Caribbean Food in Jax

There are more Caribbean Restaurants in the Jacksonville area than you'd think.
This week, I had to do a sidebar listing of as many Caribbean/Island eateries as I possibly could.

This was a tougher assignment than you might think.

First of all, half these places aren't even in the phone book. I know I missed some--like Rosetta's, because I didn't have time to drive out there and they never answered their phone.

Although I did travel around the city some, mostly I used the phone to gather info. I tell you, there's nothing like a thick Jamaican accent to aid in the art of miscommunication. That wasn't the only issue though--here I was, using my standard procedure, saying "Can you fax me a menu?" and the answer I get is "Our fax machine is down right now." After about the fifth one, I realized that most of these tiny places probably didn't even have fax machines. I just thought it was funny that each person on the phone at different restaurants decided that it was better not to admit that they didn't own one.

Anyway, Da Real Ting has the best jerk chicken. Too bad they're not open during normal business hours. The place is more like a club, opening at 9 pm- 3 am on Fridays & Saturdays and from 7 pm- 11 pm on Sundays. The crowd there can seem a little shady, but the chicken's worth it, damn it! Also, it's not the cleanest place I've ever been. It's still worth it.

But, if you're out and about during the day, Caribbean Sunrise Bakery is a great place to eat genuine Caribbean. Most people get their stuff to-go but the place is fairly clean and well run. Lots of kids get their beef patties there after school. The jerk chicken is very good and the oxtail is properly cooked. You might have had really tough oxtail in the past, but that isn't the case here. When cooked correctly, for a long period of time in wet heat (braised or stewed) oxtail can have an incredible flavor.

There are some downsides, like the neighborhood is a bit rundown and you're likely, as we were, to be approached by a panhandler with a well-rehearsed tale of woe, in which he needs just a few dollars to get home/eat food/fix his car. The guy that talked to us needed $16. I guess he was adjusting for inflation.