The Northernmost City in the Caribbean
St. Charles Avenue Magazine Food Column, January, 2005
By Michael Depp

I’ve spent the better part of the last year paying an inordinate amount of professional attention to the Caribbean, a region about which I knew next to nothing before I took stewardship of a number of publications based there last winter. Since then it has been a rapid education in motion as I’ve skipped between Puerto Rico south to Trinidad and Tobago and most of the islands in between, emerging with one salient belief: I now completely subscribe to Nicholas Lemann’s assertion that New Orleans is, in fact, the northernmost city of the Caribbean.

Though we may not have the startling extremes of the Caribbean’s geographic beauty, we share much with its cultures here – not the least of which is the annual celebration of Carnival. In many other matters – politics, cuisine, the relentless pursuit of leisure – we are brethren, which is why it surprises me that we see so little of a direct Caribbean influence in our local restaurants. Sure there might be idioms and ingredients that are a bit alien to our part of the world (flying fish and breadfruit come to mind, for instance), but we share with the Caribbean a fundamental embrace of bold flavors and spices, along with the art of making a little go a long way. Considering also that a number of our residents have emigrated here from Caribbean isles, one must wonder – just where is our Caribbean food?

The answer comes from an unlikely place – a Memphis-born chef who came to New Orleans via San Francisco training. Chef Anne Lloyd, who opened Mango House restaurant nearly two years ago Uptown, had only a few holidays in Belize under her belt when she decided to move in a decidedly different direction than her career trajectory might otherwise have taken. Lloyd first came to New Orleans during her schooling to do an internship at Gabrielle Restaurant, where shortly afterwards she graduated to sous chef. Stints at Mr. B’s and Lola’s followed (with a Cape Cod hiatus in between), until her Caribbean predilections tugged at her and she began doing extensive reading on and experimenting with the region’s cuisine.

“When I initially had the idea about this place, I thought that it might be too limiting,” she says, noting that a honeymoon trip to Trinidad immediately disabused her of that notion. The southernmost island of the region is also home to some of its most diverse culinary traditions as its populace embraces those of Indian, African, Chinese and European origins – a mix as Creole as it comes.

Lloyd confesses that she initially had no idea how locals would receive her experiment, but they have since constituted the bulk of her clientele in her small, but cozy dining room (the former Ninja location on Jeanette Street). She says those who have gravitated there tend to have a slightly adventurous palette for her offerings, which include such Caribbean staples as callaloo soup (crabmeat, spinach and okra in coconut milk), jerk chicken and pork chops, fried plantains and spiced sweet potatoes – dishes that she has only slightly modified to appease the local palette.

There are challenges in taking on Caribbean cuisine here, she says – among them the scarcity of some key ingredients like sorrel (with which she makes an excellent holiday cocktail) and breadfruit. Union Supermarket, beloved among Latin American and Caribbean expatriates here, has been a good supplier for some of the more obscure needs of her menu, including pigeon peas. What has been more elusive are the extremely serviceable Caribbean beers like Banks and Carib, which unfortunately aren’t available through local distributors. Her ingenuity in the cocktail department, particularly the mojitos; dark and stormy – ginger beer with dark rum, lime and soda; and sugar pie – lime-infused rum and sugar syrup, more than compensates, happily.

She has been heartened so far by diners’ responses to her gamble, noting that the biggest compliment she has gotten is from Caribbean-born diners who say that her cooking reminds them of home. For my own part, her menu has at least two major inducements to prompt a return visit: the rum punch cocktails with Angostura bitters and grated nutmeg; and the conch ceviche, which Lloyd assures me occupies a permanent place on her menu. I was introduced to conch ceviche last year in a roadside joint in San Juan, and I immediately went apoplectic with joy (my photographer friend Nijme, a Puerto Rican native who was with me, can attest to how I was ready to wrap myself in the local flag after the first bite). It’s rare to find it on menus here, but well worth the effort to seek it out. Forget conch fritters – they drown out with cornmeal the beautiful, singular flavor that the ceviche captures in all of its Technicolor beauty.

As Mango House evolves, Lloyd hopes to move things in a more multi-hued, Trinidadian direction. “I think I’ll keep pushing the envelope, exploring more diverse parts of the cuisine,” she says. As she does, perhaps one form of Creolization will meet another and our two culinary worlds will find that they have much to share in the conversation. Believe me, we have more in common than you might realize, and if Mango House’s early success is any indication, this is fertile ground for further exploration.

Looking ahead to NOWFE

The New Orleans Wine and Food Experience won’t roll around again until May, but word is already out that Michael Green, Gourmet magazine’s wine and spirits consultant and a frequent NOWFE speaker, will be taking a more substantive role in this year’s event. Early plans include a “Chablis and Oysters” event at Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse, a “Wine and Jazz” tasting and a seminar on pairing wines with oysters Rockefeller, remoulade and bananas Foster. This year’s NOWFE will run from May 25-29, and more information, as it develops, is available at www.nowfe.com.