Cold city, warm soul food at Jamaican Homestyle Cuisine

• Name + address: Jamaican Homestyle Cuisine

• Type of food: Jamaican

• Appetizers/sides: $3.50-$8.50

• Mains: $10-$20

• Diet: Gluten free, modest vegetarian selection

• Wheelchair accessibility: No

• LCBO Licensed: No

• Website: Jamaican Homestyle Cuisine

It’s always good to hear from folks who have appetites that are always seeking out what’s good in our city. Island cooking may be a more modest cuisine in terms of what’s generally available in Canada, but those flavours can be crave-inducing.

So when I heard that Jamaican Homestyle Cuisine was producing “doubles,” I just had to check it out. Unfortunately I would be disappointed, as they weren’t available on my recent visit.

Doubles are small rounds of chewy turmeric seasoned bread filled with mild or spicy cooked chickpeas. In my Toronto days they were seemingly available everywhere and under a buck a pop, they were a nutritious snack on a university student budget. I have nothing but fond memories.

Cook and owner Maxine Dwyer broke the bad “doubles” news to me. They once had someone making the dough for them but no longer. Now Maxine is working on recipes so that she can re-introduce them to her menu.

Since I was already out in Orléans, I needed to content myself with another favourite: oxtail. It’s fairly common in German cooking and I’ve never lost my love for it.

In the Jamaican tradition it’s often done with jerk seasoning where even the mild version carries a little bit of heat. Jerk is easy enough to make at home and includes minced onion, thyme, cayenne, allspice, cinnamon to name a few ingredients.

Maxine’s iteration was different. I detected no spice heat but it was slow cooked in a deep brown and unctuous gravy. Oxtail has a ton of collagen and my lips were sticky with the stuff. The oxtail was supremely tender and the gravy was particularly delicious slathered over the rice and peas. Peas being the synonym for some type of bean.

At Jamaican Homestyle they use the dried versions of either pinto or navy beans. This allows for more control in the end result. Tinned beans will be more mushy and give a less satisfying texture contrast against the rice. Maxine’s recipe also uses coconut milk, which may be common but it was new to me and I chalk it up as one of the nicer versions I’ve had.

The accompanying plantain was nicely soft and caramelized. I do enjoy it when you feel that you want to slurp plantain.

The cabbage looked as if it were a classic island slaw but it was warm and mildly seasoned and had the shock effect of startling the palate as when you’ve been drinking beer but find that you’ve just had a swig of cola.

The jerk chicken was also rather mild suggesting that Maxine makes her own jerk sauce. It came with the same sides and while delicious, it was a little too dry.

Maxine and her daughter are giving locals a well executed taste of the islands at fair prices.

On this trip a few items were not available but I expect that to be remedied and I look forward to other visits in the new year.