For this month's Food Spotlight, I was in Alexander City with a co-worker trying something I'd never eaten before. We ate at his famous Caribbean kitchen, known for its southern twists on Caribbean and Trinbago cuisine.
This is something I've never experienced before and probably never really thought about. I usually stick to what I'm familiar with, but I'm really glad that wasn't the case in this case.
Carib has a buffet table where you can choose as much as you like. In my case, I got everything on the table one by one. It included Caribbean fried rice, cabbage, stir-fried red beans, and three types of chicken. We also had stew chicken, jerk chicken, and fried chicken.
This was the first time Kalibu made fried chicken for customers.
For me, the Caribbean fried rice was the star of the show. I had it both with and without homemade hot sauce and it was delicious either way. But the hot sauce was a game changer. It changed my meal from 7/10 to 9/10. It was perfectly spicy – I like spicy – and unlike some hot sauces, it actually added flavor to the meal.
I love cabbage so theirs was delicious. In the end, it was cabbage. If you don't like it normally, you probably won't like it here either. The red beans were well cooked and the seasoning was great. It was perfect, not too soft.
The chicken was delicious. I drizzled hot sauce on all three pieces of chicken and it was very tasty. I especially liked the jerk chicken. It was just as the name said. It was spicy and flavorful and the addition of the sauce made it even spicier. It was the best piece of chicken I've had in a while.
The fried chicken was just fried chicken. It was my first time selling it, and for me, if I were to come back, I would never have it again. I thought it was ok, but nothing special compared to other chickens they had.
Overall, this was one of the better restaurants I've spotlighted on food. The all-you-can-eat buffet was cheap at just under $15, and everyone at the restaurant was very kind.
I don't know how often I'll want Caribbean food, but I know where I'll go if I do.
