A Taste of the Caribbean

Mmm..sometimes being a graduate student isn't so bad! Rackham had a Food for Thought event today with the aim of introducing students to Caribbean food. Of course graduate students love food- especially the free variety- so tons of us registered and showed up for this event that promised us dinner lol. I've never had Caribbean food before so I didn't know what to expect. I have to say I absolutely <3ed the jerk chicken...mmm....but let me first describe what we were offered.

The night was catered by Irie, a Caribbean restaurant in nearby Canton, MI. The owner is Jamaican so I imagine that the food might be more Jamaican than any other Caribbean cuisine, but I might be wrong :X Anyhow, we had rice and peas, curried goat, curried chicken, curried vegetables, jerk chicken, fried plantains, and cut pineapple. The jerk chicken was SO GOOOD. OMG DELICIOUS. The owner gave a short talk about the food before we all stampeded over to the tables and he said that they used 20+ spices in the marinade for the chicken and let it marinate overnight before sticking into the oven (I think he said you can also grill it). SO DELICIOUS. That and the fried plantains and I was set for the night. Someday I'll have to figure out a good jerk spice combination and make my own...and fry me some plantains. mmm plantains.