#12 – TOASTED COCONUT CAKE at MISS LILY’S

For the third year in a row, I’m going to attempt to eat every single item on Time Out New York’s annual 100 Best Dishes list. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100. Let the gluttony continue…

Of all the hip and fancy restaurants in this city, none of them were serving Jamaican food. Sure, there’s plenty to be had, but you’d have to go to a food cart or a take-out spot in Harlem or Brooklyn to get a real Caribbean flavor. And I’ve been to many of them. Jamaican food is something I’ve come to fully appreciate.

And now, thanks to the hordes of people who flock to the new Miss Lily’s every night, Jamaican food is cool and sexy. This new spot on Houston Street is one of the hottest eateries in the city. I’ve often walked by the restaurant and it’s always jamming with good looking people and lines outside. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought this was a night club.

And the ambiance inside helps perpetuate that feeling. It feels like a cross between the lounge of a big music producer and an island luncheonette. The menu is printed above the bar with photos of some of the dishes along with a display case of their daily cakes. Supposedly during the day, this place feels much more like a bakery than a dance hall.

We chose not to pay too much attention to all that kitsch and hoopla (although the music was infectious) and focus more on the food. Our server was warm and patient and we had a fantastic dinner that was wrapping up just as the party started swelling.

As we tend to do, we ordered a number of appetizers and one entree to share. Of the appetizers, the jerk grilled corn was by far my favorite. It was not too dissimilar to the grilled corn you find at Cuban and Mexican spots. But this featured different flavors to complement the sweet and smoky charred corn – a wonderfully spicy and garlicky jerk mayo and the brilliant addition of sweet and crunchy toasted coconut.

We also enjoyed the very messy and earthy head-on pepper shrimp and the tasting of curried lobster jaquitos (mini-tacos). Everything had heat, but maintained balance and did not overwhelm. For the entree, the jerk chicken was as tender and moist as any bird I’ve had in a while. I enjoyed the charred, sweet flavors but was disappointed that I didn’t get any heat until I asked for some jerk sauce.

For some reason we felt compelled to order not one, but two desserts. It was very hard to resist the banana cream pudding, which was served in a glass with Nilla Wafers. It was rich and sweet without being cloying. My only complaint was that the wafers weren’t crushed up and mixed in – perhaps that’s a different style. Either way, it was the better of the two desserts.

The dish we had to try from Time Out’s list was one of their famous (or favorite) cakes – the toasted coconut. The cakes often rotate so we got lucky that they were serving that this night. I loved the toasted coconut flavor and the cream had the right amount of sweetness, but the cake itself was rather dry. Perhaps it had been sitting out a little too long. And while the pudding glass got practically licked clean, most of the giant slice of cake got wrapped up for a late night snack. Nothing special, but it would no doubt do in a pinch.

Miss Lily’s has definitely made Jamaican food refined and hip in this town. Which means, you’ll have to wait in masses of people (or come very early) if you want a table.

Would Miss Lily’s Toasted Coconut Cake make my Top 100 of the year? The cake itself on the night we tried it was dry although the flavors were nice and everything else we tried was great. But the cake only gets a 7 out of 10.