Monica's Caribbean & Hungarian Restaurant

For fans of Jamaican jerk chicken, Monica's Caribbean Food may very well be the Holy grail. this quaint storefront on E. 185th Street serves what may seem an incongruous pairing of cuisines, namely, Caribbean and Hungarian. But apart from chicken paprikash, most of the small menu is devoted to the hot and spicy foods of the islands. From her tiny kitchen, Monica whips up mean versions of chicken curry, beef curry and, on the weekends, goat curry. The laundry list of spices and peppers in the jerk chicken tropical stew, includes allspice, cinnamon, ginger, and scotch bonnet peppers, results in a wonderfully flavored, deliciously moist chicken. The restaurant is well known for its ethnic diversity, and this combination is something else.