the curry goat here so much I bought a catering serve ($25) to take home. I’d make the trip again to try the jerk pork.
