Dave Bonan

Fried fish and beer: What more could you want?

Green Island Chicken & Grill
216 White St., Danbury, (203) 743-6616

Danbury doesn't get its due. Other towns may boast more about their cuisine, but the Hat City offers no less a menu of eclectic and international options. It's just not as well advertised.

Take Green Island. This small restaurant opened in May 2007, filling the void Cynthia's Jamaican Kitchen left when it packed up more than six years earlier. Close to WestConn (the place offers a 10 percent student discount), Green Island is more a takeout establishment than a sit-down eatery, with only a table and three chairs.

Jamaican, or West Indian/Caribbean, cuisine has tinges of soul food, with an abundance of vegetable side dishes and spicy meats, fish and leftover animal parts (stemming back from the times of slavery, as a means to save food). However, Jamaican cooking incorporates more fruits and vegetables, as well as spice combinations and rubs, like thyme, allspice, ginger, tamarind and, of course, jerk spice.

I'm a pescatarian (a vegetarian, except for fish) and eat no dairy, so I pass on ox tails, cow's feet and cow cod (bull balls soup). But Green Island's menu is flexible, so it can accommodate most diets with a host of side dishes and even curried shrimp. They American-ize it a bit with salads, ribs and subs, and they offer free BBQ wings for orders over $10.

I start with the fish dinner ($11), consisting of three huge pieces of deep fried whiting, red snapper or cod (salt fish). I can't figure out the taste — the owner says his spice mix is a secret. It's so light and fluffy you can gobble it up in seconds. Deep-frying can be healthy when done correctly at high temperatures, allowing less oil into the food with the water evaporating. The meal came with a generous portion of lightly spiced rice and peas and a side dish of steamed cabbage and carrots.

If you are a stranger to this cuisine, go for the palate-cleansing collard greens ($3), which contain vitamins, minerals and even omega three fatty acids. Simple, tasty, healthy.

Thirsty? You can select from their drink case of regular American sodas and juices, but you've got to go native and try the ginger beer ($1.70), imported from Kingston, which packs a strong kick.

Dessert time. Keep it simple: grab a Busta ($1.50) from the basket on the waist-high tile counter. The individually wrapped tart's crust is too crispy, like stale Chinese crispy noodles, but just tear it off and eat the amazing filling of coconut, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla and rose water.

My heart pumps extra fast every time I'm about to eat at Green Island, and so long as I eat plenty of ginger, a blood circulator, I'm good to go, mon.