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This Thanksgiving, Try Goat

Every year, we seek something a bit different to spice up your holiday meals. Last year, we suggested Turkish food for Turkey Day. This year is the Year of the Goat.

Blame WAMU listener Mark Johnson of Silver Spring. He sent us a list of his favorite Crummy But Good restaurants, including his favorite Jamaican place. Made me feel inadequate. I didn't even have a Jamaican restaurant in my 100-plus-restaurant collection, let alone a favorite one.

Beverley Baynes, owner of Negril in Gaithersburg, stirs up a fine Jamaican sauce for the red snapper.

Now I do. Negril, "the Jamaican eatery," in Gaithersburg, where goat and oxtail are always on the menu. What pushed me over the top, besides the bright tropical interior, semi-spicy food and welcoming smile of the counter lady, was the "goat rot" on the menu. Sure, it's probably a typo that should have read "goat roti" -- roti being a kind of pancake that wraps many of the dishes. But what do I know?

I know this is the perfect season for goat. After the election, about half of us will be eating crow or goat in defeat. (I write this before the voting.) I couldn't find a restaurant that served crow. So, if goat it is to be, it might as well be curried or roti-ed. Or you can shout "jerk chicken" and pretend you are ordering my favorite meal on the menu and not necessarily referring to that other politician.

Our version of a Jamaican Thanksgiving dinner, starring from the top and going clockwise, jerk chicken, coconut bread, red snapper, two plates of rice and tropical salad, tropical drinks, and in the middle, starring most of all, curried goat. You bring Aunt Martha.

For a calming effect, try the beef pattie, which comes as an appetizer of spicy ground beef in a flaky turnover. Or restore your plantain deficiency. The sweet banana-like-but-not fruit comes fried as a side dish and in a tart for dessert. The esoveitched red snapper is a special treat that takes a bit longer to fix, but oh, what a fix.

Yes, you will have to pick up your own meal at the counter and bus your own table afterwards. And yes, you will be eating off of plastic with plastic. But hey man, just lay back and listen to the Caribbean music. Enjoy the afterglow of the curry. Vibrate softly with the colors of the tabletops, hand painted by owner Beverley Baynes. Each table shares a drawing of a home in Jamaica and that's where you are.

Now think evil thoughts about how surprised Aunt Martha is going to be when you pass her a plate of goat at Thanksgiving.