Miss Mac takes a break

Image by Unlisted Sightings via Flickr

After nearly 20 years of running one of the best Jamaican restaurants in North Jersey, Parlet McLeod has bowed out and leased the Hackensack business to another operator. She also has stopped baking her wedding cakes, which contained fruit soaked in Jamaican overprooof rum for three months.


Not far away from the former Mac West Indian Restaurant on Central Avenue, a new Trinidadian restaurant has opened in what was once the home of Laurel Restaurant, but the new owner's awning and sign are not up yet. I went searching for Kaskadoo on Saturday morning, but didn't have the address, and my hunger pangs drove me to eat breakfast at what is now Maxx Caribbean Cuisine.


I sat at the counter of Maxx and ordered cabbage and salt fish, with boiled green banana and fried dumplings, and the woman who served me gave me the news about McLeod, who was known to one and all in the Jamaican community as Miss Mac. She opened Mac West Indian in 1991 and operated it with her son Junior, leasing it out in January. My breakfast was $7 with two cups of coffee and tax.


On the way home, I stopped at Laurel Restaurant to pick up a menu and discovered that it was now Kaskadoo (named for a fish). I returned for dinner with my wife. We had a large stewed king-fish dinner ($12) and a shrimp roti ($8) with side dishes, but the food was served warm, not hot, after a long delay.


The food in Trinidad, as in Jamaica, is influenced by the many Asian Indians who have lived there, so my wife's side dishes included chickpeas and potato with a hint of curry. Roti is an unleavened bread or pancake with various fillings, such as shrimp, vegetables and so forth, but Kaskadoo serves its roti deconstructed. 


My side dishes were spinach rice, macaroni pie and stewed pumpkin.

Kaskadoo's menu lists intriguing items, including a breakfast bake 'n shark, an entree of pelau and a side dish called bodhi, so more exploration might be in order. I just wish the service was faster and the food hotter.

Maxx Caribbean Cuisine, 207 Central Ave., Hackensack; 

201-343-6443

Kaskadoo Trinidadian Cuisine, 189 Central Ave.,

Hackensack; 201-343-4305.

(Photo: A mouth-watering restaurant sign.)

The sunnier side of breakfast

For a change of pace, me and my wife enjoyed a rib-sticking Jamaican breakfast today at Mac West Indian Restaurant on Central Avenue, just a few blocks from Hackensack City Hall. It's now past noon and I'm still pleasantly full.

I had sauteed cabbage and saltfish (salted cod) with boiled green bananas and sweet plantains. My wife had liver in gravy with the same side dishes. My dumpling was boiled (dough, water and salt), hers was fried (dough, water and a little sugar). We also shared a bowl of collaloo and saltfish, which I should have chosen for my entree, because the leafy green contained more fish than the cabbage did.

Unfortunately, the restaurant didn't have ackee (a bland fruit) for the breakfast often called Jamaica's national dish, ackee and saltfish. It also was out of breadfruit, which is baked and then steamed or fried.

Each breakfast was $7, plus $1 for a small pot of coffee or herbal mint tea. The bowl of collaloo was $4.50. Even though I visited Jamaica in August, the all-inclusive RIU Montego Bay Hotel's limited menu of native dishes left me yearning for more. Today's breakfast really hit the spot.

Two thumbs down on Bahama Breeze

If you're looking for an authentic taste of the islands, steer clear of Bahama Breeze, a chain restaurant that was awarded two stars today by The Record of Hackensack.

The dishes described in the review barely resemble the real thing and some of the signature dishes of The Bahamas, Jamaica and other islands don't seem to be served at all.

Where, for example, is the incredible conch salad served at open-air restaurants and everywhere else in Nassau, where the mollusk is chopped finely and served with lime juice and hot peppers that will leave your lips tingling? Where is the wonderful steamed fish with okra you find in Jamaica (and this okra is cooked beautifully, with no slime)? Where is the smoked and chopped jerk chicken and pork?

Bahama Breeze serves beef patties with a fruit salsa (yech). Ribs are bathed in a guava barbecue sauce, not rubbed with a mixture of lip-smacking spices. And there is dulce de leche cheesecake, just what all us weight-watchers need.

If you're looking for good Caribbean food, there are several ethnic places in North Jersey that are far more satisfying. Try Mac West Indian Restaurant on Central Avenue or Casual Habana Cafe on Main Street, both Hackensack; and Ashanti's International Cuisine on Englewood Avenue in Englewood. Ashanti, which is mainly take-out, prepares steamed fish with okra and jerk chicken and pork on some days.