This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Continuing on the theme of slightly healthier dishes for the New Year, but with the comfort of a good book and film (to make up for the lack of cake) – this week I'm going to go for spice. Jerk chicken features in both the book and the film of In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner, which stars Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley Maclaine.
In the the story, Rose Feller is on a first date with Simon. Well, it is their first official date and not just a chance meeting in the street. He takes her, with a brown paper bag tucked under his arm, to an area of town with broken glass and rotten newspaper on the sidewalk – to Rose's slight horror – only to walk through a door where she can hear steel drums, see tiny white lights and enjoy the smell of cloves, chillies and wood smoke. They have arrived at The Jerk Hut.
In the book, Simon grills Rose as to whether she has any allergies or would be happy to eat goat. They do in fact eat curried goat and spicy shrimp, beef patties, jerk chicken wings and coconut rice. This is definitely a restaurant I'd like to visit – if only it were real.
Well, I have found out through my extensive foodie research, that The Jerk Hut is actually a real restaurant. The brown paper bag Simon carries is actually a six pack. The Jerk Hut was, and still is, a place you take your own beer. Jennifer Weiner wrote about this understated restaurant in the novel and it was also included in the film with the real food from the restaurant actually filmed for the movie (I love that piece of book/food/film trivia).
In the film, not only is the restaurant the backdrop to Rose and Simon's first date, it is also used as a wedding scene where they are served escovitch snapper, roties, Johnny cakes, green banana salad, jerk pork, jerk shrimp kabobs, and jerk chicken. The smeared plates in front of Rose and Simon on their first date with chicken bones actually make your stomach growl with hunger. In fact I need jerk chicken right now.
Unfortunately I am nowhere near Philadelphia. However, I do have the ability to bring jerk chicken into my own home. Now I know this will taste nothing like the real jerk chicken from both Jamaica and The Jerk Hut. It is still pretty delicious though.
There are a multitude of jerk chicken recipes on the internet. I tried this one from BBC Good Food along with coconut rice.