Midtown Lunch

Since I moved here from NYC two years ago I’ve been on the hunt for a replacement for my beloved Jamaican Dutchy, the Midtown cart that introduced me to the wonders of jerk chicken, curry goat, and most importantly stew peas.  The Kassava Truck was good while it lasted (it’s gone now), but I still can’t bring myself to go to their restaurant- mostly because it’s too expensive for ML purposes, but also because a little part of me is sure that great Jamaican food is not going to be found in the shadow of the Beverly Center.  Nope- for that your best bet is to head to Mid City where Carribbean restaurants dot Washington and Pico in a way that makes you wonder when the “Little Kingston” sign is going up.

Natraliart is the go to favorite in the neighborhood, but I was a bit underwhelmed on my one visit.  And it’s a bit too expensive.  So when Lunch’er Garrett pointed out this quick little mention of Kaboom on the blog Food GPS I was intrigued.  When I saw their prices, I was downright excited.

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Remember how excited I was to find real jerk chicken, stewed oxtails, and goat stew on the Kassava Truck back in April?  Well, apparently Los Angeles wasn’t as excited because the trucks are now gone, pulled off the street months ago.  Kassava the restaurant is still open over in Beverly Hills (8600 W. 3rd Street) but the trucks just weren’t making enough money to be worthwhile.   But that’s not the end of the story… last month the guy who ran the Kassava Trucks decided to strike out on his own, opening the Tropical Food Truck and parking it near 5858 Wilshire Blvd.  He’s also added some Haitian specialties to the menu, and claims that his mom is the chef of Kassava (and helps him cook the food) so the Jamaican stuff should be exactly the same as the original Kassava truck.

Clearly somebody was going to need to test this out.

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I found it hard to mask my disappointment when I tried the Reggae Jerk Chicken truck for the first time last month.  I was hoping for some real, down home Jamaican food from a truck (think: oxtails, stew peas, curry goat, and jerk chicken on the bone).  Instead, I was treated to a mall food court version Carribean food; boneless chicken chunks, covered in some sort of sweet sauce, served atop a white rice and black bean mixture.  I salvaged the meal by stuffing plantains into a jerk chicken burrito, but my quest for real Jamaican food from a truck was not satisfied… until yesterday, when I stumbled upon the one week old Kassava Truck on Miracle Mile.

That’s right!  A… new… truck.  (Actually, trucks. There are two of them.) What a shocker.  But before you roll your eyes and exclaim to the heavens “will this insanity ever end?!”, let me just say this: I stuffed my face at this truck yesterday (as a regular customer, not at some kind of “blogger preview”), and it was hands down one of the best meals from a truck I’ve had since moving to L.A. (especially if you like oxtail and goat.)

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Anybody who has ever moved from one great food city to another must know what I’m going through. When I moved from L.A. to New York 5 years ago, one of the first things I tried to do was find a replacement burrito for all the great ones I had left behind. (I failed.) And now that I’ve moved back, so much of my first few months of eating have been dedicated to finding replacement lunches for all my NYC favorites.  Thai food? That was easy. Pizza? Good enough. Ramen? Done and done.  The India Jones truck wasn’t quite the Kati Roll/Biriyani cart replacement I had hoped for, but their butter chicken more than made up for it.  But what about the Jamaican Dutchy?!  Where am I going to get my stew peas?  Hello Reggae Chicken Truck.

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