Best of 2000: Best Jamaican Food

Fargo's Bar-B-Q/Jamaican Cuisine
6171 Imperial Avenue, Encanto
(619) 262-0201

It's in a drab row of shops against a clay cliff with a trailer park on top. Inside, with the spicy meaty smells and the huge brick and iron fire pit, is Jacinth Williams. Jacinth says he was a friend of Bob Marley's and of just about all the "royalty" from the island whose name -- Jamaica -- means "hibiscus flower." Ask for national dishes like curried goat and yam ($7.50 for a "small" serving, $9.50 for a large). Or the "jerk chicken," which is as Jamaican as it gets, roasted, flipped ("jerked"), spiced, and chopped up. Also $8 and $9.50. Or "escoveitched" fish, deep-fried, drained of its fat, then simmered in a lemon-based fish sauce (same prices). For drinks, seek out Jamaican Irish Moss, Cream Soda, ginger beer, sorrel (a hibiscus drink), Cola Champagne, or "Ting," the number-one drink in Jamaica. Or Roots Drink. "It's an aphrodisiac. Lion roots, sarsaparilla, strongback, ginseng," Williams says. "And this Irish Moss? Oh, brother! It's made from roots from the bottom of the ocean. Jamaican men drink that to help them make babies."