Jamaican Me Happy
Winston & Tee Express Jerk Chicken | 1257 Park Ave. (at 97th St.) | 212.860.6831 | On Menupages
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[mappress]
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WE FOOD BLOGGERS have been increasingly using each other's sites as references for what restaurants to check out next. In our research, we happily discover a place that not only isn't being featured on all of the "major" food blogs, like GrubStreet or Eater.com, but on small, almost unheard of places that enjoy avidly loyal fan bases.
I recently came across one of these places while checking out someone's photos on Yelp!. It was of a Jamaican jerk chicken place—located just a few blocks from me!—called Winston & Tee Express Jerk Chicken, a non-"sit in" place that only does takeout and delivery.
After a friend of a friend also recommended the place to me yesterday—without prompting—I figured I'd try the my first jerk chicken dish in quite a well, ordering a small lunch platter of it , served with some rice, peas and fried plantains. Add one Jamaican-style beef patty and one chicken patty to cover the $10 delivery minimum, and I had a hot lunch at my front door within 10 minutes.
It had been a while since I had jerk chicken, but this was tasty enough to satisfy my curiosity and my palette. The tender chicken was nicely seasoned and slow-cooked patiently to make for some very tender chicken, replete with the flavors of its island seasoning, even rendering the small percent of the chicken's fattier parts into wonderfully chewable morsels. The rice was nicely aromatic and the sole but oversized, thick slice of plantain was comfortably "toothsome", nicely caramelized without being overly sweet.
The patties of the much more common variety. Being that that's I've usually ever had them, I could enjoy, at least, the "comfort food" nostalgia that it imparted, satisfying in both the aggressively spiced, minced meat filling and the flaky, golden pastry. The one major downfall was that the chicken patty had less than half of the filling than the beef did, and was a bit more pasty.
Adding another "safety" destination place to my neighborhood of culinary exotica, I look forward to regarding more fellow food bloggers as informed travel agents (like when my friend, DMANBURGER, helped book my a flight to Naples, by way of Upper East Side newbie, Tiella) in the future.
Bun Apple Tea!
.kac.
Winston & Tee Express Jerk Chicken | 1257 Park Ave. (at 97th St.) | 212.860.6831 | On Menupages
