ICCD 2014 at the Palisadoes Strip, Jamaica

International Coastal Cleanup Day Jamaica 2014 was a Success!

ICCD 2014 at the Palisadoes Strip, Jamaica
ICCD 2014 at the Palisadoes Strip, Jamaica

On Saturday, September 20th, the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) had overseen over 100 cleanup sites island wide, including 10 underwater with the participation of 1000s of volunteers.

Gabby from SuGa volunteered by the entrance at the Palisadoes strip. Registration was smooth and very organised, since the majority of volunteers were pre-registered and already had armbands.

The garbage collected was significantly less this year compared to last year, which is a good indication that JET’s environmental workshops and various awareness programmes throughout the year are starting to pay off.

Kudos to JET, as well as the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the National Environment & Planning Agency (NEPA) who partnered together and organised a massive cleanup at Hellshire Bay Beach.

Keep Jamaica Clean, ‘Nuh Dutty Up Jamaica’ !

YAAD FLAVA Barbecue Sauce, Ketchup and Jerk Seasoning at Sovereign Supermarket

Last Saturday, Yaad Flava representatives had persons flocking their booth to enjoy their Jerk chicken seasoned with their Jamaican Jerk Gourmet Blend topped off with their Ketchup or Barbecue sauce. The Ketchup had a spicy flavour that would give meats such as chicken, franks and burgers a unique flavour, if you didn’t want it to taste like traditional ketchup. Some persons add ketchup to everything, so mix it up a little. Now the Barbecue sauce was really peppery and would work well with anything you put on the grill. I was also surprised to hear that their well seasoned Jerk Chicken was only left for 5 minutes with their MSG free Jamaican Jerk Gourmet blend seasoning before cooking..

The packaging and labels looked official and calorie counts will be added at a later date according to the representatives. The products are reasonable, some about $600JMD and are all available at Sovereign Supermarket in Sovereign Centre on 106 Old Hope Road, Kingston 6.

 

Tea Tree Crêperie

Nice atmosphere and good service. Keeping in mind Tea Tree makes everything from scratch, the Nacho Platter took too long to come out, so much so that the Crepes arrived two minutes after. We understood different persons were attending to the order, so there was a lack of communication since the person who made the Crepes probably thought the Nacho Platter was out some time before.  They apologised sincerely.

The Nacho Platter was alright. It could have had more crisp and had cheeses with more flavour. The popular Smoked Marlin Crepe was good. Nice flavour,  accentuated with the pepper jelly. The Crepe au Poulet with chicken breast, mushrooms, white wine dill sauce and mozzarella was bland though. The preferred option was the Calzone Crepe that had chicken breast, white wine tomato sauce layered with 4 cheeses, black olives etc. but they did not have the white wine tomato sauce.

The majority of Crepes range from $1400JMD to $1600JMD. There is an extremely wide range to choose from, whether you are feeling for something savoury or sweet, so you can choose something new every time. It’s a nice daytime spot to take the kids or have a chat with a friend or two.

Tea Tree Crêperie

Ph#: (876) 927-8733

Address: Unit #5. 8 Hillcrest Avenue, Kingston.

Date of visit: 13/9/14

NB. Ratings fill 5 stars maximum

Parking: ★★★☆☆

Ambience: ★★★★☆

Decor: ★★★★☆

Comfort: ★★★★★

Service: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Food quality: ★★★★☆

Serving amount: ★★★★★

Plating: ★★★★★

Value for $: ★★★★☆

SuGa Endorsement: ★★★★☆

 

 

Wraps are the new ‘healthy’ obsession but not every restaurant like Monty’s Cafe should try them!

Monty’s Cafe on Old Hope Road is known for cheap, decent box lunch eats and have now added wraps to their menu like almost all of Jamaica.

First of all, many assume that wraps are healthy. Wrong!  Not all of them for sure. Healthy consists of baked, roasted or grilled, fresh, non-processed cuts of chicken, salmon, steamed fish, turkey or tuna.

All these shrimp and lobster wraps around the place that sound so appealing are high in cholesterol. The plain wraps are full of bad ‘simple’ carbs versus whole grain or whole wheat wraps, keeping in mind they are still all flour and everyone that may have certain goals are not always fully aware of their carbohydrate intake for the day. Let us also not forget the dairy aspect and that cheddar or mozzarella cheeses often used to add taste to the wraps are high in saturated fat (the ‘bad’ fat). Sometimes the amounts used are just added for taste, not considering portion control. Please ‘healthy’ restaurants, bring on the fresh, grated parmesan and reduced fat feta.

With all that said, Monty’s Cafe took the cake. I saw a Chicken wrap they sent to someone and I was appalled. It was a small, plain tortilla that consisted of FRIED chicken, lettuce and one or two pieces of tomato with a horrible salad dressing all over the lettuce for $425JMD. The customer was told it came with a salad, which to their disbelief was a toothpick with a piece of tomato and a shred of lettuce rolled up. Seriously?! A 5 year old could do better. Notice there is no picture? SuGa’s LCD screen has already cracked twice. Precaution necessary. I hope nobody makes the mistake of buying such a disaster. Some places should just stick to chicken and rice and peas.

 

 

The Wine Shop, not necessarily a place to wine and dine your date just yet

The Wine Shop is not the bar or one of those places where everybody knows your name, which is a good thing. So it is a place currently under the radar that persons can go for dinner and not only shop for wine. They are open until 11pm from Monday to Saturday, closed on Sundays and have both indoor and outdoor seating.

Their menu has a wide range of items and appetizers that go well with wines, for instance, Hummus and dip, Bruschetta, Smoked Marlin plates, Jerk Sausage, Lamb chops and Penne Pasta bowls with different choices of sauce and meat.

The service was good, not great. The Hummus and dip arrived in a reasonable period of time. The dip’s taste was quite basic. The entrees took too long to arrive, more than half an hour for 2 Pasta dishes and Jerk Sausage. The serving sizes were big so quite filling to make up for that wait if hungry, but the quality was mediocre. The Jerk sausage was decent, but slightly overcooked. The Shrimp Penne Pasta bowl with Cream sauce was salty and the Grilled Chicken Penne Pasta bowl with Cream sauce was bland. I was disappointed that they did not have Basil Walnut Pesto sauce for the Pasta bowl, maybe that would have been good.

In terms of the wine, they have a wide range available to choose from for groups or couples buying by the bottle or buying for the home, but for rum drinkers that just need to buy a glass with dinner before they hit a real rum bar, the choices were way too limited. Literally, a restriction to 3 or 4 types of wine, not even a Riesling?! Unacceptable.

So quite a cosy, inexpensive little spot, but though a wine shop, no pun intended, the quality of food can be improved upon.

 

Hummus – $450JMD +tx

Jerk sausage (with Lyonnais potatoes) – $950JMD +tx

Shrimp Penne Pasta bowl with Cream sauce – $1150JMD +tx

Grilled Chicken Penne Pasta bowl with Cream sauce – $1550JMD +tx

*Pop Up Gourmet Card accepted (10% discount)

 

The Wine Shop 

Ph#: 876.620.5098

Address: Shop 7B, Southdale Plaza, South Avenue

Date of Visit: 5/9/14

NB. Ratings fill 5 stars maximum

 

Parking: ★★★★★

Ambience: ★★★☆☆

Decor: ★★★★☆

Comfort: ★★★★★

Service: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Food quality: ★★★☆☆

Serving amount: ★★★★★

Plating: ★★★☆☆

Value for $: ★★★☆☆

SuGa Endorsement: ★★★☆☆