I’m squarely among area denizens who’d surely like to see some more variety in the restaurant scene in Crown Heights.  But, I’ve also not gone hungry living here either.  In fact, while watching “Gourmet: Diary of a Foodie” a couple of weeks ago, I began thinking that Crown Heights might actually be a “food lover’s paradise”.  Then, lo and behold, just a couple of days ago, a foodie blog – Mouth of the Border – published an article entitled “A Walk Through the West Indies – Via Crown Heights Restaurants” exploring our local cuisine (actually the author was in PLG, not Crown Heights but it’s still a good read).

Yes, at first glance these restaurants appear homogeneous.  However, similar to fine wines, Crown Height’s Caribbean restaurants exude subtle and not-so-subtle differences, which become more apparent as one gets acquainted with these various cuisines (and if you’re lucky, the islands themselves).

For instance, you will probably find the best jerk dishes at a Jamaican restaurant.  And reflecting their respective histories, Haitian cuisine has stronger French influences while Trinidadian food has stronger South Asian influences.  So, for instance, I find that curry chicken in a Trini restaurant tastes more like the curry chicken that you would get in an Indian restaurant compared to curry chicken from, say, a Jamaican restaurant.  It’s a subtle difference, but discernible to a trained tongue.

Then you have an occasional outlier like the Chinese-Trini, Royal Palace Bakery & Restaurant, located on Sterling and Nostrand (and actually to me, it’s some of the tastiest Chinese food that you will find around here).   Trinidad actually has a very variegated history of colonization and immigration – so French, Spanish, African, Indian, and Chinese influences run through many of the dishes.  But for the most part most of these restaurants remain true to tradition, if not convention.

NP Suggestions:

Popularity: 19% [?]