Markeshia Ricks Photo
Chef Wright. His brother handles the meat.
Inside New Haven’s newest Caribbean restaurant, Qulen Wright sautéd the brightly red and yellow peppers, onions and garlic to create the base for Jamaica’s national dish, ackee and saltfish — except there would be no saltfish.
“I’m the vegan cook,” Wright said. “So I can make it without the fish.”
Wright is just one of the cooks at the Ninth Square Market II Caribbean Style restaurant. It opened three weeks ago at 89 George St., catering to the appetites of meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans alike.
Elisha Hazel handles things in front of the shop.
He co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Elisha Hazel, who handles the customers out front and the business side. His brother, Mark Sinclair, handles cooking meat. That means you can get tofu and vegan mac and cheese, as easily as you can beef, chicken and fish at the restaurant.
And Wright, a vegan since the late 1990s, got the bug to cook in his early teens. He said when it comes to ackee, a fruit that came to Jamaica from West Africa in the 1770s, a light hand is all it takes to make a delicious dish.
“It doesn’t take much,” he said while the peppers, onions and garlic sautéed. “It has such a distinctive taste that you don’t need a whole lot of seasoning.”
He doesn’t add much seasoning. Just Braggs Liquid Aminos, some oregano and a few pinches of salt at the end of the dish to finish it off.
But he doesn’t add the ackee, which has the delicate appearance and texture of soft scrambled eggs, until the onions, peppers and garlic are done.
“So this is like so delicate, that I do most of the cooking before I even add it,” he said. “If you do a lot of mixing and cooking it will actually break it all up.”
The finished ackee, no saltfish.
Wright, who is making music when he’s not cooking, said the dish is often served at breakfast time, with golden fried dumplings and sweet plantains on the side.
“People eat it for dinner too, served with a little rice,” he said.
Hazel, a certified nutrition specialist who ensures that all the food at the restaurant is organic and non-GMO and pesticide free whenever possible, said that soon you will be able to get ackee as part of a full, traditional Caribbean breakfast menu that the restaurant plans to add. The offerings will include Jamaican-style porridge, fried dumplings, and plantains.
It will also include tofu scramble, tempeh bacon and fresh salads and soups. There are additional plans to add a Caribbean-influenced juice bar with juices made from fruits and vegetables like lime-aid, watermelon and ginger, and carrot.
More traditional drinks like homemade ginger beer and sorrel made from family recipes also will be on the menu. Hazel’s family hails from Saint James Parish Jamaica, though she was born in New Haven; Wright was born in Trelawny Parrish.
And if that weren’t enough, Hazel, a graduate of Career High and the city’s first Small Business Academy class, said she has hopes that she will be able to add nutritional services to help people with their health and weight loss goals including consulting, meal planning and food preparation. She currently splits her time at the restaurant with being a nutritionist at a weight loss center.
She said the idea to start a restaurant came from her and Wright’s love of food. She wanted to be able to provide a healthful option influenced by the Caribbean diaspora. The couple lucked out on the space. The previous tenant was looking to move on, so they moved in.
“It’s not only for Jamaicans,” she said of the restaurant’s food. “But for people from Puerto Rico, Cuba — the whole Caribbean diaspora.”
It also is for people who love food from that region, and for “mixed” families like hers — families that have meat eaters and non-meat eaters.
“I know a lot of people who come from mixed families like our family,” Hazel said. “My husband and I, and our children are vegan. But our parents still consume meat. So when we get together for holidays our table has a wide spread of everything. Many families have the same thing going on, and we want people to be able to come into the restaurant and have meat options and options for those who don’t eat meat.
“It’s food for all,” she said.