Cafe Trinidad 557 E. 75th | 773-846-8081
This superfriendly family-run enterprise traffics in the flavors of Trinidad, which have been influenced over the centuries by African, East Indian, Creole, Syrian, Lebanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese cooks. “Brown down” stews—begun with a caramelized sugar base—and rich, spicy curries dress slow-cooked meats like jerk chicken, goat, beef, and oxtails and are accompanied by rice and pigeon peas. Alternatively, most of these can be ordered wrapped in a fresh fried roti, a circle of soft flatbread that can withstand a considerable portion bulked up with a mild potato-and-chickpea curry. Fat, snappy shrimp popped under the tooth, and curry crab and dumplings were similarly fresh. These all came with a choice of filling sides—sweet potatoes, callaloo, red beans and rice, collards, macaroni pie, plantains. The bright, sparkling space adorned with Trinidadian flags and lively with island tunes has a lot of nice house-made touches like the sweet and deadly Scotch-bonnet hot sauce and drinks like mauby, an unforgiving, bitter, and debatably restorative cold infusion made from the steeped bark of the carob tree. I had more appreciation for the sweet, bracing, and uncontroversially refreshing ginger beer, or sorrel, a fruity purple punch brewed from the hibiscus blossom. —Mike Sula
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Beef pies—flaky packets stuffed with mildly spiced ground beef—are the real draw at this large Rogers Park bakery, and there’s frequently a crowd of customers awaiting a fresh batch; flat, white coco bread is meant to accompany the pies. Most of the other island-inspired offerings here are sweet: bulla (spice cake), totoes (coconut buns), spice buns, and yellow cake. This is a temporary location while the bakery’s facility at 1539 W. Howard is renovated; the owner hopes to return soon. —Laura Levy Shatkin
This budget-chic storefront across from the drab gray facade of an Evanston Police Department outpost serves moist, succulent jerk chicken and pork with some of the best smoke flavor you can get on the north side—no wonder the counterman wasn’t giving up any trade secrets. There are all the Jamaican standards here—brown stew chicken, curry goat, oxtail, cow foot, and red snapper, served en escabeche or steamed—and I just might hike up again to try the fish-tea or cow-skin soup (“very chewy,” said the counterman, comfortable disclosing that much). There’s now wine and beer on offer in addition to juices and smoothies including the Iron Man (carrots, beets, and ginger), the Lady Love (cucumber juice and ginger), and, inevitably, the One Love (carrot, apple, and ginger). —Kate Schmidt
Jamaica Jerk
2806 W. Lake | 773-533-5375
