Tropical Troy
By B.A. Nilsson

First Choice Caribbean Cuisine

451 Fulton St., Troy, 272-4544. Serving lunch Mon-Fri 11:30-2, dinner Mon-Sat 11-9. MC, V.

Cuisine: Jamaican inspired

Entrée price range: $7.50 (tripe and beans) to $15 (snapper)

Ambiance: beachside joint

First of all, the lunch buffet is one of the best values in town. For $5.50 you get a choice of jerk or curried chicken, or a robust chicken stew, peas and rice, steamed cabbage, fried plantain and a vegetarian dish like ital stew (mixed vegetables cooked with plantains in coconut milk). The buffet runs from 11:30 to 2:30.

The dining room is casual, with a dozen or so tables and booths in the cheerful space, its ambiance livened by reggae and the many images of Bob Marley on the walls.

We get along with others much better when we dine at their tables. This isn’t simply true of otherness characterized by ethnic or geographical differences: I dine often with known conservatives and thus maintain close friendships with them.

When seeking to understand other countries, nothing bridges cultural and philosophical gaps like good cuisine. We all enjoy what’s satisfying and delicious, and shared food engenders shared trust. So why is it that college students tend to be the best gustatory ambassadors? Is there a hidden food mandate in the American Dream, something on the order of: Graduate, Get a Job, Settle Down, Henceforth Eat Only Hamburgers and Pizza?

In the three years that Ricardo Brown has been running First Choice Caribbean in downtown Troy, he’s noticed that business slows a little during the summer when the students go home.

Nevertheless, there was business afoot during my couple of recent visits, including some customers clearly unfamiliar with the cuisine but willing to take a chance on the affordable buffet. Brown was happy to help, pointing out what was what and explaining how it was made.

He’s a native of Jamaica who has a hand both in the kitchen and in running the floor, and who likes to keep that personal touch part of the restaurant’s identity. “We make our own jerk seasoning,” he says, referring to the pungent blend that combines the heat of Scotch bonnet peppers with the sweetness of nutmeg and allspice.

It’s a seasoning—and cooking style—thought to have originated with the Cormantees, the runaway slaves of the islands, in conjunction with an Arawak Indian method of preparing pork. And pork was, at first, the favorite meat for this process, first bathed in the seasoned marinade, then cooked in an earthen pit. Now it’s a recipe applied with equal success to chicken and other meat, and the chicken at First Choice sports an excellent mix of flavors that adds just enough fire to keep it lively without searing your lips.

The chicken curry, on the other hand, leans in the milder direction, although there’s no lack of flavor complexity. My young daughter, whose spicy food tolerance threshold is growing ever more accommodating, named both dishes as favorites (and would dine here daily, given the chance).

You can get chicken wings here ($5.75), or a cheeseburger ($3.50) or even a plate of fish and chips ($6). But why bother? For $9 you can enjoy a jerk chicken dinner, which comes with peas and rice and a salad. (Keep in mind that “peas” is a term for beans, “red peas” for kidney beans.)

A variety of beef cuts are on the menu, including pepper steak ($11), stew beef ($8.50), roast beef ($12) and some variety cuts like tripe and beans ($7.50) and oxtail ($10). I’m quoting the full dinner prices, by the way; most of these items are available without salad and a side for a dollar or two less, and those that make it to the lunch menu are less expensive still.

Traditional jerk pork is available at both lunch ($5.50) and dinner ($8.50). I made a point of trying the curried goat ($5.50/$9) because it’s a meat I haven’t enjoyed in a while and I was pleased to be reminded of its inherent sweetness, a nice compliment to the complicated spice mixture surrounding it.

Don’t forget the seafood offerings: Your generic fish dinner is $12; if you make it snapper, you’ll pay $15. Curried shrimp is $11.

Another signature dish is callaloo ($9), a thick soup based on the large, heart-shaped leaves of the dasheen plant, which also has a tuber that can go into a mix that also includes carrots, onions, salted beef and a bunch of okra, all of it cooked in coconut milk.

Obviously, one of the benefits of a meal here besides the good food is that sense of dining in an exotic locale. True, there aren’t any palm trees or ocean-scented breezes to enhance your tropical experience, but I can guarantee that you’ll be a little disoriented when you open the door at your dinner’s end and find that it’s only downtown Troy staring you in the face.

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