There are many reasons to go out to eat. If I were making a list, convenience, entertainment, atmosphere and fine cooking — some of the more obvious ones — would be a good start. Caribbean Mingles delivers on a few of those. What Caribbean Mingles really delivers on is Jamaican food — to go.
It is one of the more interesting places to eat in Richmond. A former house converted into a restaurant, located just across the street from the Jefferson Hotel, Caribbean Mingles houses three dining rooms, one of which is upstairs. Up a flight of stairs flanked by grotesquely dark railings and under an archway of helium filled, latex balloons in the shape of a fruit bowl, is a dining room tens of degrees too warm, when it’s open.
The downstairs dining rooms, one with an abandoned looking bar and another with polyester linens in disinfectant green and golden harvest yellow, are lined with carpet so threadbare that it looks like something torn out of another restaurant. The shot-house cum prom party backdrop is fun for one visit, if you don’t care about little things like a wine list or trash on the floor during dinner service. One doesn’t go to Mingles for the decor, and the cluttered counters strewn with dirty menus and prescriptions meds don’t call one back to sit a spell. Nor does the island style service at lunch, which seems to say, "I’ll get to you when I get to you, mon."
The food does beckon, though, especially if you’re nearby. The owner and cook does, too. He’s real nice. But, I like to take my curry simmered goat to-go. And now I have a vegetarian under roof to feed, so I’ve been getting take-out from Mingles twice as often. Their okra, callaloo and stir fried vegetables, $13.95, with rice and peas, is his favorite dish.
Because it is enough for two to share, I can tell you that the nutty, strongly flavored callaloo greens, doused with olive oil and sharing the plate with slippery okra, tender green beans and perfectly separated grains of rice, is outstanding.
Traditionally, when I think Jamaican food, I think oxtail, as you should too when dining at Mingles. Their oxtail gravy is hickory scented and ginger seasoned, smoky and thick without being oily, greasy or heavy, a true defiance of the nature of this dish. The confetti of cabbage, some bits caramelized, other bits crunchy and all of it ribboned with kale, which comes with the tender to the bone oxtail, is also nice.
But, what I really love here is the secret Mingles sauce. Tomato sauce thin, but sweet like southern barbeque with a spicy kick, it drapes fried or broiled fish like a starlet’s pool wrapper, exposing plenty of flavor but camouflaging little of the flaky seafood underneath. I have, with success, purchased the sauce alone and gone on a saucing spree, covering grilled vegetables, baked potatoes and fried chicken* at home with equal exuberance.
When it gets a little cooler out, I’ll start again with the tripe & beans, $9.99, and cowfoot soup, $7 a bowl, which sticks to the ribs and everything else that such rich, starchy, meaty foods can stick to. Right now, I’m sticking by the pool, and enjoying the atmosphere of a relaxed, humid Richmond summer with my boxes of jerk chicken and beef cocktail patties. Sometimes, take-out at home is the way to go.
*Note: The fried chicken is from Popeyes, then brushed with Mingles sauce and rolled in Sichuan peppercorn dust before baked until crispy again in the oven. There. You have the recipe.
Caribbean Mingles *3/4
17 W. Main St.
(804) 780-0013
What’s in the Stars:
0—don’t go
*-average
** above average
*** very good
**** excellent dining experience
Imagine learning to process caviar in Russia after a childhood of Cup-a-Soup. Needless to say, Varmit Pickeral was inspired. Thus began 20 years of restaurant gypsy-hood, beginning with Varmit’s first job as a dishwasher in an institutional kitchen and then trying out most any job Varmit could get in the hospitality industry, including; NC BBQ pit line-cook, cheese steward at Artisanal in Manhattan, grape picker, and specialty buyer for Balducci’s Food Lover’s Market in Northern Virginia.
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