From Oistins to Brooklyn, Bajans sure know how to cook up de pot! - Culpepper's Restaurant, Crown Heights Brooklyn

Barbados is probably one of the coolest countries I've had the privilege of visiting. I first learned about the island from my friend Tim, who was a former History professor at the University of Memphis while I was there in 2002 . He used to go there on mission trips with a local Episcopalian parish to rebuild churches and houses, and would always tell me stories, show me pictures and feed me Mount Gay rum while rockin' out to some Eddy Grant (80's pop star from Barbados). When I moved 2,400 miles northwest of Memphis to Montana, he made me a few Eddy Grant/Gregory Isaacs (of Jamaica) mixes to help get me through the cold Montana winters....all they did was to get my travel anxious mind ready for a trip to the Caribbean, which was somewhere I had never been at that point.

I moved to MT during the summer of 2003 and by February of every following winter I would always say "Man, I really wish I was in Barbados right now..." Well during the 2006/2007 school year, my little brother (Kyle G) in the fraternity and another brother (Cason) in his pledge-class decided they would step it on up to the plate, and join Big Brother Boatner on the trip of a life-time to Barbados....which it truly was.

At any rate, I learned a lot about Caribbean culture and food while I was down there, including all the goodies from flyin' fish to roti. I never really thought I would be able to find a restaurant in the US that serves Barbadian cuisine after that trip...that is until I moved to New York, where you can find ANYTHING (e.g. food, service, marketable good) you could possibly ever want; seriously, ain't no lie about that one son.

So after moving here, of course I was bored on one of my days off and Googled 'Bajan restaurants in Brooklyn'. (It should be noted that the term Bajan and Barbadian can be used interchangeably; the term Bajan refers to a native of Barbados.) I ended up coming across three Bajan spots, one of which had closed and another had bad reviews online, so I went with Culpeppers. My good friend and fellow foodie companion (Noah) accompanied me on a journey to experience the savory flavors of Culpepper's by Wynston(owner). What we had was on point, and encouraged me to return several times until the end of that winter (2009/2010).

For some reason or another my frequents to Culpepper's subsided until last month when Noah and my old friend and new room-mate Alex appeared. Alas, the Culpepper's fire was re-kindled...and then our new neighborhood friend (Adam) was added to the group for a Bajan visit. We made it to Culpepper's a little after night fall....so the street view was limited.

The restaurant is painted the colors of the Bajan Flag: Blue-Yellow-Blue;
for the sea, the land, and the sky. The broken-trident in the middle signifies the declaration of the island's independence from Great Britian in 1966.

Culpepper's can serve as both a sit-in restaurant or carry-out joint. It is certainly worth mentioning that the meals are two-four dollars cheaper if you order carry-out and either sit on a window side bar stool (usually taken) or walk three blocks west to Prospect park. Otherwise, you should just pay premium and sit in a room that no-one else occupies which makes for a unique experience in itself.

All the Bajan goodies.

Usually they give you actual plates and silverware, however we ordered for the barstool area and the super sweet lady allowed us to sit in the solo dining area. This was our setup from bottom left around clock-work style: flying-fish dinner, jerk chicken dinners (on the top), fried fish cakes, and konkies (in bottom-center).


From the steamed veggies-clockwise: Awesome seasoned cabbage/broccoli/carrot mixture, macaroni pie (mac and cheese), pan-fried sweet plantains, and battered and fried fillets of flying fish! First things first: Flying fish is the national dish of Barbados. It has the structure and texture of mackerel, but not the taste. It isn't nearly as salty, however it is a great tasting fish and when doused in the island's special pepper sauce, it is absolutely phenomenal. All of the previous items are pleasantly placed across a well-mixed bed of black eyed peas and rice. The first time I had this meal was at the Oistins fish fry in the St. Lawrence Gap area of the island.
Culpepper's does a really good rendition of this succulent national dish.


Now everything in this dish is the same except for the fact that instead of flying-fish fillets there is a jerked half-chicken. Now "jerk" is a specialty of Jamaica, however some other west-indians have their own spin on it including the Bajans...and to be honest, theirs' isn't that far off, at least compared to what I've had.

Oh boy...fish cakes. It is like some genius combined minced fish in with a hush-puppie. I'm sure there is some correlation between both items, but a Louisianan hush puppy holds nothing against a Bajan fish cake dipped in the hot-yellow-mustard-pepper sauce that is out-of-this-world.

Finally, we ordered an item that was suggested to us by the customer that was in front of me in the line...his name was Nigel. He said he we had to have 'konkies'...and that they originally found their way to Barbados by way of Ghana. We didn't know what to expect, but what we saw...and what I saw was an item wrapped in a leaf that looked like the lotus leaf wrapping for sticky-rice at dim-sum...so I knew it had to be good.

Alright. So here's the deal: these things are wholesome, simple and good. When I un-wrapped the leaf, it was certainly reminiscent of one of my favorite dim-sum pastimes, however the aromas were nothing like the sticky-rice treat. The koknkie smelled like ginger and Christmas and Holiday times. Which is what a konkie is loaded with (holiday time stuff): a sweet-potato, ginger, pumpkin, raisin, spice filled mixture and is then steamed in a banana leaf. Extraordinary.

Here you will see the inside of a konkie. Adam, Alex, and I kept talking about how there wasn't anything really all that special about them, but they just tasted good. Somehow we kept grazing our respective konkies without leaving a crumb on our leaves. I have come to the conclusion that a konkie is the tastiest-healthy desert. So there.

West-Indian cuisine is full of incredible spices, flavors, and goodness. The Bajans do really well with that. I would strongly encourage anyone to make a visit to Barbados and/or a trip to Culpepper's in Brooklyn. You will certainly get authentic dishes at either location.

-Boatner