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Forever Yum
The venerable La Veranda looks (and tastes) great for its age.
-Maxine Keyser

November 7-13, 2002

food

Who Cares What's on TV?

by Elisa Ludwig

I got word of Germantown’s newest Jamaican eatery, K&J, from a trusted source who shares my affinity for ackee (the tropical fruit often served in Jamaica with saltfish). Delighting in the good news, I went out to visit as soon as I could. From out in the metered parking lot the restaurant shares with the post office next door, we could smell chicken being jerked, barbecued and coaxed into all sorts of delicious permutations.

Across K&J's small, informal dining room is the glass booth where orders are taken and where food, once it is unceremoniously scooped out from stainless steel bins into Styrofoam containers, can be purchased for both in-house and take-out dining. Entrees come in mini, small and large portions (the mini is ample for one, while the large makes for a couple meals -- that is, unless you are a compulsive plantain eater).

I Am Sam was on the television when we visited; while Michelle Pfeiffer earnestly pleaded for justice, we eagerly dove into our steaming mounds of dinner. We sampled jerk chicken, rightly the hallmark of any decent Caribbean kitchen. The K&J version was all scotch bonnet pepper and piquant vinegar -- good for the macho wing-sucker but perhaps a bit disappointing for those of us who enjoy a more complex jerk flavor. But the sides made for lovely and mild contrasts: rice and peas, moist with coconut milk, and cabbage sauteed to a buttery meltingness with carrots and onions.

Brown stew chicken seamlessly unified a near-Asian mixture of soy sauce and green pepper. A side of dumpling, a sticky and dense doughball, and its accompanying starchy friends yam and green banana soaked up the excess sauce. By the time I got a mouthful of oxtail stew, flavor-heightened by tomato paste and bacon, its tender meat complemented by soft butter beans, I must admit Sean Penn's performance was the least of my concerns. (I never did get to the saltfish, but I'll be heading back for breakfast one of these days.)