By Eve Zibart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 9, 2001

It may be hard on downtown restaurants, but all the cocooning going on these days is giving carryouts a boost -- especially some of those home-style establishments our rainbow suburbs offer.

The Caribbean Kitchen in north Rockville is as modest an operation as can be imagined, so low-key that Route 355 commuters have been cocking their heads at the sign for "Caribbean food" for months without being able to spot the place. (It's in the back of the beer-wine-Lotto shop between Redland Road and the CarMax.) Its name is no exaggeration: It's just a kitchen behind the order-through window, immaculately institutional in white tile and stainless steel, and nary a chair for waiting. It's open long hours, and most of the time it seems to be a one-woman operation.

For "Caribbean," read primarily Jamaican. The best things on the menu are the jerk chicken, that chili-rubbed and grilled specialty; the oxtail stew; the steamed red snapper; and a fine beef patty the size of a toaster pastry and somewhere between an English pasty and an empanada, the turmeric-tinted dough filled with a lightly curry-spiced ground beef ($1.50 apiece, and good enough to reconcile locals to the loss of the samosas from the Indian carryout that used to be in the same row).

The jerk chicken is appreciably spicy, though not scalding, and nicely browned; you can have it more or less dry, with extra sauce if you want more heat or with a small take-home condiment dish of a good habanero sauce, fruity and slightly sweet.

Jamaican curries differ from the originals brought by Indian workers in that they are generally made with a mix of boneless and larger, bone-in pieces; and while it's fairly easy to handle a chicken thigh or drumstick, some novices may find it takes practice to negotiate pieces of curried goat. (As it happens, the goat at Caribbean Kitchen is not quite up to some other local versions, but that seems to derive from the quality of the meat, which has been a little scrawny.) The curried chicken is good, with a lingering sting, but again, more a bake than the stewy stuff of Indian restaurants. Oxtail is the osso buco of the islands, earthy, cartilaginous and with lots of small, smooth bones to suck -- definitely not for the finicky-fingered.

The seafood dishes are made to order and take 30 to 45 minutes. Whole red snapper is offered in the escovietched style, which is a vinegary chili-style common in the islands, or (chef Kesi-Ann Campbell's recommendation) steamed and topped with sweet peppers and onions. And she's right; the flesh is extremely tender and flavorful, and worth the mild extrication effort on head and spine. (I will remind you again: There is a lovely "oyster" of meat behind the cheekbone.) Shrimp curry is also listed, but it hasn't been available recently. And there is a little market-pricing involved here: Seafood is on the flier menu as $10.95, but the snapper actually was $11.99.

"Steamed" needs a little clarification in these days of heart-healthy menus. These "steamed vegetables" are actually stir-fried -- red and green cabbage, onions, carrots, bell peppers -- and turned in a mix of oil and butter. It's simple but very flavorful, Buddhist delight with a lilt. In fact, it's worth remembering that many of these dishes are traditionally made with a tangible amount of oil, partly to hold the spices. (The good flip side is they are not heavy-creamy, which is a problem for other folks.) You can order most dishes with or without extra "gravy," which adds lots of flavor but can mean a little spillage from the styrofoam containers, and which does sometimes mean an underlayer of oil. It's just a matter of preference.

The rice is good quality (white) and very generous, almost too much to finish. Entrees come with a simple iceberg-tomato corner of salad -- dressing if you need it -- and a couple of fried plantain slices. Boiled dumplings, also prepared to order, are true plain-flour dough balls, for curry-sopping by addicts. There's also a side order of these plantains, which are more grilled than truly fried, no batter; and though some people find them bland, their potatolike effect is rather soothing. And you can always toss them with some melted butter, brown sugar and rum for dessert.