Big Jamaican Flavor in Pint-Sized Place

To taste the Southland’s best Jamaican food, search out a pint-sized storefront named Irie Jamaican Restaurant, which is sandwiched between a manicurist and a Chinese takeout place in Cypress. (FYI, “irie”--pronounced EYE-ree--is Jamaican for “OK,” “first-rate” or “thumbs up.”) The restaurant belongs to the Tapper family of Kingston, Jamaica, and the soundtrack is strictly reggae: Beenie Man, Sanchez, the immortal Bob Marley.

This is as modest a place as you’ll ever see. You sit on black metal chairs at tables draped with white plastic tablecloths. The decor consists of some Chinese lanterns and a few posters of the famous Jamaican tourist attraction Dunn’s Falls, an idyllic spot that feels as far away from this part of Orange County as Alpha Centauri.

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Now, the speedier way to be served here is to place your order at the front counter and then be seated. Or you could just sit down and wait for someone to come over, but that could take awhile. When the one waiter isn’t around, the chef (his mother) has to suspend cooking, come out from her postage-stamp-size kitchen and take the order herself.

This isn’t fast food, either. The closest to that around here is the beef patty, a savory pie that looks like a mustard-colored Pop Tart. (The crust is yellow because of annatto seed in the dough.) The patty is quite good, by the way, with its flaky crust and spicy meat filling. One beef patty--washed down, of course, with Ting, a sweet-sour Jamaican grapefruit soda--makes the perfect midafternoon snack.

The menu runs to chicken, goat, rice, peas, plantains and greens. Meat is usually either stewed or “jerked” (rubbed with allspice, chiles and other spices and grilled). Fish are either steamed or “escoviched” (fried and served in a spicy vinegar sauce).

There are also some unique Jamaican dishes here. One is callaloo, which is spinach-like taro leaves sauteed with ginger, allspice, onions and tomatoes. Another is ackee and saltfish, generally considered Jamaica’s national dish. Ackee is a fleshy tropical seed covering that takes on a custardy texture when cooked; some people call it “vegetable egg.” It’s stewed with tiny bits of salt cod, making a wonderfully satisfying accompaniment for plain steamed rice.

Among the meat dishes, stewed oxtail is a Jamaican classic. It’s a little messy to eat--you have to separate the richly flavored meat from awkwardly shaped tail vertebrae--but it’s delicious in its intense, chocolate-brown sauce redolent of spices and what I’m guessing is a touch of Worcestershire.

Another classic is the well-known dish jerk chicken, which is available wet or dry. The dry version is grilled chicken rubbed with a nice mixture of ginger, allspice and a few more mysterious ingredients. The wet (which is what you get unless you specify dry) is the same bathed in a deep red sauce with an intense spiciness that sneaks up on you gradually. One spoonful of this sauce will flavor an entire side order of rice.

The curry goat is quite tender, in a mild sauce dominated by ginger. I also recommend the brown stew chicken, in another intense chocolate-brown sauce.

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Escoviched fish is made with kingfish, not an obvious choice for a restaurant. This isn’t a mild, easy-eating fish, but a bony, briny creature (with soft, flaky flesh, however). We asked the chef to cook this dish spicy, and she complied rather thoroughly. The chunks of fish came in a blazing-hot sauce of onions, tomatoes and habanero chiles, several times hotter than the bottled Scotch bonnet chile sauce on the table. But the kitchen basically makes everything mild unless otherwise requested.

Main dishes come with a few sides. You get either white rice or a rice and kidney bean pilaf, plus fried plantains and a simple green salad served with squeeze bottles of Seven Seas dressing.

And that’s your meal, though there are also a few extras you can order. Fry dumplings are golden brown bread balls, about half as big as baseballs, to eat with the stews. Steam cabbage is fried up with some carrots and onions after steaming.

Irie serves no dessert. But there’s a Baskin-Robbins across the parking lot, and you might just find yourself heading there after a habanero sauce experience.

BE THERE

Irie Jamaican Restaurant, 9062 Valley View St., Cypress. (714) 484-0661. Hours: 10:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. No alcohol. Parking lot. Cash only. Lunch for two, $15 to $23.

What to Get: callaloo, ackee and saltfish, oxtail, wet jerk chicken, curry goat.