Island Delight: What a Jerk!

Outside the Comfort Zone: Island Delight

Every now and then we all need to get outside our comfort zones by trying something different. You know, like paying your child support on time or drilling oil wells a mile deep in the Gulf. My comfort zone for lunch is your typical fried chicken with three sides with some hot cornbread muffins and real butter. But today I ate lunch where they serve "beef" oxtails (get your mind around that thought) and "Curry Goat":

Is there an Ox-Oxtail?

Where was I, you ask? Well I ventured out onto Airbase Boulevard, within the shadow of the entrance to Maxwell AFB on the west side of the Gump, and tried the Caribbean fare at "Island Delight." Undeterred by the bars on the windows, I entered and found a well-lit, clean and friendly place with several out-of-the-ordinary meat selections: Jerk chicken, King fish, beef oxtails and curry goat. The "sides" were also out of the box. I'd heard of but never had fried plantains before. But the thing that caught my eye was the "festival" which I had never ever heard of before. I decided to stick with the more conservative choice so I ordered jerked chicken. "Jerked" chicken is not obnoxious chicken with an attitude that won't return your calls. "Jerked" chicken is roasted/grilled after being rubbed with a "jerk" seasoning (sort of like beef jerky). At Island Delight the jerk chicken was delicious and not greasy. The extra "jerk" sauce on the side had a little kick which I supplemented with the Jamaica hot sauce on the table. Before I dug in the plate looked like this:

Almost enough to feed Tojo!

Everything, the vegetables, rice with beans and jerked chicken was terrific. Hell, it might even have been good for me when compared to a greasy meat and three. But the discovery of the week was that little brown thing you see at the left of the chicken and below the tub of jerk sauce: That, my friends, is a "festival." What, you ask, is a "festival"? Well it is sort of a sweet fried cornbread that kicks most of the so-called cornbread offerings in the Gump in the butt. Now I certainly don't know how to cap a mile-deep oil well blow-out. But I do know my cornbread and I could eat a lot of this festival stuff. It's light and tasty and needs no extra butter. It melts in the mouth.

If you are the skittish type and like to eat among yuppies, this Island Delight is not your place. But if you have a little adventuresome spirit and a group looking to eat off the usual menu, I can highly recommend this little hole in the wall on the "other" Boulevard. Next time I may even try the oxtails!

Microgump: India Palace is Still on the Throne

[Ed. Note: India Palace will (or depending on when you read this) has moved to Pensacola, Florida.  They will be sorely missed by lovers of curry and goat.]


Although I no doubt fear the wrath of Cornbread Carp, who recently suggested (demanded?) a rating from LITG for SaZa’s, the LITG crew branched out to a whole different brand of ethnic food: Indian. What, you might ask, you mean you dined on the food trinity of corn, beans, and squash enjoyed for so many years by the original (like, REALLY original) Gumpians? No, not those "Woo-Woo" Indians! The real Indians – the ones who are actually from a country named India!!


And so we ventured off to India Palace, a modest joint on McGehee Road in an area that – let’s face it – has somewhat gone downhill in recent years. The atmosphere was a bit bland. I’ve never been to India, but I dare say it probably looks like something other than a former shop in a rundown shopping mall in Alabama. This is certainly not Gumptown at its finest. But I was hoping maybe they had saved money on décor by spending it on what really matters: the food.


The food was buffet style, with no menus provided. This suited us just fine, since buffet is the only way to truly sample what the place has to offer. I can only assume that the food was authentic. The people working there appeared to be Indian, and I think I have even seen a few ex-pats dine there in the past. But despite its health benefits:

My liver function is just fine thank you....


the food was rather pricy at $10 for the buffet (not including drink, tip, or tax). I heard from others that the goat curry was good but by the time I got to it, there was nothing but little goat bones swimming around under the heat lamp. The chicken curry was less bony and good but not particularly spicy. And, after all, what’s the point of going to an Indian restaurant if you’re not going to leave sweaty but with clear sinuses?






The good news is that most of the food at the buffet had a label above it on the sneeze guard. The bad news is that most of the labels were either too blurry to read (presumably from all the sneezing) or were in a language other than English. Hey! Just because we are paying you to feed us your food doesn’t mean you don’t have to come up with a name for it that we can actually read!

I must admit that while I was eating, I was secretly hoping for a spontaneous outbreak of Jai Ho. Now that totally would have been worth $10. Pussycat Dolls not required.

So, the food was decent but expensive. Well, not THAT expensive but certainly not cheap. I mean, not like they’re Indian-givers or anything. Oh, wait, sorry. That’s usually meant to insult an entirely different race of people. All in all, I give them 2 out of 5 curry spices.

For those of you with digestive issues after eating at the IP: Take this: LITG Dislcaimer.