Kassava Truck
Photo by Oliver Seldman
Kassava is a Caribbean restaurant on West 3rd St, opposite the Cedars-Sinai medical office towers. I always make a point of stopping there after my son's medical checkups to grab some Jamaican beef patties. During one visit, the chef told my husband that Kassava had a truck, but that it was usually only out at night, serving hungry bar crowds. So when I saw that it had started making lunch stops on Wilshire, I took my butt over there faster than you could say "jerk chicken."
Photo by Oliver Seldman
On this visit, I found out that Kassava not only has one truck - it has two! That doubles my chances of finding a great beef patty every time I want one, which is pretty much once a day. And Kassava's beef patties ($3 each) are the stuff of dreams: juicy, perfectly seasoned ground beef inside a supple golden pastry shell. The chicken patties (also $3) are spicier than the beef, and come in three varieties: curry, jerk and regular. There's a spinach patty for vegetarians.
Photo by Oliver Seldman
Get a side order of fried plantains. No ifs, ands or buts: just get them. They're sweet, buttery and caramelized. They're also high in potassium, a good source of complex starch, and low in fat. Don't think about all the butter they're cooked in.
Photo by Oliver Seldman
The truck also offers jerk chicken, curried goat and oxtails, as entrees or roti. My husband got the goat roti ($8). It's basically a Jamaican burrito - chunks of curried goat and cabbage wrapped up in griddle bread. He said the meat was well cooked, and the roti was delicate and flaky.
Kassava's restaurant menu will give you a good idea of what to expect at the truck. The food on the truck is slightly cheaper than at the restaurant - understandably so, since you don't get a sit-down experience. The reduced price is an added perk, however, for those of us who like perching on the curb eating our lunch and watching the world go by.
Track Kassava's trucks on its Twitter feed.
Photo by Oliver Seldman
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