REAL Jamaican Food TOUR in NEW YORK (Jerk Chicken, Ackee Salt Fish, Beef Patty)

What do you make of Kamala Harris being half Jamaican? That's going to be great. I can't wait to have jerk chicken on the White House lawn. They're going to have real oil drum. They're going to have like soca parties. Yo, I am pouring the oxtail soup onto the roti. Exologist. Yeah. You're mad. Yo, wagwan everyone. Here at Miss Lily's, about to get some jerk chicken, some Jamaican food. I'm telling you. Got callaloo, akisar fish. It's going to be delicious. Right now, we got here, everybody falls in love with the amazing rhythm, but oh, let me get back to what we have to do. We're about to eat and have a good time. Who knows when we'll be able to travel the world again? But the good thing is that America, and specifically New York City, is like a mini replica of the earth when it comes to cuisine. We're going on a Jamaican food crawl today with our comedian friend, Vince Chang, a Jamaican American of black, Chinese, and Taino descent. Vince's great-grandfather was a Hakka Chinese that immigrated to Jamaica over a hundred years ago. He's going to be showing us why Jamaican culture and food are so famous, despite being a country of only 3 million. A big impact from a small island. Let's find out why. Real quick, I got to give a big shout out to our sponsor, Revtown. That is a premium, direct-to-consumer denim brand that is delivering jeans, high quality, comfortable, stretchy, made with Italian yarn. These selvedge jeans right here are made in Milan. Basically, you know, selvedge jeans are considered higher quality, and for $79, they're able to do that because they're delivering straight to you, cutting out the middleman. Right now, I'm wearing a 32 by 30. I like this fit a lot. So if you guys are interested in Revtown, check out the link in the description down below. Our first stop is behind us, Pepper's. Yo, Pepper's is a fast, casual Jamaican spot. It specializes in jerk chicken. It is from Flatbush, Brooklyn, originally. Let's link up with Vince Chang. Jamaican Vince Chang. I'm Jamaican-Chinese, representing from Constantinople, Jamaica. My grandfather is actually Chinese, and that's where I get the Chang from. And right here, we're at Pepper's, one of the best jerk chicken all in New York City. The best is in Brooklyn, but now the same chef is right here, so-so. That accent came through real strong when you were there. So when we're talking about Jamaican stuff, you gotta have the accent, and then when we're not talking about it, you can go back to your regular voice. What is the Jamaican population in New York City? It's a lot more in Brooklyn. Like, Crown Heights has a whole bunch of history of Jamaicans coming up. All right, so before we go in there and get a very, very authentic, like, you know, jerk chicken experience, how would you describe Pepper's? Like, where does it fall? Is it like a Panda Express? Is it like P.F. Chang's of Jamaican food? It's more like the P.F. Chang's of, like, Jamaican food. If you go down Brooklyn, like on Flatlands, Flatbush, you know, it's literally a hole in a wall. When you go in, it's like an authentic- This is like a fancy Pepper's. What? This is like, I don't know, the Four Seasons of Pepper's. Like, this is nice. Let's go in, let's check it out. Hey, do you come here a lot? This is the brand new place. It's supposed to be the best in the city. What would I order from Pepper's? Of course, you gotta order the jerk chicken. What should we get? For people who have never been to Pepper's before, what do you recommend? The jerk chicken. What are you about to get? I got the jerk chicken. See, this is delicious jerk chicken. You see on the outside how it's crispy and stuff? This is when you're having your open fire. So, it's supposed to be crisp and it's not wet. Jerk chicken. Remember how that tastes. This right here, oh, that's really good. It's jerk sauce, okay? I'm telling you, this is spicy. You got scotch bonnet pepper up there and so many different other, like, all- Scotch pepper. Scotch bonnet pepper. Some places have a real spicy jerk sauce and some people don't. Jerk sauce. All right. Do you like it? Bright and sweet. Got a little peppery, spicy kick to it. That jerk chicken was good and I'm impressed that how it's really still moist. For me, relative to the other jerk chickens I had prior, I'm gonna give Peppa's jerk chicken a five out of five. Rice and peas, describe it to us because obviously people are looking at it like, what do you mean rice and peas? It's rice and beans. It's rice on peas. Technically, yeah, rice and beans, whatever. But if you're not Korean- So, it's rice and beans. It's rice on peas, all right? Rice on peas. For people who are, like, Asian that haven't had a lot of Jamaican food before, it almost tastes like Thai. So, I see it right here. You got carrots, cabbage on here with a good seasoning and a good balance. And right here, sweet plantain, which smells delicious. This, of course, the oxtail. This is the other dish that you have to get here. Yes, exactly. Oxtail. That is really good. Right here, I have this thing called a festival. Festival. This is like a fried donut. Do people do this with the oxtail and the festival right there? We eat everything together. Fried piece of bread. Very similar to a fried donut at the Chinese buffet spot with the sugar on it. Rasa pasta. Now, you got pasta, but you're adding so much more flavor to it. I mean, it's creamy, and then you add a little bit of jerk spice to it. Rasa pasta. Kind of like an Alfredo, except with just more spice. All right, so our next round here at Pepper's, we got mac and cheese. We got the jerk pork. Hold on. Before this, and no disrespect, pepper. Pepper. Don't say peppers. Pepper. Did I say peppers? All right, so our next round here at Pepper's. Peppers. Yeah? My bad. Here at Pepper's, we have the mac and cheese, jerk pork. I got the fried salmon. Jerk pork. This dry jerk rub almost reminds me of like the Indonesian beef rendang. It's like a dry, kind of deep, spicy curry flavor. All right, here we have mango jerk. Is this popular too? Oh yeah. See, you're gonna have a little more sweetness with the mango jerk. In Jamaica, our number one food is mangoes. Mango jerk. For me, when the jerk chicken came, I could do or do without the sauce, but I feel like for the jerk pork, I really want the sauce. Cocoa bread salmon fish sandwich. That cocoa bread is so soft. This takes me back to those buffets we would go to with the mac and cheese. Oh my gosh. This is wrapping up the fast, casual Jamaican portion of this video. We had to wash it down with, you know, some drinks. I got a Jamaican genuine soft drink cream. I have the Jamaican soft drink pineapple. Ting. You gotta have ting. And cola champagne. Now, sweet, tangy, but careful of your teeth. There's so much sugar in this. Jamaican sodas. Basically tastes like a, you know, whatever flavor it is, but way sweeter. Last but not least, what drink are we looking at? This is cola champagne. Now, they can mix it with rum. Sometimes, mostly people mix rum with ting. But the thing about this is that everyone knows about cola champagne in Jamaica. Yo, it hits you like a shot. You can't drink a full cup of that. I could see that going well with some rum. Peppers is a family business, you know. We have tried for years to get it into the city. You know, even though it's during Corona time, it's still an amazing accomplishment for our family. And we just want to share the good food with the whole world, you know? All right, Vince, we got to verify again. Your grandfather is Chinese. So, I mean, we got the Chinese sign right outside the Jamaican spot right here. That's Ren. I know that symbol right there. That means people, and that means get the hell out. That's all it is. All right, guys, that wraps up Peppers. We are on to our next spot called Bun Hut. All right, so our next spot on our Jamaican crawl is Bun Hut. It's kind of this new Caribbean concept. The chef is from the Caribbean. He's from the Bahamas, but he puts an Asian twist on the food. Can't wait to taste this. I mean, if you look at the history of Jamaica, a lot of the indigent servants that came through from China was in the 1800s, right? And people got to realize, this is when slavery started to become abolished all in the Caribbean. So these Chinese people came to get away from the overpopulation and find jobs. These Hakka Chinese people came right here and started talking to Jamaicans, my family, and then you get the mix and you get me. So starting in 1850, there starts to be some Indian and Chinese influence in the cuisine of Jamaica. This is the Bun Hut on Stanton Street. What can people expect from the food? Listen, it's too much to even talk about. Come on down and check this out. The idea was formed from the trip to China when they had the bowels. The idea was to bring it back and fill it with Caribbean flavors. That's something that is not a market for, that's not out there. All right, so we got our spread here at the Bun Hut. We are looking at, I mean, a lot of different Caribbean flavors, but in bao form. Here, you got the oxtail, the jerk chicken, and here we got shrimp. I really want the conch right here. You know the thing that goes, that's what it is. This is a coconut curry chicken roti. Caribbean baos. This tastes actually really Chinese. It tastes like a moo shu pork. Yo, when you went to China and you told them you were part Chinese, what was everybody's reaction? Well, first of all, I went to the hotel. They would say, hello, how are you? I said, oh, ni hao. And then I'll say, well, sure. Then they're like, oh, snap, you know Chinese. And they're like, what the hell is going on? She literally did not believe me. Like, I had to show proof that I was Chinese. And then from there, I was treated like a king. Round two. Round two, I have a jerk chicken bao. Coconut curry chicken. That is so good. That oxtail. Generally, what's the feeling towards Chinese people? Right, because they've been there for like 100 years. Are they considered Jamaican as anybody else or they're still like the China-made Jamaican? As of now, from what I know, they're part of Jamaica. For me, I'm not gonna lie, guys. The roti. It's sweet. This was the five out of five. This, and actually, here, let me throw a curveball. The conch. We gotta say it right, man. Conch. Yo, I am pouring the oxtail soup onto the roti. Exologist. Yeah. You're mine. You know that on this Jamaican food crawl, we have to check out so many different tiers of spots. And we are at sort of like the most mainstream, commercial, fun party vibe spot. It's accessible to everybody in the city, right? Definitely. Miss Lily's like, the food is great. You're gonna look down a little bit, but it's more about the vibe. We're not in a Jamaican neighborhood or Caribbean neighborhood at all. Exactly. We're in the East Village right now. What are we looking at right here? This is what? Ackie and saltfish? Ackie and saltfish. Ackie, not Ackie. Ackie is one of the staple fruits in Jamaica. Gotta be careful with it, because actually, if it's not ripe enough, it is poisonous in a way. It will make you sick. Like, very sick. Like, in rare cases, you can die. Ackie and saltfish, guys. It's hard to describe. As an Asian, it's almost like a lychee, but none of the lychee tropical flavor. It does taste more like eggs. That's a breakfast for champions. And then also here, you got the greens of callaloo. It's in the same realm of spinach and kale and stuff. Now, festival, we had that too. You know, it's bread. It's like a dumpling. No shade to peppers, but this festival was better. Yeah. This festival was better. The next two dishes here, we got pepper shrimp, which is a traditional Jamaican dish that we haven't had yet. And then this is jerk corn, so this is kind of like one of Miss Lily's kind of new fusion dishes. You go to any kind of Labor Day parade or you're on the road, they'll put this in a Ziploc bag. Shake it up. They keep the shell on, and you just eat it up, and you're gonna have that spice. It's gonna be a kick. Jamaican pepper shrimp. Careful, careful. I told you it's spicy. Here we have jerk corn, which is a little bit of a new item. And then we have their world-famous jerk chicken, and we have to try it here and judge it against peppers. Now, you see that you got the grill over here and you got the crisp, but now you see it's saucy. Like they put the sauce on top, and I told you to be careful of that. Jerk chicken. I can taste it's been on an open fire, but you have that kind of like smoky feel. They put a lot of sauce on it, so it's still like moist on the outside. You want that crisp on the outside, but moist on the inside. When it's all moist, you kind of lose that authentic kind of feel about jerk chicken. All right, this or peppers? Peppers. This or peppers? Peppers is better. Peppers, peppers. Corn. Real buttery. My arteries are getting clogged right now. Crunchy coconut shavings on like a buttered up corn. I don't really taste the jerk. Again, this is like something you eat after dinner. People come to Miss Lily's, now they might want to go to Brooklyn and go to a Pepper's in Brooklyn. All right, Vince, we're in front of Miss Lily's, which is sort of like the outward facing mainstream Jamaican spot in Manhattan, which is a perfect time to ask you about a bunch of mainstream Chinese Jamaicans. Now, I'm not trying to leave out any of the obviously regular Jamaicans. We got to talk about the Chinese Jamaicans. Go Chinese! Yeah, exactly, yeah. Kid Frost from 2 Live Crew. Yes, I knew that. And it's in the eyes. Tessanne Chin. Tessanne Chin, shout out to her. One of the amazing singers to be there. She was on, what was it, The Voice. That typically is a Jamaican Chinese woman. Like, more Asian than ever. But you know, she got a little bit of a bump up. That's a Jamaican right there. Kyle Anderson, aka Slow Mo from the NBA. He's Chinese Jamaican? I didn't know that. You can kind of see it in the eyes. Patrick Christopher Chung in the NFL. Now, knew that, however, he looks Dominican, but we were talking about his dad and his dad looked like Mr. Miyagi. Sean Paul. Oh yeah. Tyson Beckford is part Jamaican Chinese. You see it in the tight eyes. You see, I'm telling you, when you see a black man with Asian eyes, you're like, hmm, you look like a model, but what kind of Asian influence do you have? Ayesha Curry. Now, see, I knew Steph Curry like a little General Tso chicken. All right, you guys, we got, real quick, a Jamaican stereotype section that we're gonna be running by Vince Chang over here. Okay, all Jamaicans are Rastas. No, not all Jamaicans are Rastas. Rasta is a culture. It's kind of like, it's a religion. It's a religion in Jamaica. You know, we believe in God and God and stuff like that, but not every Jamaican is a Rasta. All Jamaicans smoke weed. No! Okay. Weed is a part of our culture. It's a belief that it can open up our minds and stuff like that, and it's natural, but not every Jamaican smokes weed. No. All Jamaicans are aggressive. See, that's a stereotype. Yeah, like, we are aggressive, but not every Jamaican. We are calm, but when we get vexed, like vexed is like angry, you'll see another side of Jamaica. All Jamaicans are either lazy or have 20 jobs. Okay, no, we have multiple jobs. You understand, the amount of caretakers that come out of Jamaica is insane, but me, I have four jobs, all right? It's just in our culture. We always wanna work. We wanna make some money. Jamaicans say mon after everything. That's like saying Canadians say a after everything. Some do say mon, but they always have a ending word. You know what I mean? Like sing, or you hear me? All Jamaicans have dreadlocks and listen to reggae music. Not all Jamaicans have dreadlocks. Dreadlocks came up because we believe not to cut our hair. You know, you go on the Bible and stuff for our strength and stuff like that, but in our culture, it's like we just never cut our hair, so it would naturally lock up, and that's where dreadlocks came from. All Jamaicans only speak patois. No, I mean, patois is broken English, but there's a lot of Jamaicans that can speak perfect English. All Jamaicans run fast like Usain Bolt. Yeah, yeah, we all run fast. I'm not gonna lie. Like, yeah, we all run fast. And last question. Everybody sort of wants to be Jamaican. Yeah, because Jamaicans are just cool, man. All right, you guys, we have arrived at the classic originator, Golden Crust. We're in downtown Brooklyn right now, guys. Golden Crust is like the staple of people who are just starting to get Caribbean food, right? If you're not used to going to one of the mom and pop shops, this is like the commercialized, it's kind of like the McDonald's of Caribbean food. This was the first Caribbean franchise. Yeah. And it started in the Bronx 32 years ago. I mean, they got a ton of locations. Oh yeah. This is very 2021. We have a plant-based ting. We can get a beyond meat, fake beef, Jamaican beef patty. I'm curious to see how well it's gonna taste. This is Golden Crust 2021. They got vegan tings. What do you make of Kamala Harris being half Jamaican? That's gonna be great. I can't wait to have jerk chicken on the White House lawn. They're gonna have real oil drum. They're gonna have like soca parties. This is bun and cheese. Bun and cheese. Right there. This is sweet. You're gonna see a little fruit in here, cinnamon. You biting this is a good snack here. And look, we came in here and there was nobody here. The Phuong brothers, they have that attraction. Because of them, the food coming. They were a little bit mad that we were filming at first, but you were like, all right, mama, thank you. Okay, we got some rum back there. And I was like, I don't even know what you were saying, but I was like, hey Vince, it's working, man. Do more of it. I think for me, this is what I'm going for. I had to try the Beyond Beef Jamaican patty, man. Break this up. I have a mild beef and then you have the spicy beef. This looks like beef until you compare it to the real thing. Golden crust patties. I'm gonna be real. It doesn't look good inside, but it tastes a lot better than it looks. I'm not gonna lie, guys. I would say that this Beyond Beef patty would be cool until you eat the real one right next to it. It tastes like a toy store. It tastes fake. We're back to jerk. This escabee fish and whiting. If I had some tartar sauce. It's good, not bad. Flavor's not bad. Jerk chicken here at Golden Crust. It's not any peppers, but it's still got flavor. Now stewed chicken, just gotta brown it. Now this is supposed to be wet on the outside. Stewed chicken. And it's good. So that's some good stewed chicken. All right, you guys. That brings us to the end of our Jamaican food crawl with Chinese Jamaican comedian friend, Vince Chang. Yo, thank you so much for showing us. I know that obviously it's not the same as going to Jamaica or Kingston. We've kind of determined that Manhattan probably doesn't have the most authentic Jamaican experiences. But would you say going to Peppa's is a pretty good compromise? That's a great compromise of just a Jamaican food. Like how authentic it can taste. Like when you saw it, it looked flavorful. It tasted flavorful. The people were kind. They're nice. It's about so many people coming together, being as one and just sharing so much information and creating the best food, the amazing culture and one thing, living together in peace and harmony. All right, guys. Here I have bun and cheese. Rainbow cake. I already went in. This was better than I thought. This definitely does look like a fruit cake or a cinnamon raisin bread. You're gonna taste it. It's gonna be sweet. All right, bun and cheese. That's how you top off a night, yo. Lord have mercy. Yo, last thing, Vince. I need you to speak some Mandarin and take us out, man. Ni hao ma. Wo shi Vince Chang. Xie xie ning to the Fung brothers. Zai jian. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for watching that Jamaican episode of Fung Bros Food through New York. Shout out to Vince Chang, man. You can find me vincechang21 on all platforms. Comes to Instagram, Twitter, TikTok. I want to thank the Fung brothers so much, Andrew and David, for putting me on this platform. These guys are dope. They just been educated on some real Jamaican culture. And straight up, tomorrow they may have some dreadlocks. They may have a nice little split and a nice girl with a big backside and saying, yo, we're gonna give the body to her. All right, you guys. Thank you so much for watching. And until next time, we out. Peace.