Get your goat

On a February night, when winter seems determined never to recede, there aren’t many places I’d rather be than Jamaica. For now, I’ll have to settle for Fort Greene. On Myrtle Ave., just a couple blocks from Fort Greene park, sits a little hole-in-the-wall called Buff Patty (376 Myrtle Ave., Brooklyn–map) that offers Jamaican specialties for not much more than you’d pay in the Caribbean.

It’s best to start with the namesake patties–$1.50 for chicken or beef and $2.50 for shrimp. They’re made of flaky, rich (lard-laden) pastry crust that will leave your table littered in deep yellow crumbs, and they’re stuffed with spicy curried meats that will fill you up for a snack, or whet your appetite for more to come.

Buff Patty also serves hot, salty jerk marinated chicken wings at $3 per half dozen. But my favorite dish is the curried goat; you can pick up a pint of goat and rice and beans for $6. It’s slow cooked and tender, falling off the cylindrical bones. The curry sauce is tasty enough that you’ll want to lick those bones clean.