Chicago Fire's defender shares his favorite Jamaican food in Rogers Park
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Like Chicago's other major sports teams, the Fire has players from all over the world, including a pair from Jamaica. Our food reporter recently met one of them at his favorite local Jamaican restaurant in Rogers Park, to learn what to order from a pro.
Chicago Fire defender and midfielder Lovel Palmer knows his way around the soccer field, but ask him where he loves to eat since he moved here, and the answer is Good To Go Jamaican in Rogers Park. There is plenty of jerk chicken, marinated in fiery scotch bonnet peppers and smoked over charcoal, served with rice and peas (technically beans), but also ackee & saltfish, Jamaica's truly national dish.
"It's like a fruit and the cod fish, you make them together," said Palmer. Is it a salty dish? "No not really, but it depends on how you do it. The saltfish in Jamaica is very salty, so you have to boil it," he said.
The ackee looks like scrambled eggs when cooked, but there are also onions sauteed with it.
"I have some steamed cabbage, plantain, which is one of the best things ever," said Palmer. "In Jamaica we call these 'festivals,' people call it corn; it's flour with little bit of sugar, bit of cornmeal mixed together and then you fry it."
The kitchen sends out tender braised oxtails and curried goat, which brings a smile to Palmer's face. But it's the ackee & saltfish he continues digging into.
"I used to look forward to waking up in the morning, having my mom make ackee and saltfish and festival for me every single day before I go to school and it's one of my best memories as a kid," he said. "It reminds me of home."
To drink, Palmer likes either a grapefruit-y, sparkling Ting or a surprisingly assertive (and non-alcoholic) ginger beer.
"Yes, if not a Red Stripe beer," said Palmer.
Good To Go Jamaican
1947 Howard St.
(773) 381-7777
http://goodtogorestaurant.webs.com/
Next home game for the Fire is May 30th
