The Jerk Pit

Before I left for Korea, my suitemate, Gi, and I wanted to have one last dinner together since we won't be able to see each other for about 6~7 months (when I return from Korea, she leaves for Rwanda). Initially we wanted to go to a Jamaican Korean restaurant near our university but turns out Gi's aunt's Jamaican restaurant, The Jerk Pit, was filming for a documentary and wanted us to visit. This was my first time trying Jamaican food. I especially wanted to try jerk chicken since I've heard raves on how good it is.

The restaurant is located in Chestnut Hill Hotel, roughly 30 minutes away from our campus by car. The restaurant is in a food court with many other ethnic restaurants. The seating is located outdoors near a parking lot with a fence partition in between. There is also a lot of greenery surrounding the long wooden tables and benches.

I ordered the jerk chicken with coconut rice and a ladle full of jerk sauce over the chicken. The chicken was really, really delicious. It was tender, flavorful, fragrant and smoky boneless cuts of meaty chicken with prominent spices. I am salivating and remembering the taste as I am writing this post. The chicken is marinated with thyme, onions, green onions, garlic, nutmeg, Scotch bonnet peppers, brown sugar, allspice/pimenta and cinnamon. The chicken reminded me of satay chicken (both equally as delicious).

The coconut rice was warm, fluffy and soft. I was afraid the rice would be sweet but to my relief it was perfect. It had a good amount of coconut flavor that balanced out the rich flavors of the meat.

I'm not a big fan of coleslaw but decided to try some of the mango coleslaw which paired really well with the chicken. It gave a nice crunch and some sweetness balancing out the strong flavors of the jerk marinade.

Overall all the ingredients and dishes balanced each other very well. The ambience of the outdoors was really nice. It was a great change from Philadelphia. The entire costed around $13 and I was very satisfied.