I am quite often called a jerk (mainly by Mrs. SF and J) and when I go to Caribbean restaurants (a rarity I have to say) or cook Caribbean food (even more of a rarity), my go to dish tends to be jerk (chicken). There are, of course, many, many, other standard dishes in any Caribbean restaurant’s repertoire including goat curry (another favourite), callaloo, salt fish and achee (never tried) and brown stew.

The latter sounds on the face of it rather  beige, with brown anything generally not a great marker of anything good. I mean brown bread (rightly rhyming slang for you’re dead) and brown rice are shxte. Honestly I don’t think anyone (outside of a hippy commune, with it being about as popular as the UK’s Eurovision entry in the great rice based cuisines) willing eats the latter (I would only do so if threatened with waterboarding and thumbscrews), whilst I am convinced the former is one of the main reasons for the impending downfall of the Anglosphere. No sensible civilisation eats brown bread and any civilisation that does is doomed – I am pretty sure the fall of the ancient Persian and Greek Empires was pre – empted by someone saying ” Hey how about using bran, you know the shxte the goats won’t eat, to make our pitas“.

The brown theme brings me to SR Restaurant and Catering in Riverside, Cardiff, which seems to have build up a pretty good reputation for solid (mainly takeaway) Jamaican food, a place I have wanted to try for a while.

The menu has all the classics on it,

at seemingly pretty reasonable prices.

Wanted to break out for my usual (being a) jerk or goat curry order, I decided to go beige and ordered the brown stew chicken.

Big ole portion this, with chicken on the bone (lots of bones, some quite splintered which seems to be a Caribbean thing, so care was required), a load of rice and beans and some steamed veg.

The chicken was beautifully tender,

with the merest nudge from the fork leading to it falling away from the bone.  The sauce (a very rich, dark, brown colour) had a pleasing mix of herb (thyme), sweetness (caramelised sugar), spice (allspice, ginger and maybe a pinch of paprika) and saltiness (from a slug, I would say, of soy).  All melded together to give a pleasing umami hit. 

What I didn’t really get was much in the way of chilli heat. I was expecting a bit of Scotch bonnet ferocity, but any chilli in there was very much background heat (toned down for my whimpy Western palate, I wonder?).

The rice was nicely seasoned, with well cooked beans, but was (at least to my tastes) just a little lacking on the coconut front. I added some of the hot sauce on the table.

Steamed pepper, cabbage and carrots seemed to have had some vinegar added to the mix, which actually bought a welcome touch of acidity.

On the drinks front, they just do cans

and I went for a Ting.

Can’t go wrong with the grapefruit hit you get from one of these (and it felt less sickly than the artificial sweetener – give it 10 years and these will undoubtedly be found to be about as good for you as polonium – loaded sodas that are the norm these days).

The verdict

All in all a meal I enjoyed, with the brown stew far from being beige on the flavour front.

I regret not getting a patty to take away, but there is always next time

Interesting to see what the other dishes are like, with the chap sat across from me very much enjoying his soup. I was completely mystified by the patois banter he had with the owner. Probably along the lines of “Who’s the berk not having the jerk!!“

It is fair to say it is set up for takeaway, with sit in a quick rather than lingering affair. Great if you are in need of a quick lunch or dinner (before or after a game or concert at the nearby “whatever they call it this week” stadium).

Details

All in photo below: