Are you a foodie on the go? Read up on Stacey’s previous reviews from Culinary Adventures in New York here.



For my jerk chicken culinary adventure, I asked my friend Allison for a recommendation near her apartment in the Caribbean neighborhood of Flatbush.  On Friday evening, she took me for a walk down Church Avenue, which brought back a vivid memory of my first racial “confrontation” in New York.  A while ago, I was walking down that same stretch of Church Avenue with four other indie-nerdy skinny white friends.  A black dude walks by us and sneers loudly to his posse, “THAT’S gentrification, BOYS…”

This time, there was no such incident.  After passing the tiny storefront by accident, we went back to stop in Fisherman’s Cove, on the corner of Church and Flatbush Avenues.  It was just a counter, no seating, and was crowded with hungry, talkative patrons.  I ordered a small portion of jerk chicken, which was five dollars flat.

And then, the bad news.  They were out of delicious plantains.  Really?  Friday night at seven o’clock?  The woman at the counter didn’t seem too fazed, and the exceedingly casual vibe suggested that this kind of happens all the time.  I tried to stay strong and not show my utter dismay.  We still got the chicken over rice with beans and a little lettuce salad.

After waiting for a few minutes, they handed me my meal in a Styrofoam container (sorry environment!) to pour on as much or little jerk sauce as I liked.  We walked back to Allison’s to eat (if you don’t live in the area, it’s about a half a mile to the southeast corner of Prospect Park) tossed the utensils, cracked open beers and ate with our hands.  The chicken had a substantial crisp on the outside, and the jerk sauce was tangy but not too spicy for me.  The white meat was cut into bone-in chunks, and was surprisingly moist, given how long it must have been cooked.  The rice and beans were good but not exceptional.

This trip definitely satisfied my craving for jerk chicken, but due to the mediocre service and mediocre side dishes, I’m not absolutely sold on Fisherman’s Cove.  I’d go again, but not before trying some place new.

Stacey Shapiro is a language, travel, food and dance enthusiast living in Brooklyn, New York.  She’s working on memorizing the subway map on a series of culinary explorations through the five boroughs.

Read more posts by Stacey

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 1:13 PM and is filed under Community Interest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.