Week of November 26, 2009, Issue #736
DISH
A YAH MI DEH JAMAICAN RESTAURANT AND BAKERY
Oasis in a cold climate: A Yah Mi Deh provides warmth and comfort, especially when the weather turns
L.S Vors / vors@vueweekly.com
The sky is that heavy, chalky white that hints ominously of snow. The cuisine of a balmier locale is an easy and tempting escape from windswept sidewalks and naked trees that reach skyward with skeletal branches. Preferably cuisine that sings with spices, savoury flatbreads and tropical fruits. Cuisine that is found on a nondescript stretch of 118 Avenue, sandwiched between never-ending road construction and a Bollywood movie shop. Like a tropical island in a chilly sea, this avenue boasts A Yah Mi Deh Jamaican Restaurant and Bakery.
We are a bit concerned when we arrive because the restaurant is empty and, curiously, there is no lingering scent of food in the air. Several large whiteboards list the house specialties, Caribbean specialties including jerk chicken or pork, oxtail soup and curries featuring various meats including goat. A cooler boasts an impressive array of tropical fruit juices and exotic pop, spanning pineapple, soursop, guava and papaya. An unfailingly polite young man takes our order at the front; after minor deliberation, we choose jerk chicken ($12.50) and curry goat ($11), with sides of fried dumplins (75 cents each) and roti ($4).
The dining room is sunny yellow, with framed portraits of Bob Marley, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama smiling benevolently down on impeccably tidy, functional tables and chairs. I'm drinking pineapple-ginger juice ($3), the inherent acidity of the fruit balanced by zippy ginger. My friend's pineapple pop ($2) is remarkably subtle; the carbonation is minimal and the flavour is gentle, neither saccharine nor tart. Suddenly, the enticing scent of cooking erupts from the kitchen, a bouquet of spices filling the air. Two enormous plates appear at our table, cradling enough food to serve at least four.
I break off a piece of dumplin to drag through the curry goat sauce. The dumplins are tennis ball-sized pieces of fried dough: crisp and the colour of butterscotch on the outside, steaming and tender on the inside, bespeaking the heavenly marriage of bread dough and the deep-fryer. Goat meat has a propensity to be strong, and in the wrong hands can taste musky or even soapy, yet here the meat is sweet and fork-tender, bathed in rich golden curry with notes of turmeric, allspice and a fiery assertion of scotch bonnet peppers. The jerk chicken is abundant—half a chicken, reclining in a chestnut-coloured pool of sauce. The velvety sauce evolves with every bite: first sweet, then rising spice that climaxes in a burst of heat. The roti, a descendent of Indian flatbreads by the same name, is arranged like an elaborately layered handkerchief, with little brown spots that hint of the skillet. It is the ideal vessel for mopping up sauces, picking up pieces of meat, and simply devouring on its own.
A much smaller whiteboard tells of mango, coconut and pineapple ice cream, but we are beyond stuffed. Only my dislike of public humiliation keeps me from licking my plate. A meal here is generous, delicious and quite reasonable—dinner for two plus beverages was $27. A sudden influx of diners fills the sunny room, and outside the sky grows progressively darker, fine rain falls and a gust of wind sends dead leaves skittering down the sidewalk. The combination of tropical flavours and oppressive weather makes it difficult to leave, so I sit a while longer in this oasis of sunshine and spice. V
Tue (12 pm – 7 pm); Wed – Thu (12 pm – 8 pm); Fri – Sat (12 pm – 9 pm)
A Yah Mi Deh Jamaican Restaurant and Bakery
4435 - 118 Ave, 780.479.1900
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