Caribbean: West Indian American Day Parade via Crown Heights, Brooklyn – Part 1

West Indian American Day Parade in Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Subway: Grand Army Plaza 2,3, 4,5

Location: Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Every year on Labor Day (the first Monday in September), Crown Heights in Brooklyn hosts the West Indian Festival. For more on the parade and festival, check out this link. For the food portion, read on here.

Short and Bald have been meaning to go to this festival for years, and this September, we finally managed to get there. With nearly three million hungry mouths to feed, the food vendors all along Eastern Parkway, are kept busy all day. Unfortunately, the lines get longer and longer as the day goes on, so we only managed to try a couple of dishes.

Throughout the festival, Eastern Parkway is crammed full of stalls like this one offering all the typical Jamaican dishes like Jerk Chicken and Fish, Rice and Beans, Escovitch Fish, Spicy Fried chicken, Curry Shrimp, Curried Goat and Lamb, even Mac and Cheese!

First off, we decided to try these codfish pancakes for $2 each.

Short: They were delicious!

Bald: They reminded me a bit of the vegetable fritters mum used to make. Light, but very flavorsome, and at $2, pretty good value!

Jerk cooking is a Jamaican style of cooking that usually uses pork, chicken, fish or sausage. First, the meat is covered in a dry-rub or marinade (usually very hot and spicy.)

Then, it is barbequed over aromatic wood, charcoal or, nowadays, briquettes. Like most Jamaican dishes, it draws on some very potent flavors like allspice, Scotch bonnet peppers and cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, thyme, garlic and scallions.

Bald: This is Jerk Chicken ($5), and it was moist and full of spicy goodness!

Short: I love the crispy, chewy bits on the outside, and the mouth-watering juices.

Escovitch Fish is another dish native to Jamaica. They usually use whole, medium sized Snapper, Grount or Parrot Fish. Like Jerk dishes, this recipe involves Scotch bonnet peppers, onions and pimentos for spicy flavor.

The fish is sliced deeply before cooking, and salt, pepper and garlic are rubbed into the flesh. It is then cooked quickly in shallow oil and the cooked peppers, onions and pimentos are poured over the top.

Short: It looks a bit dried out, but it wasn’t chewy at all. There was lots of flavor and the meat was smoky, and delicious! And actually, still quite moist.

Bread is a popular staple in West Indian countries and it sure helps mop up the juicy spices of the rubs.

Bald: We really enjoyed both these dishes. The skin of the fish was crispy and lip-smacking good.

Short: And the chicken was very nice too. We must try some Jerk chicken at home.

Bald: I’ve known some chickens who were REAL jerks, let me tell you.

You don’t often find street food as good and tasty as this!

Can’t go to ANY New York street festival without finding corn on the cob. This was only $2.00 a piece and it was moist, sweet and smoky.

This is a traditional Jamaican drink called Sorrel. Sorrel is made from dried sorrel, dried ginger, sugar and allspice (pimento). At the festival, they were selling this by the bucketful (large cups for $3) and we soon saw why.

Short: It’s really refreshing and sweeeeeeet. The perfect drink for cooling down on a hot afternoon. And what a great color!

Bald: It tasted alcoholic, but apparently it wasn’t, just the way the spices and ginger sort of ferment together. We’re sure they must add rum sometimes, but not today. Boy, could I use a rum right now – a dark and stormy, perhaps? Where’s our dark and stormy English friend, Yomi?

Curried goat, anyone? Goat is popular in Jamaica, usually in curried stews. This stand offered platters of curried goat, chicken, rice and plantains for $10.

Short: We were a bit disappointed with this meal. The goat was bony and not very flavorsome. And the rice was just boring…

Bald: Yeah. And the plantains were sweet, but super oily. But, I guess you can’t win ‘em all.

It seemed as though they’d used some really poor cuts of goat and not really spent much time flavoring it. But, when you’re cooking for 3 million, there probably isn’t a lot of time to let the meat sit and absorb flavor.

Bald: What time is it, Short?

Short: It’s time for dessert, wouldn’t you say, Bald?

This was a layered yellow cake with walnuts ($3).

Short: Just what I was in the mood for! CAKE!

Short: Second dessert?

Bald: But of course! Not exactly Jamaican, but who can resist a plastic bag full of fructose syrup and artificial food coloring!

Short: You’re so romantic, Bald!

We really had a fun time at the West Indian Festival. Hope you did too! See you next time.

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