Food truck puts Jamaican spin on burritos
At this point in our everevolving food culture, I shouldn’t be surprised by anything. But I feel like I’m in uncharted territory as I pull back the foil on a Jamaican curried goat burrito. It turns out to be a good choice. The curry’s heat drowns out some of the goat’s musk; rice, black beans, pickled vegetables and fried plantains even out the flavors. At its point of origin, the Scotch Bonnet food truck in San Francisco’s FiDi, the burrito can sell out in less than an hour.
How Jamaican goat curry got wedded to the Mission burrito is a Bay Area love story. Chef O’Brian Matterson, known to all as OB, grew up in Jamaica, in the Grange Hill settlement near the eastern edge of the island. He spent his days working the grill at resorts and his free time working the grill in a little kitchen next to his house, where he gathered a reputation for his jerk chicken and other local specialties, all based on family recipes.
On a trip to the Bay Area he met Loris, an Oakland native whose family back in Jamaica knew Matterson’s — and that was it, for both of them. They were married in 2009, and Matterson moved to the U. S., working odd jobs while cooking for their growing family on weekends. Sunday was jerk day, and Loris says that the potent Jamaican pepper sauce would set all their noses running.
But Matterson missed cooking professionally, and had heard about the Underground Market, a venture of ForageSF’s Iso Rabins that showcases home cooks who have serious culinary chops but no commercial permits. He was accepted on the strength of his jerk chicken, with the sauce that he’d been developing for nearly two decades. It was a hit.
The Underground Market led to a catering company under the tongue- and- cheek name Jerk Catering. It also led to the truck, which the couple started in July 2014 and named after the all- important Caribbean pepper, the Scotch bonnet, that forms the backbone of the jerk.
There are times when you have a dish and realize that you’ve only had pale imitations in the past — this was how I felt when I tried Matterson’s jerk sauce.
It’s more complex than any I’ve encountered, with a round, fruity flavor that comes from ground pimiento, and a bright heat from the peppers that lingers in the mouth after you’ve had it. ( The neon Jamaican fruit sodas sold at the truck start to make sense.) Though I’d always associated the sauce with chicken, I found it goes even better with slow- cooked pork.
A lot of Americans are wimps with spice, so Matterson makes two sauces: one a true jerk and one tempered with tomatoes; if you don’t specify how spicy you’d like it, you get a mix of both of them. If you want things extra- hot, you can also request his special Scotch bonnet sauce — made with peppers sourced from a fan who grows them in his Richmond backyard.
The rest of the truck’s offerings reflect the amalgam of Spanish, British, African, Indian and Chinese cuisines that came from Jamaica’s years as a trade hub. The Spanish brought the vinegary sauce for the escovitch fish, typically made with whole snapper but here served with tilapia; I thought the fish was too dry, but the vinegar flavor was so lovely that it almost made up for it. The availability of menu items changes daily, but you’ll also find some combination of tender stewed oxtails; spiced beef patties in a soft pastry shell; shrimp with curry or escovitch sauce; and a subtle dal with carrots.
In the future, the couple hope to open a brick- andmortar, and maybe bottle their sauce. But for now, with two little kids and Loris’ day job of running a needle- exchange program in Oakland, the truck and catering businesses are enough.
Meanwhile, the Scotch Bonnet menu continues to evolve. For a while, it was only serving entrees — a protein with a side of rice, beans, fried plantains and salad, which Loris says is the Caribbean way. But grab- and- go reigns in the Financial District, and so they recently started rolling up their jerk chicken and pork and their curried goat in tortillas.
Matterson isn’t sold on the burritos’ authenticity, but he can’t deny their popularity; they’ve quickly become the truck’s highest seller. And to me, they seem like a fitting way to celebrate the marriage of two people, two countries and two cuisines.