Kiss Yo Mama
4926 Imperial St
Burnaby, BC

To me, Jamaican cuisine is a paradox: it is familiar yet it is foreign at the same time. On one side, for dishes like patties, rice and beans (or rice and peas) and escoveitch fish, there is a Panamanian equivalent. On the other hand, you have jerk chicken, curry goat and ackee and saltfish, well, there are none. So, in a way, it is akin to have Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as a friend. With that in mind, I went to Kiss Yo Mama.

I will go straight to the point: it took me a couple of tries to finally eat in. No, it is not related to the location (it is near Metrotown), rather, it was their schedule. Officially, they are open from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. plus brunch on Sundays (11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.). However, in an occasion, it was closed without notice and, in another, it was not locked but was told they were not going to have service that night. Call it odd if you want… Anyway, after a couple of attempts, I finally managed to eat in.

On the night I visited the place, there was only one person running the restaurant, Chef Liza Brown herself. Talk about streamlined operations… One thing I should mention though, the pictures above do not make a good representation of the decoration of the place. There were a lot of pictures of artists with Chef Brown. I thought I shouldn’t take picture of those…

Now, the food.

For drinks, I had Ting, a Jamaican soft-drink. The best way to describe it would be something similar to Squirt or Fresca. It was OK but not something I would order again.

A garden salad that came with my entree. It was OK, though I wish I had the option for vinagrete rather than the creamy, ranch-like dressing. Personal preference.

And some chips. Not much to talk about.

Finally, the main item… Goat curry, which comes with a piece of bread, rice and peas and a slice of watermelon. Oh, notice that reddish sauce at the bottom right of the plate? That’s hot sauce! Just in case, a close-up of the curry goat and rice and peas…

The food was excellent. Though a bit bone-y, it was really tasty. The bread was really soft and served well to soak the left-over curry. The rice and peas was similar to the rice and beans I had in Panama and, despite how it looks, it was not dry at all. Both the hot sauce and the curry were hot! I was sweating bullets when I finished the meal.

Overall, I really enjoyed the meal. It had some really interesting flavours and brought some memories. If I have to find a problem with my meal, I will have to say it is the price. At $14.50, I will not call it a cheap meal (nor $3 for the glass of Ting). Feel free to call me cheap if you want; is the fact I have similar dishes in Panama (rice, beans and beef) for cheap. Would I come back? Not sure! At this point, there are other Jamaican restaurants I want to try and will decide after that.