Jean’s Restaurant: Good West Indian cuisine

By Carol Brock

Jean's Restaurant

188-36 Linden Blvd.St. Albans
525-3069

If you're looking for West Indian cuisine, I have a place for you – Jean's Restaurant.

Jean's has been there for 16 years since chef/owner Jean herarrived in the United States from Jamaica as a young lady of 22. Not surprisingly, this storefront restaurant has the look of the Islands about it. The walls are bedecked with a mural of the sea and mountains, which is what Jamaica is all about.

My dining companion and I settled down for brunch – the West Indian style breakfast that Jean detailed in print (like you, I peruse the ads) sounded so good – a change from the Eggs Benedict or omelet standby. Actually, I take that back because diners were having cornmeal or oatmeal porridge (a thin layer served on a large, individual, oval platter) with hard dough bread and available with codfish fritters. On Saturdays only, there's banana porridge and on Wednesdays and Fridays hominy corn porridge.

More conventional diners may opt for the American breakfast served with coffee, orange juice and a choice of home fries (or grits for the more daring.)

We began our brunch withsips of ginger beer and Irish moss., which greatly pleased my dining companion. Ginger beer had been her passion following a stay in England (followed by an excursion to the Islands) where it's a popular, Christmas drink. I've had Irish moss before but this time I swooned. It was ultra smooth and so thick, elusively fragrant and decidedly luscious. We sat and sipped and peeled our pepper shrimp, tiny prawns with a comfortably hot reddish coating, which stained our fingers. Our delightful waitress brought fresh napkins and asked if we cared to have our place mats changed.

Of the eight breakfasts listed, there's ackee and codfish, callaloo and codfish, cabbage and codfish, okra and codfish and just plain codfish.

And, as for ackee- its the fruit of a West African tree named for Captain Bligh, who introduced it to Jamaica. The edible part (between the red shell and black seeds) looks like scrambled eggs and has a delicate flavor. Callaloo is the West Indian answer to spinach. All items are served with bananas, green abans, which is a starchy vegetable when green and the abananas that is of the large member of the banana family, the plantain.. Then there were two dumplings with each serving – she had the boiled version and I ordered the fried. The fried was lighter and our favorite but the solid boiled one grows on you. Bammy, a favorite street food in the Caribbean, made with grated cassava (yucca) was a disappointment (old and hard, and butterless).

We wrapped things up with with ice cream. Sour sop (a tart-flavored, dark-green fruit used for drinks and sherbets) was refreshing. The grapenut ice cream was ultra creamy, chewy and rich. Coffee was good (Blue Mountain). The Jamaican chocolate, made from a cocoa pod boiled in milk with spices, is intriguingly different.

Our most helpful and delightful waitress's eyes glistened as she said, “Come for dinner sometime. We have lots of wonderful things.” A chicken devotee, she praised Jean's stewed, jerk and curried chicken. I was intrigued by chop suey Jamaican-style, which I surmised includes cabbage and bok choy and carrots.

And there's escaveitch fish, a method of preparing fish in which the fish is cooked in oil and vinegar or cooked and then pickled with oil and vinegar. The oxtail, stew in brown gravy, shortribs of beef and pot roast as well as fish stewed or steamed would please the all-American diner.

Jean's small storefront restaurant also has an intriguing wine list: Stone's ginger wine, wincarnis wine, sanatogen wine rum cream and Jamaican rum punch for your out of the ordinary luncheons or dinners. So, you can taste the West Indies as you travel through the menu.

The Bottom Line

A place for West Indian and American cuisine. Hearty West Indian breakfasts served until one o'clock. Interesting wine list. Excellent Caribbean ice creams. Delightful service.