Backayard Caribbean Grill

Backayard is a Caribbean-American grill, with five locations across the Bay Area; the closest one is located in Menlo Park. They serve a variety of barbeque plates, wraps, and salad bowls. Their signature dishes are yard plates: jerk meat with rice and beans and fried plantains. Jerk is a traditional cooking style in Jamaica, with meat dry rubbed with a hot spice mixture, which primarily consists of allspice and scotch bonnet peppers, and cooked over a smoking fire. According to Britannica, the method originated with the indigenous Taino, who taught the cooking method to African slaves. The cultural exchange also went the other way. According to NPR, rice and beans probably arrived in the Americas through the importation of African slaves; similarly, plantains are grown across the tropical regions of Africa, including West Africa, where many slaves originated. This blend of African-indigenous cooking brings a delicious twist to the common barbeque plate. 

Although the spice mixture is made of scotch bonnet peppers, the meat itself was not too spicy. The beef oxtail and jerk chicken were the best yard plates. Both were flavorful and juicy, cooked just until tender. The fried plantains were a great side to the salty meats; the natural sugariness offset the sour and salty jerk flavoring. For dessert, Backayard also serves a traditional sweet potato pudding. The pudding is dense and subtly sweet, almost like a pie, and includes coconut milk, giving the dessert a tropical taste.