diverse from around the country ~ peace
 
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fr. the gazette, Guyanese cusine in Laurel Md.
 
 

Photos by Brenda Ahearn/The Gazette
Joseph and Susan Schauer of Aunt Susan's Kitchen display plates of beef patties, chicken patties and johnnycakes and a plate of jerk chicken.
 
 
Dining: Guyanese achieves childhood dream with restaurant,  Laurel's Aunt Susan's Kitchen specializes in Caribbean meals
 
Anyone who finds a way to make his or her dream a reality is lucky, but it takes a special talent to turn that passion into something that makes others happy.
 
The owners of Aunt Susan's Kitchen in Laurel have both: a passion for food and a talent for making it delicious enough to keep customers coming back for more.
 
"It's a lot of work, but it's doing what I love, and living in America a lot of Americans don't get to do what they love," said Susan Schauer, who runs the restaurant with her husband, Joseph Schauer. "I feel like I'm right where I need to be… I'm a strong believer [that] if you love what you do, you'll excel at doing it."
 
article continues here
 

http://www.gazette.net/stories/06042009/enteres135152_32524.shtml

 
 
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Haitian/Kreyol cuisine in the Los Angeles area
from the Times
 
 

Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times
The beef patti at Kassava Caribbean Cafe.
 
Kassava Caribbean cafe
 
No ticket needed. Just take a seat as three chefs from around the Caribbean prepare distinct dishes.
By Linda Burum
June 10, 2009
The sunny yellow bungalow that houses Kassava Caribbean cafe is a Chandler-esque remnant of an earlier L.A., a poignant contrast to the neighboring steel- and glass-fronted restaurants along 3rd Street and the monochromatic hulk of the Beverly Center nearby.
 
But the intriguing pull of this ambitious little restaurant extends beyond the charm of its palm frond-festooned patio. Kassava is run by three chefs, each from a different area of the Caribbean, and each provides a discrete expertise to assure that the restaurant's offerings are as polycultural as the islands themselves.
The French-influenced Haitian specialties prepared by Carmen Dagon, who maintains a following from her tenure at Chez Nous in Inglewood, are distinctly spiced from those of French-speaking Martinique, cooked by Vanessa Walkoviak. Jerk chicken and other Jamaican food -- with their own set of influences -- are turned out by chef Pedro Gil.
 
"The idea is to represent the Caribbean's regional flavors authentically," says co-owner and filmmaker Jean-Claude La Marre.
 
article continues here

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-find10-2009jun10,1,3743583.story
 
 
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in the  gainesville fla. area
 
 
 
Owner of the Reggae Shack Cafe, Omar Oselimo and his wife Arpita, pose in their restaurant at 619 West University Ave. The two display the jerk chicken meal, left, and the jerk chicken sandwich. Owner of the Reggae Shack Cafe, Omar Oselimo and his wife Arpita, pose in their restaurant at 619 West University Ave. The two display the jerk chicken meal, left, and the jerk chicken sandwich.
 
 
 
 
A Caribbean experience Reggae Shack,  
authentic Jamaican dishes
 
By CLEVELAND TINKER
 
Published: Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 1:43 p.m.
 
Omar Oselimo came to Gainesville six years ago planning to launch a successful leap into the radio industry. Instead, he has become the owner of one of the most popular Caribbean restaurants in the city.
 
"I came to Gainesville in 2003 with DJ Klarc Shepard to do a weekend show on MAGIC 101.3 called 'Reggae Boombox,' " said Oselimo, the owner of Reggae Shack Cafe, at 619 W. University Ave.
 
Oselimo said the weekend radio show didn't work out, and Shepard, knowing Oselimo had a passion for cooking dishes from his native Jamaica, told him about the empty building where the Reggae Shack is now located.
 
article continues here
 
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20090611/ARTICLES/906111006/1002?Title=A-Cari bbean-experience-Reggae-Shack-offers-0x000A-authentic-Jamaican-dishes-A-Caribbean-experience-Reggae-Shack-offers-0x000A-authentic-Jamaican-dishes
 

 
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fr. the daily press -vegan/raw caribbean/fusion in baltimore, another review for

The Yabba Pot
 
http://www.dailypress.com/business/balent-broke-yabba,0,7378098.story
 

 
 
 

 

review
fr. the st. petersburg times ~peace nyao  
 
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[DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times]
Edyth James, owner of Saffron’s and then a partner in Savannah’s Cafe, has opened Callaloo’s in Clearwater. The cafe is a family affair.
 
 


Review: Callaloo's Caribbean Cafe perfectly spiced by Saffron's alumna By LAURA REILEY
 
Times Food Critic
 
CLEARWATER — It has been a couple of years since Edyth James closed Saffron's Caribbean Restaurant in Jungle Prada on Park Street. Her sister, Jackie Hill, has kept jerk chicken, curried goat and all the Jamaican classics within reach with Saffron's Catering, but after the death of her beloved husband, "Cheffie," James needed a change.
 
She worked with John Warren to open Savannah's Cafe in St. Petersburg, turning her attention to the foods of the Deep South. She left there last Thanksgiving, and after a recent mission trip with a buddy to Belize, she returned to find her kids excited. They'd found the perfect place.
 
It's in downtown Clearwater, a casual cafe spot with room to spread out. The previous tenant's wall murals of the Acropolis provide a quirky red herring, but Callaloo's Caribbean Cafe has resurrected all the Jamaican comfort foods that made Saffron's beloved. It's a lunch place mostly, with some people zipping by in the late afternoon for a little take-home dinner package of oxtail and butter beans ($9.95) or stew peas and rice ($6.95).
 
This last is my favorite dish, a party of flavors and colors: Coconut milk gives the whole thing lushness, the rice and soft red beans studded with planks of cooked sweet potato and sweet onion, sprigs of fresh thyme giving it a sophisticated herbal note.
 
article continues here
 

http://www.tampabay.com/features/food/restaurants/article1018528.ece
 

 

Edyth James, owner of Saffron’s and then a partner in Savannah’s Cafe, has opened Callaloo’s in Clearwater. The cafe is a family affair.
 
website @ Callaloos.com
 
http://callaloos.com/
 

here's another
establishment that's making the local news..
~peace    

===========================
 

 

Island Pride in Rockville !
 
What are the chances that one carryout spot featuring home-style Caribbean fare could take up where two had left off -- and become the most popular? That is what has happened at Island Pride in Rockville, owned by Jamaican native Joan Beckford.
 
The former auditor had run her original Island Pride market-takeout in Gaithersburg for seven years, making great batches of curried goat and oxtail stew and selling a wide selection of Jamaican canned and dry goods. "Word of mouth has kept me in business," she says. "Where I am -- at the back of a building -- is so hard to find, you wouldn't believe it." Beckford works from no formal recipes, having learned to cook growing up, as she says all Jamaicans do.
 
Two years ago, the opportunity arose to open a second Island Pride in Rockville, where Grand'ma Cooking, and, later, Jamaica Sunrise, had been. She asked her brother and his wife, Cleve and Andrea Cain, to run it. It has a small market section as well. Beckford says that "people keep telling me the food is so much better, but we just use home-cooking recipes and the Jamaican spices we sell."  
 
article & info continues here
 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102700578. html