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Caribbean kitchen

Jerk Hut

Kimberton Road, Plot P5

A long, low red-brick takeaway with a bottle-green hooked roof band and a JERK HUT sign, seen from its rear corner at the car-park end: a patio of tables by the glazed west end, the yellow height gantry beyond, and a hedge and railing along the terrace.

The other half of the drive-thru on Kimberton Road, and by some distance the better-smelling half. Jerk Hut takes the west end of the building, next to the car park: the same hooked roof band as Burger Boss next door, but in bottle green, with JERK in yellow and HUT in red across the sign and CARIBBEAN KITCHEN on the totem out front. The two roofs meet over the party wall under a single rib, which is about as close as the two businesses get.

The whole drive-thru building from Kimberton Road: a tall black totem sign on the verge, the navy Burger Boss end nearest, the green Jerk Hut end beyond, and a yellow height gantry over the lane.
Both halves from the road. Jerk Hut is the green end, by the car park.

Its door is round the side, on the west end, and opens onto a patio of tables looking over the car park, so you come in past people eating rather than past the traffic. Inside, the floor is warm wood where next door has tiles, and there is the same long counter with three menu screens over it and a kitchen behind that never seems to stop.

The board is headed FROM THE GRILL, and every plate comes with rice and peas. Half a jerk chicken is £11.50, curry goat £12.50 and oxtail £14.50, and ackee and saltfish comes with fried dumplings for £11.00. A jerk chicken wrap is £8.00 if you are eating on the move. Under SIDES & PATTIES, a beef patty is £2.50 and fried plantain £3.50. DI BIG DEAL is jerk chicken, rice and peas and a ginger beer for £13.50: belly full, heart glad.

The jerk comes chopped through the bone, glossy and blackened, in a white polystyrene box with the rice and peas heaped in the other half. The patty is the proper turmeric yellow with a fork-crimped edge, and the plantain comes in its own little black pot, cut on the slant and fried until the edges catch.

A gold tray with a printed patois liner, holding a white polystyrene box of rice and peas with blackened jerk chicken, a turmeric-yellow patty and a black pot of fried plantain.
Half a jerk chicken with rice & peas, a patty, and plantain in its own pot.

The trays are gold, and the paper liner is written in patois from top to bottom. AUNTIE PEARL RULES open with Auntie Pearl always right. Even when she wrong, she right, and go on to explain that the jerk recipe is locked up in Auntie Pearl’s head and that the pepper sauce is not ketchup. There is a Patois 101 (soon come: any time between now and Tuesday), a badge making it plain that there is no ganja smoking in the restaurant, and one anonymous review which reads, in full, Better dan di burger place next door. Sorry, Boss.

The kitchen opens at noon and shuts at half ten, and the YouChew riders collect from the counter all afternoon. Gary from Radworth, who reviews everything on this road, reports that the pepper sauce is hot like fire. He still cannot feel his lips.

There were no Jamaican food models to buy anywhere, so the jerk, the patty and the plantain were modelled for the game from reference photos. The plantain pot was the suggestion of someone who has clearly queued at a few Caribbean takeaways.

The tray liner

Written in patois from top to bottom, with Auntie Pearl’s rules, a glossary for the uninitiated and two old-time sayings.

A Jerk Hut paper tray liner headed WAH GWAAN, KIMBERTON ROAD: AUNTIE PEARL RULES, DI BIG DEAL at 13.50 pounds, a PATOIS 101 glossary of ten words, customer reviews, OLD TIME SAYINGS, and a badge of a leaf in a red circle reading NO GANJA SMOKING ALLOWED IN THE RESTAURANT.

Tap it to read the small print.

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