It’s the People’s Choice
If you travel along the Longwood main road in St Elizabeth and ask for the best food spot, you are almost guaranteed to be directed to People’s Choice Jerk Centre. The establishment is run by Claudette and her husband, Danny. “We have been feeding the community for more than 10 years,” Danny said. The meals offered include jerked pork,
jerked chicken, cow skin soup, chicken foot soup, rice and peas, and fried chicken. “On Fridays and Saturdays, that’s when we do jerking, from 8 a.m. to as late as 11 p.m.,” Danny told THE STAR.
When asked which meal was the most requested, he said, “Well, it up and down. Sometimes the chicken go fast, sometimes it is the pork. Even the cow skin soup is a customer favourite.”
When THE STAR visited the jerk centre last Wednesday, a steady stream of customers came in, filled their bellies and left.
DELIGHTFUL JOB
“Business in Longwood is up and down. Just like any business, it nuh stable. Today you find it good, like Monday was a good day; yesterday wasn’t a good day. We still have to give God thanks that we have something can do that we enjoy,” he said. Danny, who is also a welder, has found cooking to be a delightful job. He, however, admits that his wife, Claudette, is also an outstanding chef. When asked who was the better cook, both Danny and Claudette pointed at each other and laughed. People’s Choice Jerk Centre owners say that they also make a deliberate effort to buy input from local farmers to satisfy their customers. “I support the farmers in the community, and sometimes me go slaughter house and buy the hog and the goat. Mi raise my chicken too, enuh, and also my hog dem; but like when mi nuh have, mi have to buy. Most of the times, with chicken, I buy from the farmers around here,” Danny said.